Photojournalism is dying, photojournalism has died, photojournalism is dead, declared Visa pour l'Image in its publicity this year, echoing common conceptions before flatly contradicting them and insisting the genre is very much alive and kicking. As festival director Jean-Francois Leroy opened the 21st edition of the festival he had a tough job on his hands, to prove the truth behind the rhetoric.

Whichever way you look at it, photojournalism is having a difficult time. This year's financial crisis has accelerated the decline in revenues for newspapers and magazines, the main source of funding for photojournalists. The agencies have had to look for new ways to finance their photographers, or in some cases, close up shop altogether. Just weeks before the festival's launch, the prestigious Gamma agency announced it would be restructured into an image bank, laying off all its photographers. The well-respected Italian agency Grazia Neri, meanwhile, was forced to close down altogether.

Unsurprisingly, the crisis also took its toll on the festival. Reuters and Magnum Photos didn't show up. The Palais des Congres, which was crowded with agencies and photographers in previous years, was eerily empty. 'Last year, we couldn't function because there were too many stands and too many visitors,' an agency spokeswoman told BJP. 'But this year, just look around you, it's empty.'

Agence Vu almost pulled out of the festival at the last minute, while new low-cost players such as PixPalace were welcomed into an industry that formerly despised them. Day-to-day business at the festival was also drastically different, the agencies told BJP. 'In previous years, we would come here to sell our work,' said photographer Miquel Dewever-Plana. 'This year, we're only being approached by freelance photographers looking for representation.'

'There's less money in photojournalism, that's a fact,' added Associated Press photographer Brennan Linsley. 'A lot of photojournalists are dying financially. It has become an art that is only sustainable if you have a life outside photojournalism. In more cases, you need to self-fund the process. You need to be able to work for nine months, set aside a few thousand dollars and then spend the money on a project for three months.

'The challenge is to find a venue to show this work. Photojournalism suffers from that lack of venue, which is paradoxical in a world where we have 800 television channels, thousands of magazines and the online world.'

 

End of an era

The Golden Age of photography has been over for a long time, Linsley added. 'It died somewhere between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Before, magazines such as Time would send three photographers unilaterally without restrictions. They were able to send their pictures whenever they wanted. Now, we have three deadlines a day. It's annoying sometimes, because you want to be able to disappear into a story. But, in terms of the impact on the public, this hasn't changed. If you ask people if they remember a photograph from the last 12 months, the answer would be yes.'

Dominic Nahr, an Oeil Public photographer who has just turned 26, shares Linsley's assessment. 'Photojournalism is strong as ever,' he says. But, he adds, the doom and gloom about the end of photojournalism in the media is not helping photographers' cases. 'What's scary is that the general public believes that photojournalism is dying or dead. But we're not. We're adapting and getting stronger. The market is changing, the old system doesn't work. Lucky for me, I never knew the old system. But it's hard of course.'

For the past couple of years, Nahr has been working and pitching stories non-stop. A lot of his time is spent on assignments, which he says can still be won with a bit of work and research. 'You have to be engaged with the editors, you have to propose and to fight for your work.'

Ulla Lohmann agrees. 'Young photographers need to adapt and always diversify,' she says. The German photographer has been financing her travels using grants or following the multimedia route into video. 'It's not always easy, but if you really want it, you can succeed.'

 

NGO work

Adapting to shifting rules and new players in the market is key, according to VII Photo's director Stephen Mayes. In a recent interview, he said that photo agencies needed to find a new model to sustain their businesses and photographers, and for VII Photo, that new model involves Non-Governmental Organisations.

The agency has been developing its ties with NGOs over the past year to fund photographic projects, commissioned to fit the needs of organisations with a political or humanitarian agenda but then published across different multimedia around the world. The agency has even appointed a new director in charge of projects and partnerships. Ian Ginsberg tells BJP that his priority is to expand VII's existing relationships with NGOs and develop new partnerships across all media platforms.

Photographer Dewever-Plana has been doing the same. 'Nowa-days, to be able to work on a long-time project, as far as I am concerned and I am not talking about my colleagues, the money I earn from my work doesn't enable me to go back in the field,' he says. 'You have to find some new ways to find funds. NGOs are a possibility.'

For his The Other War project, which was on show at Visa, Dewever-Plana received the help of a local NGO, which hopes to develop a teaching booklet for all Guatemalan schools. 'We're trying to get them to think about the whole situation.'

 

Tough viewing

Other commentators say photo-graphers, agencies and even Visa pour l'Image's director should take some responsibility for the current crisis in photojournalism. The festival has often, over its 21 years of existence, come under fire for its intensely pessimistic focus on images of conflict, suffering, violence, grief and hopelessness. This year was no exception, with reports on Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Congo and Madagascar taking centre stage.

'There are a lot of tough subjects being shown at Visa,' French photographer Francois Le Diascorn said. 'You're facing, especially during the nightly projections, an accumulation of drug-related, war-related or disease-related stories. At the end of it, you really get the blues. And I can understand why magazines publish less and less of these images.'

Even Getty Images photo-grapher Eugene Richards has had difficulties selling his War is Personal project (see panel). 'You have to understand the media,' he says. 'Why would they print this when they can get bigger sales from celebrities' images?'

If you want to be published, Nahr added, you have to pick your projects carefully. 'The love is there to drive you, but if your story won't sell, then you shouldn't do it. You have to adapt. I don't know what the solution is - whether photographers should become publishers as well - but I'm sure somebody will come up with something. And when they do, it will be so easy and simple. Until then, the need for good stories won't die.'

'Photography is a powerful medium,' Linsley adds. 'A powerful photograph makes people think; it makes them want to know more. And I don't see anything that would change that.'

 

Eugene Richards

Eugene Richards is one of the most feted photographers alive, and he's tackled some hard-hitting subjects, so his manner takes you by surprise. Quiet and shy, he admits he doesn't know how to deal with agencies and photographers at events such as Visa pour l'Image. 'You have to sell your work at these festivals, but I'm uncomfortable doing that,' he tells BJP. 'And photographers also try to do it to me. They show me their work, ask me for my opinion and advice, but I can't. If I could, I would, but no one believes me when I say that.'

The photographer, who left Magnum Photos twice then VII Photo before signing with Getty Images earlier this year, was in Perpignan presenting a very intimate project. War is Personal is a series of 15 photographic essays in which Richards introduces us to Americans whose lives have been deeply and irrevocably changed by the ongoing war in Iraq.

Richards says he carefully deliberated before starting War is Personal, explaining: 'I was critical of the war, and I wanted to do something about it. I thought of going to Iraq, but I didn't want to be embedded, to follow the army. I wanted to be free to choose what to cover and where to go.

'For most photographers, access, getting invited in is fundamental,' he adds. 'It's very delicate, especially with a family in grief. With every story there is a line, and you can't cross it. They tell you a story, and you have to let them do it.'

Richards is still working on War is Personal, but he hopes to complete the work with the $20,000 Getty Grant for Editorial Photography he received this year. He also hopes that, once the book is released, it will bring more attention to the masses of injured soldiers coming back from the war.

Richards is planning to speak at BJP's Vision event on 27 November. Visit bjp-online/vision for more information.

Visit eugenerichards.com.