The Visa d'or News, the most prestigious prize of the Visa international photojournalism festival for the image of Perpignan, was awarded on Saturday to Evgeniy Maloletka for his reports in Mariupol, a city in southern Ukraine massively bombed.
Very moved, Evgeniy Maloletka dedicated his prize “to the Ukrainian people”, stressing the importance of this recognition of his work.
The 35-year-old Ukrainian photographer from the Associated Press agency and his compatriot Mstyslav Chernov, 37, an AP videographer, were the first journalists to enter Mariupol on February 23, an hour before the first bomb, and the last to leave on March 15.
"These 20 days in Mariupol have been like one long, endless day, getting worse and worse," said Evgeniy Maloletka in front of his harrowing photos of killed children, pregnant women in the rubble, hastily dug mass graves, unable to organize a funeral because of the bombardments.
📸 Visa: I presented alongside Jean-François LEROY, Director of the festival, the Visa d'Or News Prize, sponsored for the 3rd year by @leDepartement66, to Evgeniy MALOLETKA for his valuable report on Mariupol in Ukraine.
Freedom of the press always!
#visapourlimage2022 pic.twitter.com/OQgW4ryx3h
— Hermeline Malherbe (@HMalherbe66) September 3, 2022
The shelling by the Russian army of this port city of 400,000 inhabitants, in particular of a maternity hospital, has aroused indignation in the international community.
Others nominated were Ukrainian-born Australian photographer Daniel Berehulak for his 'People Lived Here' (New York Times) report on the massacre of civilians in Boutcha, and Malaysian-born American reporter Marcus Yam for 'The Fall of Afghanistan” (Los Angeles Times).
The war in Ukraine, central theme
Seven Visa d'or, five prizes and three scholarships were awarded during the festival.
Last year, the Visa d'or News had for the first time rewarded a photographer who remained anonymous for security reasons, for his work on "The Spring Revolution" in Burma.
In 2020, it was awarded to Fabio Bucciarelli (2020, Bergamo, epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy).
Ukraine was one of the main themes of this 34th edition, which opened on August 27.
The Visa d'or of the daily press went to the Danish newspaper Politiken for the work of Mads Nissen on the war, that of the city of Perpignan Rémi Ochlik saluting the photos of Lucas Barioulet for Le Monde.
But the planet and its disturbances caused by human activity were also at the heart of the festival.
The Visa d'or Magazine rewarded Brent Stirton (Getty Images/National Geographic) for "Bushmeat: at the origin of epidemics", and the Yves Rocher Foundation prize, aimed at facilitating reporting on environmental issues, went to Alain Schroeder who works on Indonesia.
Scholarships, exhibitions, screenings
The Humanitarian Golden Visa of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) rewarded Sameer Al-Doumy (AFP) for "The roads of death", on the migration crisis in the north of France, and that of the digital information France Info went to Max Bearak, Dylan Moriarty and Julia Ledur for “Africa Cities Rising” broadcast by the Washington Post.
The Visa d'or d'honneur from Figaro Magazine, honoring the career of a still active photographer, was awarded to Alain Keler (Myop), known in particular for his photos of Chechnya, El Salvador and Tiananmen.
Among other awards, the Pierre and Alexandra Boulat Prize recognized Laura Morton's work on automated technologies.
The Canon Female Photojournalist Fellowship went to Natalya Saprunova for her project on the Evenk people in Siberia, that of the short-film video documentary to Irene Baqué who is filming Casa Xochiquetzal, a refuge for retired sex workers in Mexico City.
The Camille Lepage prize was awarded to Rebecca Conway, who works on the impact of the civil war on mental health in Sri Lanka, and the Carmignac prize for photojournalism to Fabiola Ferrero for her project on the economic debacle in Venezuela.
The 25 free exhibitions of Visa - which also offered screenings, meetings with photographers and round tables - remain open until September 11.
Reports will be projected on a giant screen on September 23 and 24 at the Grande Halle de La Villette in Paris.
