PERPIGNAN.- Visa pour l’Image will return to Perpignan for its 38th edition with a program that places photojournalism at the center of one of the defining questions of the moment: how can the public recognize truth in an image when artificial intelligence, propaganda and digital manipulation are making that task increasingly difficult?
Running from August 29 through September 13, 2026, the International Festival of Photojournalism will bring 27 exhibitions, six evening projection programs, professional meetings, portfolio reviews, awards and public discussions to venues across the southern French city. The festival’s professional week will take place from August 31 to September 5, followed by two weeks reserved primarily for school groups.
Admission to the exhibitions and nightly projections will be free. The exhibitions will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., while the evening programs will begin at 9:30 p.m. at the Campo Santo.
The preliminary program presents a festival shaped by war and displacement, but also by a determined defense of professional journalism. In his editorial, festival director Jean-François Leroy describes traditional news organizations as an essential barrier against those seeking to distort or appropriate reality. Rather than treating artificial intelligence only as a threat, he also raises the possibility that the technology’s need for reliable, current and verified information could reinforce the importance of professional reporting.
That concern runs through a program dominated by photographers working in some of the world’s most dangerous and politically charged environments.
Khames Alrefi, recipient of the 2026 Humanitarian Visa d’Or from the International Committee of the Red Cross, will present Civilians: The First Victims, a record of hunger, bombardment, displacement and survival among families in the Gaza Strip.
Sudan’s collapse is examined by Abdulmonam Eassa in War in Sudan: A Country Trapped. Drawing on photographs made between 2020 and 2025, the exhibition follows the country’s descent from the hopes of a democratic revolution into widespread destruction and one of the world’s gravest humanitarian emergencies.
Philémon Barbier, winner of the 2026 City of Perpignan Rémi Ochlik Visa d’Or, turns to Syria in Dawn of Ashes. His photographs document the country during its first year of political transition, when old wounds, competing armed groups and the challenge of unifying fractured communities continued to complicate the prospect of lasting peace.
Ukraine appears in several projects. Tyler Hicks portrays the devastated eastern city of Kostiantynivka, where the remaining residents face air strikes, artillery and drones. Marion Péhée follows a group of young Ukrainians she first photographed as teenagers in the Donbas a decade ago, tracing how war has divided their lives and loyalties. Gerd Ludwig, meanwhile, returns to Chernobyl with a body of work made between 1993 and 2026, marking 40 years since the nuclear catastrophe.
The conflicts affecting Lebanon and Iran are addressed through projects by Diego Ibarra Sánchez, Mohammad Yassine and Hashem Shakeri. Their exhibitions examine the fragile balance between armed power, civilian survival, political repression and the recurring experience of populations pulled into wars they did not choose.
Beyond the battlefield, the festival will look at quieter forms of crisis. Élise Blanchard documents girls in Afghanistan whose families arrange their marriages as drought destroys crops and livestock. Hervé Lequeux follows young Guineans traveling toward Europe, while Jérémy Lempin explores adult illiteracy in mainland France and French Guiana.
Mads Nissen maps the international cocaine economy from Colombia and Mexico to European nightlife in White Blood: The Geography of Cocaine. Gaël Turine examines the devastating spread of the synthetic drug kush among young people in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Jérôme Gence offers a very different portrait of contemporary isolation through Japanese men and women who choose to marry fictional characters from manga and video games.
Several exhibitions step away from immediate news events to consider longer photographic careers. A major presentation will celebrate Raymond Depardon, bringing together emblematic images from his decades as a photographer and filmmaker. Paolo Roversi will show The Scent of India, a dreamlike project shaped by long exposures, subdued colors and his distinctive treatment of light. Michael Yamashita will survey 40 years of photographing China, drawing on major assignments and books produced during the country’s dramatic economic and social transformation.
Underwater photographer Laurent Ballesta, winner of the newly created Écologie 360–Reporters d’Espoirs Prize, will present photographs made during a decade of expeditions in Antarctica, the Philippines and the Mediterranean. His exhibition, Far from the Sky, reveals marine environments where human presence is scarce but biological life remains abundant and visually astonishing.
The festival will also commemorate the bicentenary of Le Figaro with an exhibition opening the historic Loge de Mer to the public for the first time. Another invited exhibition will unite the six recipients of the New Urban Photography Grant, established by Google, Dysturb and Visa pour l’Image.
Evening projections at the Campo Santo will review major events from September 2025 through August 2026, including the war in Ukraine, conflicts involving Israel, Gaza, Iran and Lebanon, migration, climate change, United States immigration enforcement and the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. The program will also recognize the anniversaries of the Argos collective and Panos Pictures, alongside tributes to photographers and editors who have died.
During professional week, the Palais des Congrès will host a Photojournalism Convention devoted to artificial intelligence, changing media business models and the growing economic insecurity of photographers. Other discussions will address fair payment when images are used by activist or humanitarian organizations, as well as the increasing threat posed to journalists by military drones and autonomous weapons.
The program, dated July 21, remains preliminary, and organizers have indicated that additional exhibitions and events may be announced before the festival opens.
