In a context that is particularly difficult for photojournalism, FNAC decided last September to support photographers by launching a series of grants intended to promote photography. The first three grants, each worth 8,000 euros, will finance a project that is either currently being produced or is planned, and are dedicated to photographers in the field of photojournalism.

The grants were launched during the Visa Pour l’Image Photo Festival in Perpignan. An international jury of about 15 picture editors presented a series of photographers at the end of December. Among the 46 projects submitted to the jury, three were selected in Paris at the end of January.

Each body of work will be presented (either in an exhibition or during a projection) during the next international festival of photojournalism, Visa Pour l”image in Perpignan, from August 27th until September 11th, 2011. Following this, the works will then be exhibited in photo galleries of FNAC in Paris and the provinces.

The three laureates are:
Jan Banning, who began his project on Uganda in May 2010 with the aim of making a comparitive chart of their 8 judicial systems, with portraits of beaurocrats in both rural and urban areas.
Cédric Gerbehaye, with the agency VU’, was a witness to the critical sanitary situation and the violence in Sudan. He chose to address the issues regarding the stakes of the country’s unification. His work focuses in particular on population migrations and the reconstruction efforts.
Anastasia Taylor-Lind worked on the lives of women in the military in Russia and Crimea. She now wishes to tell the story of the life of women who live in other isolated communities: the Asgardas in the Carpathian mountains, Afghani women in prisons…

Bernard Perrine
Correspondant of the Institut of France
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr