Photojournalism

12th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award

The 12th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award is dedicated to Venezuela and its hardships at the individual, social and ecological levels.


The laureate of the 12th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award will be announced on September 1 at Visa pour l’Image.


VENEZUELA

This Latin American region was once an El Dorado bordered by the Caribbean Sea, which operated under a rich and prosperous democracy in the 1960s-1970s. It still holds the world’s largest oil reserves—ahead of Saudi Arabia—and vast mined resources (including gold, iron, steel, and coltan).

Twenty years after the Bolivarian revolution—led by Hugo Chavez and his radical socialist reforms—the country is struggling to extricate itself from a deep economic crisis, marked by the plummeting price of oil, endemic corruption and hyperinflation (3000% in 2020).

In under seven years, its GDP has fallen by 80% and importing has been slashed tenfold. In the face of this unrelenting recession, an informal shadow economy is growing.

While the results of the latest elections have gone unrecognized by the international community, the power struggle between the ruling Chavista regime under Nicolás Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido is dividing Venezuelan society. These institutional blockages, as well as accusations of electoral fraud or political imprisonment, generate frequent demonstrations and clashes.

These tensions, combined with problems of instability, only worsen the living conditions of Venezuelans, 80% of whom live in extreme poverty and suffer from severe shortages of running water, food and medicine. To date, 5.4 million Venezuelans—one in six inhabitants—live in exile in Colombia, Peru or Ecuador: the most significant migratory crisis in the world behind Syria.

The Carmignac Photojournalism Award will provide support for a photojournalistic project that documents this volatile social crisis.


July 8 – October 26, 2021
Opening of the call for applications

November 2021
Deliberations of the pre-jury and the jury, designation of the laureate(s)

January – June 2022
Reporting

1 September
Announcement

From summer 2022
Launch of the travelling exhibition
and the monograph

Information

  • The pre-jury and the jury

  • Who is the call for applications for?

  • When and how will the laureate(s) be notified?

  • What should the application include?

  • Need help?

Read or download the press release :
English / French / Spanish