12th Carmignac Photojournalism Award

12th Carmignac Photojournalism Award now is over!

12th Carmignac Photojournalism Award: The 12th Carmignac Photojournalism Award, international competition dedicated to Venezuela and its hardships at the individual, social and ecological levels has been recently opened for entries.

Short description

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

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.

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 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 laureate to talk about their project and, if necessary, to provide the support needed throughout the duration of their project – from the preparation of the reportage to its final exhibition.

Who may enter?

The Carmignac Photojournalism Award is open to all photographers, of all nationalities. Participation can be individual or collaborative.

Prize:

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.