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The organisers of the 20th VISA pour l’Image International Festival of Photojournalism (30 August to 14 September 2008) have announced the major exhibitions that will be shown during the 16-day event.

© David Duncan Douglas

Corporal Leonard Hayworth examines the latest issue of Life featuring Duncan Douglas’s photograph of him weeping at the frustration of his company's situation. At dawn the next morning a North Korean machine gunner shot Marine machine gunner Corporal Leonard Hayworth between the eyes. Korea, September/October 1950.

The headlining exhibitions at the festival - held in Perpignan, France – will include ‘This is War’ featuring the work of legendary Life magazine photographer David Douglas Duncan who is most famous for his images depicting the Korean War. His Korean War images were originally published in the book 'This Is War!' in 1951 and the David Douglas Duncan exhibition at VISA pour l’Image 2008 is supported by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, in Austin.

There will also be the major retrospective ‘Horst Faas, 50 years of Photojournalism’ that covers the career of the former Keystone Picture Agency and Associated Press photographer through his coverage of the conflicts in Congo, Algeria, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Israel, Angola and Vietnam.

A tribute exhibition will feature the favourite photographs of Alexandra Boulat, the VII photo agency photographer who died, aged just 45, in October 2007. Boulat’s friends and family have chosen the photographs that will feature in this exhibition.

The show ‘Afghanistan’ showcases the photography of Getty Images’ Paula Bronstein who has been covering the events and changes in modern day Afghanistan for several years.

‘GS 68 – May 1968’ is the name of the exhibition featuring the pictures of Goksin Sipahioglu – who went on to found and direct the Sipa Press agency in 1973 - that documented the student uprisings in Paris in May 1968. Turkish-born Sipahioglu photographed the happenings through the eyes of a foreign reporter.

Two other confirmed exhibitions for 2008 are the Daily Press exhibition in which daily newspapers from around the world exhibit their best shots of the year, and compete for the Visa d’Or award, and the World Press Photo exhibition.

© Goksin Sipahioglu

Student riots. On Boulevard Saint-Germain a CRS policeman returns a paving stone to defiant demonstrators during a first day of violent clashes with students. Paris, 6 May 1968.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the festival another key part of the VISA Pour l’Image programme for 2008 is a series of special features that have been put together in association with leading magazines and many of the world’s leading photojournalists. Confirmed features so far are Philip Blenkinsop (Noor) for Paris Match, Yuri Kozyrev (Noor) for Time magazine, Michael Nichols for National Geographic, Marie Dorigny (Signatures) for Geo France, Pascal Maitre (Cosmos) for Geo Germany, Noel Quidu (Gamma) for VSD, Patrick Robert for Elle magazine, Alfred Yaghobzadeh (Sipa Press) for Le Figaro magazine, and Jan Grarup (Noor) for Politiken.

Canon is the main sponsor of the VISA pour l’Image 2008 event.

To find out more about the latest updates and plans for the 20th VISA pour l’Image International Festival of Photojournalism just click here.