Les Rencontres d'Arles

Every summer since 1970, over the course of more than forty exhibitions at various of the city's exceptional heritage sites, the Rencontres d'Arles has been a major influence in dissiminating the best of world photography and playing the role of a springboard for photographic and contemporary creative talents.

The 57th edition of the Rencontres d’Arles offers narratives rooted in various regions of the world, including the African continent and the Mediterranean. Spanning archives, major monographic exhibitions and emerging scenes, the images examine identities, stories and representations, whilst others explore the myriad facets of life. The programme highlights what endures, what changes and what connects us, and opens up spaces of freedom and empowerment, inviting us to look at the world with greater intensity.

Edward Steichen's Nature

La mécanique générale, Arles

Luxembourg-born American artist Edward Steichen led an exceptional and extraordinary career: a pioneer of pictorialism, a fashion and portrait photographer, a designer, a curator… tirelessly experimenting with all disciplines. This exhibition reflects his deep fascination with nature, revealed through rarely exhibited works from Luxembourg-based collections and remarkable loans from the Estate of Edward Steichen.

Curator: Ruud Priem assisted by Krystyna Dul

Exhibition co-produced by Lët’z Arles and the Musée national d’archéologie, d’histoire et d’art (MNAHA, Luxembourg), with the support of the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (Luxembourg) and in collaboration with the Estate of Edward Steichen.

Lisa Oppenheim – Monsieur Steichen

La mécanique générale, Arles

For Monsieur Steichen, Oppenheim explores the latent possibilities of photography, focusing on lesser-known aspects of Steichen’s practice: his lifelong passion for flowers, his textile designs, and his experiments in color photography. The artist composes from Steichen’s “lost threads”: “I plan to do with his work what he did throughout his own life: ingest and reconstitute a wide range of practices and ideas,” explains Oppenheim.

Curator: Bettina Steinbrügge

Exhibition co-produced by Lët’z Arles and Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean.

Marie-Claude Deffarge and Gordian Troeller –
No Pictures to Dream of: Stern-Features and Documentaries

Maison des peintres, Arles

The exhibition brings together photographs, documentary films and reportages, offering insight into five decades of international reporting. Since the 1950s, Deffarge and Troeller have documented social injustice, political crises and wars in over 55 countries, from Italy and Iran to Yemen and Brazil. Their work combines photographic and film reportage with a strong critical stance toward capitalist perspectives, patriarchal structures and colonial legacies, often employing a subjective and controversial documentary style.

Curators: Petra Steinhardt, Catherine Richard, Matthias Pfaller, Clara Bolin, Thomas Seelig, Giulia Cramm

Exhibition co-produced by the Rencontres d’Arles, Museum Folkwang, Essen and the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA).

L is for Look – The Children's Photobook

Espace Van Gogh, Arles

L is for Look presents a study of the children’s photobook, from its production and growth as a publishing phenomenon in the 1930s to the present day. Although the production of such photobooks remains a minor feature in the editorial landscape, it gives an account of the development of our perception of the medium, the history of pedagogy, and the status of children in Western societies for more than a century. L is for Look displays the creative process of a photobook, from the initial camera shots to the original mock-ups of the selected books. The exhibition—with the matter of cultural outreach in mind—features books available for consultation as well as interactive experiences for children and adults.

Curator: Anne Lacoste

Exhibition co-produced by Institut pour la photographie des Hauts-de-France, Lille, which also acted as executive producer, and Photo Elysée, Lausanne, in collaboration with the Rencontres d’Arles, the Photographers’ Gallery, London, the Centre national de l’audiovisuel and Foto Arsenal Vienna.