Since 2009, the Fondation Carmignac supports each year the creation of a photographic reportage in the framework of the Carmignac Award. The 11th Carmignac Photojournalism Award, dedicated to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was awarded to photographer Finbarr O'Reilly in 2019.
His report began in January 2020. With the sudden eruption of the coronavirus pandemic and the containment of the planet, a different way of operating was quickly imposed. Finbarr O'Reilly, the Prize team, and the jury members then conceived "Congo in Conversation," a collaborative story, produced with input from local journalists and photographers, that documented the human, social, and ecological challenges Congo faces in the time of Covid-19.
Based on a website and relayed on social networks, Congo in Conversation has become a regular and unprecedented flow of writings, photo reports, and videos, offering these Congolese voices a platform to contribute to the global conversation, bear common witness to the situation in this immense country, and raise public awareness.
Congo in Conversation concluded in September 2022 with an exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center in New York. This site, conceived as an archive, compiles the main contributions of its authors. Enjoy your visit.
THE CARMINGNAC FOUNDATION PHOTOJOURNALISM AWARD
In 2009, while media and photojournalism faced an unprecedented crisis, Edouard Carmignac created the Carmignac Photojournalism Award to support photographers in the field. Every year, it funds the production of an investigative photo reportage on human rights violations and geo-strategic issues in the world. The Fondation Carmignac provides the laureate with financial and human resources to carry out their project and producesboth a monograph and a traveling exhibition, aiming to shed light on the crises and challenges which the contemporary world is facing. Previous editions of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award have focused on: Gaza (Kai Wiedenhöfer); Pachtunistan (Massimo Berruti); Zimbabwe (Robin Hammond); Chechnya (Davide Monteleone); Iran (Newsha Tavakolian); Guyana (Christophe Gin); Libya (Narciso Contreras); Nepal (Lizzie Sadin);the Arctic (Kadir van Lohuizen and Yuri Kozyrev); the Amazon (Tommaso Protti); the Democratic Republic of Congo (Finbarr O’Reilly and the collective of photographers for the project “Congo in Conversation”) and Venezuela (Fabiola Ferrero).
https://www.fondationcarmignac.com/en/photojournalism-award/