Visa Pour L'image

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Originally uploaded by John Hasyn Photography.

Just got back from 2 weeks in France & Spain where I attended Visa Pour L'image, the largest photojournalism conference in the world, in Perpignan. It was incredible to see the diversity and quality of work that is being done today, especially considering the difficulty of getting anything published these days. Newspapers are hurting economically and are so risk averse that it is difficult to have hard core photojournalism published. Also, a recurring theme at the festival was the level of censorship today, particularly in the US. For example, stories that focus on dead or wounded US soldiers in Iraq are very difficult, if not impossible to publish. Also, stories that seem to favour the "Palestinian angle" tend to get completely ignored in the US. Another interesting thing was the number of pure documentary projects being done and financed purely by grants and private funds. Marcus Bleasdale's brilliant work in the Congo and Heidi Bradner's 10-year project in Chechnya come to mind. One thing is certain: there is no money in photojournalism, although it must be one of the more satisfying and interesting ways of working in photography. When I left the festival, my mind was very much on war, conflict and the starving and poor. After visiting the Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, it really struck me that what we are seeing in Africa today is no different from what we experienced in Europe and Asia during the last 1,000 years. For example, wars fought over diamonds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo today are no different from the salt wars, opium wars, Spanish conqests, Christian crusades and many, many more examples of rape, pillage and plunder throughout the ages, including the oil wars of today. Same issues, different places, different times. It is hard to believe that things will ever change.

On a more cheerful note, I learnt today that I placed second in the medical category at the International Photography Awards for my portraits of cured leprosy patients. Considering there are over 25,000 entries from around the world, I would have been happy with an honourable mention. I'm over the moon with a 2nd place finish!