Fotoware: Helping Visa pour l'image tell the world’s best stories

Established in 1989, Visa pour l'Image is an annual international photojournalism festival that takes place over 15 days in the Southern-French city of Perpignan, France, from late August to mid-September.

As the only event in the world dedicated exclusively to photojournalism, Visa pour l'Image has shared diverse perspectives on global current affairs since its conception.

Over the past 20 years, Fotoware has been a proud sponsor of the festival helping Visa pour l'Image securely store and organize the photos and videos used for the event, and enabling organizers to share and collaborate with stakeholders. We caught up with Jean-François Leroy, a founder of Visa pour l'image, to hear more about the festival’s vision and how Fotoware helps carry it out.

What is the mission behind Visa pour l'Image?

Visa pour l'Image is a hub for established and aspiring photographers alike, agency representatives, and photo editors. Each year, a selection of the best stories from around the world are shown through exhibitions across the city. For those who cannot attend in person, most exhibitions are also available online via the Visa pour l’Image website.

What does the Visa pour l'Image festival consist of?

In addition to facilitating photographer meetings, round tables, and conferences, Visa pour l’Image offers screenings on the year’s major stories - from war, crises and politics, to unusual and remarkable events, sports news, culture, science, the environment, and more.

Each year, the festival’s jury hands out several awards, including the Visa d’Or News Award, the Visa D’Or Feature Award, and the Visa d’Or Daily Press Award.

How does Fotoware help Visa pour l’Image carry out its mission?

By helping Visa pour l’Image store, manage and share thousands of pictures taken by reporters around the world, Fotoware is actively supporting the fundamental mission of photojournalism. Before the festival starts every year, our team receives thousands of images from photographers submitting their work. Fotoware’s comprehensive, must-have solution enables us to work together on the same file, while managing this workflow in a secure and effective way.

LEARN MORE: How to work faster with metadata-based workflows

What are the essential features in Visa pour l’Image’s DAM?

With advanced metadata, images are organized in relevant archives based on our preferences, such as topics, photographers, time, and location.

Those images are then consulted by external users, including press services, the festival jury, and participants. Fotoware also has a dedicated platform for schools that visit the exhibitions after the public festival period has ended. For each type of user, specific usage and access rights have been pre-defined.