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3 may 2017 – Caracas – Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP (2018 World Press Photo Contest winner)

AFP’s multimedia exhibition, Venezuela: Collapse without end, is a video and photo account of the Venezuelan crisis since Chavez successor Nicolas Maduro came to power.

Venezuela, the country that boasts the world’s largest oil reserves, was plunged five years ago into an unending political conflict whose repercussions are being felt across the world. The worst crisis in the nation’s recent history has led to food and medicine shortages, hyperinflation, increased crime levels, and a meltdown of the economy, basic public services and human rights, sparking violent demonstrations and the unprecedented exodus of more than 10% of the population.

In parallel with this exhibition, the evening of Friday 11 October will be devoted to International Correspondents’ coverage of “Venezuela between Civil War and Cold War”. Sponsored by SCAM (French Civil Society of Multimedia Authors), this event will include presentations by a video journalist from AFP’s Caracas bureau,Yorman Maldonado, and Mehdi Lebouachera, editor-in-chief of AFPTV.

The work of AFP photographers will also be on display in the group exhibits:

– Afghanistan, the world’s battlefield, a vast retrospective in partnership with the WARM Foundation, depicted in images going back as far as 1978, of which a third are the work of AFP photographers;

– Gaza: A people on the edge, is a collective exhibition by Doctors without Borders featuringthe work of nine photographers including five from AFP. Mahmud Hams, last year’s winner of the Bayeux-Calvados Award in the Photography category, will be among them.

31 October 2018 – Novaya Zemlya archipelago, Russia – Christopher Grir / AFP
 

For the third year running, the Bayeux Award, in partnership with AFP and Nikon, offers high-school pupils from Calvados the chance to meet a photojournalist and discuss the View of 15 Year Olds photo selection. From AFP’s selection of 20 images depicting world news from the last 12 months, more than 11,000 Year 10 pupils voted online for the shot which, in their view, best symbolises the world of today.

This year’s View of 15 Year Olds Perspective award went to Alexander Grir for his photo of hungry polar bears at a landfill site in a military zone in northern Russia.

« Will we have to get used to these wandering polar bears, starving, rummaging in the garbage? These incursions happen more and more in northern Russia, as their habitat and food supply degrade by climate change and ice melting. We saw a bunch of them nearby cities this year, like in Norilks where one wandered there during several days. » highlighted Marielle Eudes, Photo Director at AFP.

The evening award ceremony will be presented by Nicolas Poincaré on Saturday 12 October from 6.30 pm and can be viewed via live streaming on prixbayeux.org and calvados.fr. Fifty coverages are competing for 10 prizes to be awarded across the different categories by an international jury chaired by Gary Knight, as well as three special awards (print media, photo and television).

About AFP​

AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, economics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,400 staff spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.