In Perpignan, in the south of France, the Visa pour l’Image festival is coming to an end. It closes its doors to the general public this Sunday, September 17 in the evening. Its president, Jean-François Leroy, took advantage of the 35th anniversary of the festival to exhibit people familiar with “Visa”. Among them, the Italian Paolo Pellegrin, one of the greatest photographers today.
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“My visa years” is the name of the retrospective dedicated to the work of photographer Paolo Pellegrin, one of the most talented photographers currently active. It brings together images from the numerous reports produced over 25 years by the Italian around the world. Most of them take place in countries devastated by war or by climatic or health disasters.
One of the photos, taken in Lebanon in 2006, is undoubtedly one of the most striking. It shows civilians looking for survivors after an airstrike. Like all the others, this photo is in black and white. A style, a technique that Paolo Pellegrin particularly cherishes. “ I find my photographic references in black and whitehe explains. For me, it’s a bit like the foundation of photojournalism. Unlike color, it allows you to remove something from reality. Which authorizes the photographer to speak about his subject in symbolic terms. »
Paolo Pellegrin is one of the most awarded photojournalists in the world, including six World Press Photo winners. A member of the prestigious Magnum agency since 2005, he has been one of the official photographers of the New York Times.
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