AFP & La Gacilly

The AFP & La Gacilly, a joint fight for the planet

@ Michel Bouvet

All starts with a photo. This year, it was on 30 January. An image captured by Hector Retamal shows an anonymous corpse, its mouth covered by a mask, a victim of coronavirus, lying rigid in death on a pavement in Wuhan, China. “This time it was something else,” the AFP journalist reports on the agency’s website. Moments like this, fragments of History, have shaped our modern world since the mid-19th century when the AFP (previously the Havas press agency) became one of the key players in the production and provision of international news. Since its first scoop with the announcement of Stalin’s death in 1953, journalists from the AFP (Agence France Presse) have been reporting the twists and turns of world news from on the ground, where they collect the information we need to understand our changing world. The AFP has 201 offices in 151 countries, providing digital, print and TV media with news and images from around the world. Its network of 450 photographers, regular winners of some of the most prestigious international awards, are scattered across the globe and share more than 3,000 photos a day in real time.

The highly regarded dispatches and the photographs offering a first glance of the stories set to go down in history cover the full spectrum of topics, from conflicts and social movements to sporting events and key diplomatic gatherings. Over the past few decades, however, another theme has become increasingly common. A theme that is dear to us here at La Gacilly – the bond between mankind and the earth. From population explosion to mass industrialisation in emerging economies, today’s news stories come at the expense of the environment, with oil slicks in Europe and the United States, large-scale deforestation in Latin America, the extinction of species in Africa and pollution in Asia.

For 2020, the La Gacilly Photo Festival and the AFP have formed a partnership that will enhance our programme year after year. This year, it highlights the work of three AFP photographers working on environmental topics in Latin America.

In partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP). Exhibition produced thanks to the support and expertise of initialLABO.

• Martin Bernetti
• Carl de Souza
• Pedro Pardo

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