Description
The book is featured in the Bicentennial of Photography program of the French Ministry of Culture (September 2026-September 2027)
For more than forty years, Jean-François Leroy has been poring over millions of pictures from across the entire world. Scenes of war, revolution and disaster, images of ordinary everyday life, of people opposing injustice and expressing solidarity. There is no other person anywhere who has looked so closely at so many photos. As founder-director of the International Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l’Image-Perpignan, he has been in the privileged position of directly experiencing all the changes in photojournalism, moving from the days of conventional photography, with negatives and prints, to instantaneous digital photography.
Jean-François Leroy’s conversations with journalist and writer Isabelle Fougère are an opportunity for him to have a free-ranging discussion of his life in the heart of photojournalism, letting him cite the men and women who have been major figures in his life, and express his convictions and commitments—as well as his doubts. He describes his editorial approach, how he decides which pictures to show, and which not to show. As Jean-François Leroy makes clear, when looking, neutrality does not exist.
In our world now, billions of photos are taken every day. Social media and artificial intelligence have warped the relationship between humans and reality. We must not surrender our duty to the truth. We must never look away!
The Authors
Jean-François LEROY is the founding director of the International Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l’Image-Perpignan. Every year since 1989, he has programmed the work of
international photojournalists in a festival offering a different angle on news and stories around the world. He is a staunch advocate of freedom of expression and has been decorated with the Légion d’honneur and holds the highest rank of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The festival Visa pour l’Image was acclaimed as Honoree (Spotlight) at the 2008 Lucie Awards.
Isabelle FOUGÈRE is a writer, journalist and filmmaker, and has worked for the French and international press. Her documentaries, for Arte, TV5 Monde and France Culture, include “Alma, une enfant de la violence” made with Miquel Dewever-Plana, which won international awards. Her novels and essays include “Le corps, le mouvement, la liberté” (Leduc, 2025). She was the joint creator of the Canon Female Photojournalist Award, presented every year at Visa pour l’Image-Perpignan.
