Official opening - 'Welcome'

Monday, 3 September 2007

Jean-Francois Leroy. General Director.

The 19th Visa pour l’Iimage International Festival of Photojournalism exploded into action this week with a gathering in the ornate courtyard of Perpignan’s Hotel Pams hosted by its charismatic director Jean-Francois Leroy. His simple, one-word greeting of "welcome" kicked off an evening of friendships renewed and new ones begun – and CPN was there to suck in the atmosphere. Among the hundreds of photographers, agency reps and photo editors was David Douglas Duncan, the American photographer born during the height of the First World War and famous for his war photography most vividly depicted in his 1951 book 'This is War!'

David Douglas Duncan.

Several of this week’s exhibitors mingled with others guests, including Per-Anders Pettersson the South African-based Getty Images photographer whose Soweto work is being shown at Couvent des Minimes.

Former National Geographic director of photography Kent Kobersteen said that Visa pour l’Image was the inspirational event for photojournalists.

But perhaps the most heart-warming story was that of Mario Taddeo and his friend Pompeo, two Italian photographers who drive the 1,500km from their home region of Campania every year after being inspired by a seminar given by David Alan Harvey and Kent Kobersteen. They said they feel an obligation to take the motivation they get from Visa pour l’Image back to Italy to inspire others.