Getty Images Amplifies Support for Photojournalism Community Through Significant Presence at 25th Anniversary of Visa pour L'Image

NEW YORK, July 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images has reaffirmed support of - and a significant presence at - Visa pour L'Image 2013, the 25^th anniversary of the international photojournalism festival held annually in Perpignan, France. This is the sixth year Getty Images has been a sponsor of the prestigious festival, announcing the recipients of its renowned Grants for Editorial Photography program on the ground, demonstrating its continued commitment to the photojournalism industry and emerging talent.

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The Grants for Editorial Photography program showcases and supports powerful and inspiring photojournalism projects.  Judged by industry greats including Jon Jones, Director of Photography at The Sunday Times Magazine, and Tiziana Faraoni, Photo Editor at l'Espresso, five grants of $10,000 will be awarded to photojournalists pursuing projects of personal and journalistic significance.  The winners will be announced on September 5^th, with the winning recipients showcasing their chosen projects the following day.  

Jonathan Klein, Co-Founder and CEO of Getty Images says, "Getty Images is committed to excellence in photojournalism and pleased to be a partner at this year's landmark 25^th Visa pour L'Image festival. We established the Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography program to support the efforts of photojournalists to report on important events of our time that might otherwise go unseen. As the premier international gathering of the reportage community, Visa Pour L'Image is the ideal environment to share, discuss and celebrate the awe-inspiring work that photojournalists do every day."

Getty Images will also have a strong presence at the festival through an exhibition of one of its photojournalists, Majid Saeedi. Syndicated by Reportage by Getty Images, Majid's project, titled Life in War showcases the daily lives of the Afghan people and has been chosen to feature as one of the coveted exhibition spots throughout the duration of the three week festival.

A topic the company will also be exploring at Visa pour L'Image is industry commitment to the aiding and protection of photojournalists when reporting from war zones. In February this year, the company backed A Day Without News?, an initiative founded by Aidan Sullivan, Vice President at Getty Images, to raise awareness of the vital role correspondents and photojournalists play and the risks they face when reporting from war zones.  It has just been announced that the campaign has helped influence the United Nations Security Council to hold an open debate on the protection of journalists - the first time the council has considered this issue in a separate meeting since the adoption of resolution 1738 on the protection of journalists in December 2006.

On the exciting development Aidan Sullivan, Vice President, Photo Assignments, Editorial Partnerships and Development at Getty Images says, "A Day Without News? highlighted the risks undertaken by photojournalists to bring us content from the front line, and we are proud to have played a part in what could be a landmark change to protect these individuals."

Further information on the Getty Images' grants program can be found at: www.gettyimages.com/grants

Notes to editors:

The judges of this year's Grants for Editorial Photography are:

• Jean-Francois Leroy, Director, Visa pour L'Image;
• Jon Jones, Director of Photography, The Sunday Times Magazine;
• Olivier Laurent, Acting Deputy Editor, British Journal of Photography;
• Tiziana Faraoni, Photo Editor, l'Espresso;
• Fiona Rogers, Founder, Firecracker

About Getty Images
Getty Images is among the world's leading creators and distributors of award-winning still imagery, video, music and multimedia products, as well as other forms of premium digital content, available through its trusted house of brands, including iStockphoto© and Thinkstock©. With its advanced search and image recognition technology, Getty Images serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover, purchase and manage images and other digital content. Its best-in-class photographers and imagery help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world's most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and online media. Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to life.  For the stories behind our content and our technology, visit the Getty Images Blog at blog.gettyimages.com. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gettyimages and Twitter at www.twitter.com/gettyimages.  

SOURCE Getty Images