International artists receive awards at the 2024 Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson Gala

At the start of Paris Photo week, the second edition of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson Gala took place at the Westin Paris Vendôme hotel. This gala brought together, for a festive event, the leading figures from the field of photography. 

In accordance with the wishes of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck, the Fondation not only preserves their work, but also promotes new generations of contemporary photographers. During this evening, placed under the high patronage of Mr. Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic, in the presence of Mrs. Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, five French and international artists were honored. 

The Minister of Culture opened the evening with a speech to the assembled French and international culture and photography professionals, announcing her commitment to photography, and in particular to the creation of a major national celebration of the bicentenary of photography in 2026-27.  

Stéphanie Lacombe, Eva Diallo and Khashayar Javanmardi, prize winners of the Eyes Wide Open Awards for the first photo book 

Conceived and organized by the non-profit organization Eyes Wide Open with the support of the French Ministry of Culture and the SAIF, the Eyes Wide Open Awards for the First Photo Book program is intended for photographers wishing to develop a project for a first book with the support of an independent French publisher.

Three prize winners were selected by a jury of seven culture and photography professionals.

• Stéphanie Lacombe, recipient of the SAIF Prize for a French photographer or photographer living in France

French artist Stéphanie Lacombe has been awarded the SAIF Prize dedicated to a French photographer or photographer living in France for her project Haut les cœurs, a documentary journey into the Hauts-de-France and its inhabitants impacted by the economic crisis. Her project will be published by Éditions de Juillet.

• Eva Diallo, recipient of the Prize for a woman photographer of any nationality

Swiss artist Eva Diallo was awarded the prize dedicated to a woman photographer of any nationality for her project, Bolol, the personal story and adventures of her two cousins who migrated from Senegal to Southern Italy between 2019 and 2023, via Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya.
This project is edited by Cécile Fakhoury.

• Khashayar Javanmardi, recipient of the Prize for a photographer from the Global South

The Iranian artist was honored for Spell of The Caspian Lotus, a project about the pollution of the Caspian Sea.  The series was published by Loose Joints in October 2024.

François-Xavier Gbré, first winner of Latitudes, a Fondation d’netreprise Hermès program

The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has launched Latitudes, a new international program to support contemporary photography, in partnership with the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson (Paris) and the International Center of Photography (New York). 

French-Ivorian photographer François-Xavier Gbré is the prize winner of this first edition, sponsored by Clément Chéroux, Director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. His project consists of a photographic journey in Côte d’Ivoire along the abandoned rails of the Abidjan-Ouagadougou line. Part sensitive approach, part documentary, this series is intended to bear witness to the political and intimate histories of this region. 

The resulting work will be first exhibited at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in the fall of 2025 and then at the ICP in 2026.

Sophie Calle, recipient of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson Honorary Award

Introduced in 2024, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson Honorary Award honors a photographer, or an artist working with photography, for their lifetime achievement. It is awarded every two years, during the Fondation’s Gala.

The first Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson Honorary Award is awarded to Sophie Calle for her exceptional contribution to photography. Since the late 1970s, the artist has developed a prolific, protean and joyously subversive body of work in which photography plays a leading role. Her projects are often based on paradoxical situations. She likes to confront the real with the imaginary, the automatic with control, the present with the absent, the public with the private, the playful with the dead. Through the stories she loves to tell, she succeeds in creating epiphanies where, suddenly, opposites cease to be perceived as contradictory.

The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson Gala was organized with the support of the Fondation Louis Roederer and Paris Photo.