It has become one of the major cultural events in France since 1970. The Arles Photography Festival formerly called Rencontres internationales de la photographie d’Arles is an annual Summe photographer festival founded by Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette. The festival has launched the careers o numerous photographers, confirming its significance as a springboard for photography and contemporary creativity. In recent years, the Rencontres d’Arles has invited many guest curators and entrusted some of its programmings to prominent figures in art and photography, such as Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, and Arles-born fashion designer Christian Lacroix.

As of July 3, the Rencontres d’Arles decided to capture the world’s state of consciousness by inviting photographers, artists, and curators to help the visitors to see and perceive with keener acuteness the transformations we are living through. Climate change has become unavoidable by directly affecting our habits. Of course, the festival highlights other socio-political topics like female identity and the LGBTQIA+ community, an homage to Agnes Varda, and an important focus on contemporary Nordic photography. Inside the mythical Espace Van Gogh, German filmmaker, author, and photographer Wim Wenders will show an exclusive series of Polaroids from 1976, when he was shooting The American Friend in Hamburg and Paris starring Bruno Ganz and Denis Hoppers. It was based on the novel Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith.

The whole program exhibition is available HERE.
The Arles Photography Festival – July 3 to September 24 2023
Photography by Yohanne Lamoulère