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What is
Visa Pour L'image? In short, it is a very
impressive and large (800+ attendees in the 2025 directory of attendees)
annual two-week conference held in Perpignan, France for and about
photojournalists and their work. The conference starts at the end of
August or the beginning of September. I attended it in 2025 and here is
my guide to attending it.
First, let's talk about its name, Visa
Pour L'image (https://www.visapourlimage.com/). The official English
translation is "International Festival of Photojournalism". I do not
speak French but Google Translate translates the French name to "Visa for the
image". I have never heard anyone use the official English translation.
Before going to the event (I live in the US) I heard people either say
they were going to Visa Pour L'image or that they were going to
Perpignan. In certain circles the location's name equates to this
conference.
Most attendees seem to be native French speakers but
fortunately most speak English to one degree or another. All programs
have written or live English translation so not being able to speak
French should not be a reason not to attend - I don't speak French and
felt comfortable.
(Old joke; What do you call someone who speaks four or
more languages? Multilingual. What do you call someone who speaks three
languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two
languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one language?
American.).
One week of the two-week conference is called "Pro
Week". This is the week when most activities take place. The other week
offers exhibitions but not much else. I strongly suggest attending
during Pro Week as there is little else other than exhibitions during
the other week of the event.
The big event of "Pro Week" are the
nightly "Projections" held at 9:30pm (and ending between 11:00
and 11:30 pm) in Campo Santo, a very large
outdoor theatre with a huge screen. If you register for
"Pro Week"
then there will be separate and much shorter lines to get into this
nightly event as the public lines are quite long. Get there by 8:45pm to
take advantage of these shorter lines.
Other activities
during Pro Week include daily screenings of documentaries and talks with
their creators, talks with the photographers at each of their exhibitions, live
discussions / interviews with
photographers, book signings, a few round table discussions and
portfolio reviews with editors.
Both weeks of the conference offer free exhibitions of the work of
photojournalists. In 2025 there were 26 separate exhibitions around town
- all within walking distance from each other.
What this conference is
not is one with vendors exhibiting products that may interest
photojournalists. Canon was the only vendor with a presence. This
conference is not one with workshops on technical subjects or
photographic techniques. The focus is on the photojournalists, their work and the experience
creating the work and definitely not how to use equipment or software.
The cost
of the conference for Pro Week was 35 Euros. There was one extra charge
if you took a particular workshop but otherwise I believe there are no
other charges, There seems to be no advance registration (or
"accreditation" as they call it on their English language website).
A few words about the conference's website are necessary.
The website is written in both French and English. Unfortunately, the
translation is not perfect. Where English speakers would expect the word
"registration", the English language version of the website uses the word
"accreditation".
Here is how this translation mistake was a
non-trivial issue for me. There were six days of portfolio reviews by quite a few
editors. The listing for this said "accreditation required". For me, a native
English speaker, this sounded like I needed to show that I was
accredited as a professional photojournalist. Unfortunately, that was
not the case. It meant that I needed to pre-register for the event.
Imagine my unhappy surprise when I showed up at the beginning of the
first day with my carefully curated portfolios and was told that all portfolio review slots were filled for all
the days. In the end, after checking in with them each morning, I did
get one editor to review my portfolio. I politely let those in charge
know that "accreditation" is not understood as "registration" by English
speakers.
Another issue with the website is that it is
over-designed, esthetically impressive but laborious to navigate and
use. Lastly, the website leaves out information about events that would
be useful. A more straightforward website design would be easier and
faster to use - and would hopefully have more information on it. I found
out about the separate shorter lines for the nightly Projections for
those registered for Pro Week by luck - another example of where useful
information is not effectively communicated to Pro Week attendees. On
the website I did find a 52 page press kit that had a lot of information
including a bunch that was not otherwise formally communicated on the
website.
Free Photobook; I created a photobook of my trip. While it is more about
the town than the conference (there are a few conference related
images), I think it will give you a sense of Perpignan.
You can
download a free PDF of the book
here.
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I had not planned to create a
photobook of my visit to Perpignan. I did plan to try to create some
images but had no specific plans besides bringing a camera with me. Perpignan is a charming small European city that was
founded by the Romans over one thousand years ago. It has many side streets
with buildings that are much older (a few buildings are over 700 years
old!) than most (any?) in the US. There is a fair amount of pedestrian traffic
in some areas and the city was designed long before the automobile (i.e.
many narrow side streets with very little automotive traffic). In other
words, very picturesque.
Getting there: Perpignan has a small
airport so most people fly into Barcelona and take a 1.5 hour high speed
train to Perpignan (for less than 100 Euros on the Spanish trains).
Modern high speed trains are run by both the French and Spanish
railroads - I took a Spanish train because their schedule worked best
for me. You board these trains in Barcelona at the main train station
there (Estacio Sants). Getting a schedule of the trains takes a little
work as the French and Spanish railroad's websites only list their own
trains on them. I believe there may be a total of four trains per day -
but you should check this yourself. Some people fly into Barcelona, stay
there for a night and then take a train the next day.
Getting
Around: Perpignan is not a large place. All of the events related to
Visa Pour L'image are within walking distance of each other. I recommend
staying near the Castillet or the Tourism Office. The evening Projections programs take place
at Camp Santo which is next to the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist.
Most other activities take place at the Palais des Congress.
Make
reservations early for hotels! This is not a convention city
which has lots of large hotels catering to convention goers. Hotels are relatively
small. I was lucky to find a small one-bedroom apartment on the third floor
(as Americans would call it, Europeans would call it the second floor)
of a walkup for about $75 per night via a popular travel booking site
(not Airbnb but they might have similar). FWIW, most hotels seem to have
higher prices. I made my reservation in early February.
Where to
stay: If you stay near the Castillet then everything will be within
walking distance of all Visa Pour L'image activities including all the
exhibitions which are at various places in town.
Would I
recommend this event? If you are a photojournalist or you are interested in photojouralism then yes, I think it
would be worthwhile to attend at least once. FWIW, I met people who have
attended thirty or more times.
Will I attend again?
Maybe. While
the conference's costs are minimal, for someone like me from the US, the
other costs add up (airfare, hotel, train etc) so this is a factor.
Another factor is time as it entails a full week plus travel time.
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