Jean-François Leroy, Founder of World’s Leading Photojournalism Festival, Dies

Jean-François Leroy in 2019 | Photo credit: Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons (cc-by-sa-4.0)

Jean-François Leroy, the photographer who founded Visa pour l’Image, the world’s leading photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France, has died.

Leroy, who directed Visa pour l’Image for almost four decades, died of cancer in Paris at the age of 69. Under his leadership, the festival became one of the most important events in the world of press photography.

“The entire Visa pour l’Image — Perpignan team and all of Jean-Francois Leroy’s family are deeply saddened to announce the death, on the morning of Monday, Aug 31, of the founder and historic director of the international photojournalism festival,” the festival team writes on its Instagram account. “He supported and brought to light photojournalists from all over the world.”

According to French news outlet Le Monde, Leroy was born in Paris in 1956. Leroy was introduced to photography through his aunt, the editor-in-chief of La Vie catholique, who let him experiment in the magazine’s darkroom.

Leroy was a former Sipa Press photographer and contributed to Photo-Reporter, Le Photographe, and Photo-Revue. He later became editor-in-chief of Photo Magazine, a position he held from 1985 to 1987, before devoting himself to Visa pour l’Image.

According to Blind Magazine, Leroy was known for his editorial rigor and commitment to journalistic integrity. He was a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres and a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite.

Over nearly four decades, Leroy established Visa pour l’Image as a major international gathering for photojournalism. The festival is free and open to the public and draws more than 220,000 visitors to Perpignan every year. It provides a platform for photographers working in the field and has awarded more than $173,985 (€150,000) in prizes to photographers annually.

Le Monde reports that Leroy watched with growing frustration as the financial foundations of photojournalism began to erode. Newspapers and magazines were cutting costs, photo agencies were disappearing, and photographers were finding it increasingly difficult to make a living from their work. With traditional funding drying up, many turned to grants, NGOs and the art world to finance long-term projects. Against this backdrop, Visa pour l’Image took on an increasingly important role, offering photographers not only a platform for their work but also awards, exposure and recognition as the industry’s old sources of support began to disappear.

For the first time in 38 years, Leroy was too ill to attend the opening of Visa pour l’Image on Saturday. Despite his illness, Delphine Lelu, the managing director of Visa pour l’Image, tells Blind Magazine that Leroy took part “from A to Z in the preparation” of the 2026 edition of the festival.