The 12th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award is dedicated to Venezuela and its hardships at the individual, social and ecological levels. This Latin American region
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 inter-national 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 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 has the task of pre-selecting between 12 and 15 proposals.
It is made up of:
Alessia Glavanio (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, October 18th 2021 at midnight (GMT) by clicking directly on the following address:
https://www.fondationcarmignac.com/en/photojournalism/
Submission is entirely free of charge.
