I International Festival of Photojournalism "City of Gijón"

Between 4th and 13th of July, 1997, Gijón (Spain) held the I International Festival of Photojournalism "City of Gijón", coordinated by the spanish photojournalist Javier Bauluz (Pulitzer Prize) and completing the most ambitious edition of the"Black Week" (directed by Paco Ignacio Taibo II), which attendance, during the ten days that it lasted, has been estimated in 1,5 million people.

The program of the Festival of Photojournalism, with the participation of more than 70 photographers, included 4 exhibitions, 5 evening screenings, a workshop for 20 young photojournalists, 2 round tables, the presentation of a photojournalism ethics manifesto signed by the participants, the International Prize of Photojournalism "City of Gijón" ($ 6500) and the
Photojournalism and Human Rights Prize.

Since the very first day, the exhibitions (opened from 5 pm to 2 am) of Don McCullin ("Retrospective"), Sebastiao Salgado ("Terra"), Eli Reed ("Black in America") and Ivo Saglietti ("From Ouidah to Port au Prince") awoke the curiosity and interest of tens of thousands of visitors that, besides watching the work of four great authors, had the chance of talking to two
of them, Reed and Saglietti, who where present at the Festival during the ten days.

Undoubtely, the screenings were the activities most welcomed by the public; the oportunity of enjoying the work of the best international photojournalists in a big screen with sincronized music, filled each day a hall with room for 700, applauding enthusiastically all the works projected.

Among the hundred reports received, a selection was made to be projected; after the screenings, a jury formed by Jimmy Fox (Magnum editor), Sally Stapleton (Associated Press editor), Ivo Saglietti (World Press Photo Prize), Adrienne Aurichio (LIFE editor) and Chema Conesa
(La Revista de El Mundo subdirector) decided to award the VU Agency photographer Paolo Pellegrin with the International Prize of Photojournalism "City of Gijón" ($6500) for his work "Bosnia: Postwar children", and the spanish photographer Matias Costa with the Photojournalism and Human Rights Prize for his work "Sons of the dump".

Due to the high level of the participants, the jury decided to create a Special Prize of the Jury (consisting of one original picture by Eddie Adams, Ivo Saglietti, Eli Reed, Bill Eppridge and Javier Bauluz), which was awarded to the Cover Agency photographer Gen’n Andrada for his work "AIDS".

Another main point in this festival's program was the workshop for 20 young photojournalists choosen among all that had sent their reports. During four intense days, the new generation of
photojournalists shared the experience of the guests already named, as well as those of such important names as Eddie Adams, Cristina Garcia Rodero, Bill Eppridge, Jose Manuel Navia, Horst Faas, Carlos Perez de Rozas, Enrique Shore, Santiago Lyon, Diego Caballo and Gervasio Sanchez.

The workshop lectures were open to the public, getting each an attendance of more than sixty persons. The comunication between teachers and students, and the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the festival turned the workshop, as all the participants manifested, into a unique experience which would be worth to repeat.

After long discussions, even out of schedule, the participants wrote and signed a photojournalism ethics manifesto in which they afirm "our obligation as photojournalists is to mantain our credibility in order to continue as witnesses to reality".

To the presentation of this manifesto, we must add the celebration of two round tables about "Past, Present and Future of Photojournalism" and "Photojournalism and Human Rights"; in both debates, the participation of the audience opened the subjects far enough.

After the great success, both in attendance and participants, Javier Bauluz and his team are already working on the II International Festival of Photojournalism "City of Gijón"; in order to support this event, a comission has been created by all the participants in the first festival.