BJP has finally arrived in Perpignan for the 20th Visa Pour l'Image photojournalism festival. Deputy editor Diane Smyth and news editor Olivier Laurent will be reporting from the event all week-end, with extra features such as video interviews and reports coming over the next few days.

We just finished talking with photographer Yuri Kozyrev, who has been in Iraq for the past six years, reporting for Time magazine. He talked to us about the meaning of Visa Pour l'Image, why Iraq is, for him, the most important news story of the moment and how he works in a country plagued by violence. We will be posting, later today, the full interview.

In the meantime, Visa Pour l'Image has announced that Canon renewed its sponsorship of the event for the next five years. Canon has been the festival's principal sponsor for the past 19 years.Spokespersons at Visa are saying that 'this is the first time such a major and long-term sponsorship arrangement has been signed'.

'Visa pour l’Image pays tribute to the talent and courage of the best photographers in the business, and Canon is proud to reinforce this sentiment,' says Mogens Jensen, head of Canon Consumer Imaging Europe.