12th Edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award
Call for Applications: Venezuela

Deadline for Applications: Wednesday, 18th October, 2021 at midnight (GMT)

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

Selected by an international jury, the laureate will receive a €50,000 grant to carry out a 6-month field report with the support of the Fondation Carmignac, which produces, upon their return, a travelling exhibition and the publication of a monograph. 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.

The jury

The jury will meet in Paris in November 2021. It is made up of:

Quentin Bajac
Director, Jeu de Paume

Marcos Gómez
Director of Amnesty International Venezuela

Whitney Johnson
Director of visuals and immersive experiences at National Geographic

Patricia Laya
Venezuela bureau chief for Bloomberg News

Finbarr O’Reilly
Laureate of the 11th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award

Sandra Stevenson
Associate director of photography at CNN

The pre-jury

The pre-jury has the task of pre-selecting between 12 and 15 proposals. It is made up of:

Alessia Glaviano
Brand visual director of Vogue Italia and director of the Photo Vogue Festival

Magdalena Herrera
Director of photography, GEO France

Fiona Shields
Director of photography, The Guardian

Selection Process

The selection of the laureate will take place in two stages:
1. The pre-jury, made up of directors of photography, has the task of selecting between 12 and 15 proposals from those received.
2. The jury, consisting of specialists in photography and in the given theme, choose a winning project. At the end of the selection process, the jury meets the winning photographer, in order to talk to him or her and, if necessary, to provide the support he or she will need throughout the duration of their project – from the preparation of the reportage to its final exhibition.

The photographers will need to submit their dossier before Monday 18th October 2021 at midnight (GMT) by clicking directly on the following address:

www.fondationcarmignac.com

Submission is entirely free of charge.

The Carmignac Photojournalism Award

In 2009, while media and photojournalism faced an unprecedented crisis, Édouard Carmignac created the Carmignac Photojournalism Award in order to support photographers working in the field. Directed by Emeric Glayse, it annually funds the production of an investigative photo reportage into human rights violations globally and the related geostrategic issues. Selected by an international jury, the laureate receives a grant of €50,000 enabling them to carry out a reportage on the ground for 6 months with the support of the Carmignac Foundation which presents a travelling exhibition and the publication of a monographic book upon their return. Previous editions of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award have focused on: Gaza (Kai Wiedenhöfer); Pachtunistan (Massimo Berruti); Zimbabwe (Robin Hammond); Chechnya (Davide Monteleone); Iran (Newsha Tavakolian); Guyana (Christophe Gin); Libya (Narciso Contreras); Nepal (Lizzie Sadin); and the Arctic (Kadir van Lohuizen and Yuri Kozyrev); the Amazon (Tommaso Protti) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Finbarr O’Reilly).

More information: www.fondationcarmignac.com

Fondation Carmignac

The Fondation Carmignac, created in 2000, is a corporate foundation centred around two main focuses: an art collection of more than 300 works, and the Photojournalism Award which is issued annually. In partnership with the Fondation Carmignac, directed by Charles Carmignac, Villa Carmignac, an exhibition space open to the public, was created on the site of Porquerolles in order to exhibit the collection and to host cultural and artistic events.

More information: www.fondationcarmignac.com