We are pleased to announce the winner of the first Visa d'or Online is Toby Binder for his work The Divided Youth (Belfast, Northern Ireland).
The Visa d'or Online awards were created to complement the festival's support for photographers throughout the year, between the September editions where we already distribute more than €144,000 in prizes thanks to our partners.
With a prize of €1,500 supported by the Douglas Kirkland Estate, these Visa d'or award aim to support a recent project by promising, in addition to the prize money, promotion on our social networks, as well as at the next edition of the festival.
For this first edition, we set a limit of 100 applications, which was reached very quickly, something we are very pleased about.
About Toby Binder
Toby Binder was born in Esslingen, Germany, in 1977 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. A socially engaged documentary photographer, he focuses on disadvantaged and marginalized communities in long-term projects. He often adopts the perspective of young people.
Toby's work has been recognized internationally, including with a Sony Award in 2025, a Gomma Grant and a LensCulture Award in 2020, the Zeke and Felix Schoeller Award in 2019, the Philip Jones Griffiths Award in 2018, and the Nannen Prize in 2017. In the same year, he received an honorable mention in the UNICEF Photo of the Year competition, as he did again in 2021.
His work has been published by Stern, Die Zeit, The Guardian, Le Monde, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Greenpeace Magazine, Amnesty Journal, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and others.
In 2019, his first photo book, "Wee Muckers," was published by Kehrer, and in 2026, the book "#053kids" will be published by Dietz Verlag.
The members of the jury
The shortlist submitted to the jury, which vote on February 16, was drawn up by the editorial team at Visa pour l'Image. To inaugurate this award, we wanted to bring to the attention of our jury the work of photographers whom we have not yet had the pleasure of presenting at Visa pour l'Image. Thirteen entries caught our attention and were judged by :
Cyril Drouhet / Le Figaro Magazine
Françoise Kirkland / Douglas Kirkland Estate
Olivier Laurent / The Washington Post
Fiona Shield / The Guardian
Marie Sumalla / Le Monde
Bernadette Tuazon / CNN
About the other candidates
100 applications from 30 countries and 13 shortlisted candidates presented to the jury.
Date of the next Visa d'Or Online
Starting April 10, 2026!
To apply: https://visapourlimage.com/prix-et-bourses/visa-dor-online-par-le-douglas-kirkland-estate/