From 7Julyto5October2025, the 56th edition of Les Rencontres d’Arles, themed “Disobedient images”, celebrates the diversity of cultures, genders and origins, spanning Australia, Brazil, North America and the Caribbean.
Images run deep in Arles’ DNA. For over five decades, Rencontres d’Arles has relentlessly questioned the image’s status and role. The 2025edition, with its slightly provocative theme “Disobedient images”, is no exception. Memory and identity, deconstruction of colonial narratives and stereotypes, affirmation of minorities, new visions of beauty —these all take centre stage. In a world awash with images— distorted, manipulated, hijacked, erased and cropped on an unprecedented scale— the 2025theme feels almost like a call to revolt.
This rebellious spirit unmistakably blows in from the South. As part of France-Brazil’s cultural season, four exhibitions reveal the breadth and originality of Brazil’s contribution to photographic art over the past century [seep.44]: “Ancestral futures”; “Claudia Andujar”; “Retratistas do Morro”; and “Construction, Deconstruction, Reconstruction: Brazilian modernist photography (1939-1964)”. “Through a dialogue between contemporary and emerging scenes, vernacular photography and modernism, exhibitions presented as part of the 2025France-Brazil Season celebrate the artistic richness of this Latin American country,” explains Christoph Wiesner, director of Rencontres d’Arles [seep.20]. Wiesner has chosen to set this Brazilian dynamism alongside another scene, little-known in France but equally astonishing: Australia. “The exhibition ‘On country: Photography from Australia’ explores the profound and spiritual relationship that First Peoples maintain with their land, far beyond the geographical notion, he adds. This bond, which transcends colonial history and modernity, finds expression in works
where photography becomes a tool for transmission and resilience in the face of the climatic and political upheavals threatening this cultural heritage.” These new narratives also delve into the personal. Seven exhibitions at Rencontres d’Arles2025 offer a contemporary look at family, exploring parenthood, sisterhood and the chosen bonds within twerking and voguing communities [seep.52]. There are stories of place too, with Berenice Abbott’s unfinished project “U.S.Route1” and Raphaëlle Peria’s “Crossing the missing fragment” — a meditation on the disappearance and transformation of French landscape, for which she won the BMW Art Makers programme [seep.76]
A meeting point
Trailblazing by nature and pioneering in many respects, this unmissable festival on the international photography scene proves year after year that other narratives remain possible — and desirable. From shaded terraces to the coolness of cloisters or beneath the starry sky of the Roman Theatre,
The arrest of the ruthless mafa boss Leoluca Bagarella, Palermo (1979), Letizia Battaglia
Courtesy Archivio Letizia Battaglia
During Opening week, we welcome 20,000unique visitors. Half are international —mainly European, but also from North America, Asia and Latin America— which shows just how important the festival is for everyone in the photography and image ecosystem. Although it is open to the public, this week is both a major event and a key moment for professional meetings and project exchanges. —Aurélie de Lanlay
the festival’s 40exhibitions and a host of prizes, talks, round tables, soirées and festive moments ensure three months of photographic celebration draw crowds in droves.
With 160,000visitors, the 2024edition set a historic attendance record for this event, which has stood as a fixture on the international photography scene for over half a century. The highlight of the festival, the 2024Opening week, alone drew 20,000unique visitors — about half of whom came from abroad. This influx presents a real challenge for organisers. “We are in the largest municipality in France —seven times the size of Paris—
with just 52,000residents, 30,000 of whom live in Arles itself. Welcoming 160,000people over three months has a considerable impact on the area,” explains Aurélie de Lanlay, festival’s deputy director [seeboxp.25]. To respond to this surge in public interest, Rencontres d’Arles now extends into the autumn. For the first time, the event will conclude in early October, with extended opening hours and some exhibitions welcoming visitors as early as 9am — an answer to the sweltering heat that has, in just a few years, become a recurring headache for all summer event organisers. “These longer hours also allow festivalgoers to stagger
Discovery Award Louis Roederer Foundation
Spotlight on emerging talent with the Discovery Award Louis Roederer Foundation! This year, Mexican curator César González-Aguirre takes over from Audrey Illouz as curator of this prize dedicated to new voices. The seven selected artistic projects, gathered at the Espace Monoprix, form a single exhibition entitled “An assembly of sceptics”. The theme resonates powerfully with the wider programme, which celebrates the rebellion of disobedient images and indigenous perspectives. “The exhibition brings together individuals who distrust official history and share their discontent with the established order, explains César González-Aguirre. Each uses doubt to explore the conflicts of their present. Deep down, they all ask themselves: how can we restore trust in reality?” 2025Discovery Award contenders are: Zuzana Pustaiová (Czech Republic); Julie Joubert (France); Denis Serrano (Mexico); Musuk Nolte (Colombia); Daniel Mebarek (Paris); Heba Khalifa (Netherlands) and Octavio Aguilar (Mexico). The prize will be awarded on the evening of Friday11July at the Roman Theatre [seeboxp.15].
“An assembly of sceptics” Until 5October Monoprix
Place Lamartine. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
their visits and tailor their programme as they wish, with an app providing real-time updates on venue capacity, she continues. Festivalgoer comfort is one of our top priorities.”
All year round
Eco-responsibility, accessibility, inclusion, sustainable transport — extra regional trains now run for the Roman Theatre’s evening events. Beyond the festival season, the association behind Les Rencontres keeps its spirit alive all year, rallying Arles’ socio-cultural ecosystem through educational initiatives like “A school year in images” and “A year of images”, as well as projects promoting social inclusion through employment. These efforts are paying off: last year, around 10,000Arles residents visited exhibitions as part of Les Rencontres. “We offer three free guided tours every day, with special routes in September for more vulnerable groups, adds Aurélie de Lanlay. We therefore need more mediators. It is worth noting that ticket sales are our main source of funding. We offer various rates, but the standard pass gives access to 40exhibitions for€40. These resources allow us to stage the festival and enjoy real freedom in how we deliver it. But when it comes to mediation, we offer it free of charge. Local authorities and the ministry support us with general grants that provide a foundation for the project. For specific tools like the IAE, many of our front-of-house and sales staff are people who have
Presentation of the 2025Kering Women in motion award for photography to Nan Goldin. Screening of Memorylost (2019-2021) by Nan Goldin, followed by a conversation with the photographer and author Édouard Louis.
A tribute to Sebastião Salgado, renowned Franco-Brazilian photographer who passed away last May.
Announcement of the 2025 Book Awards.
Thursday10July, 9:45pm – midnight
“MYOP: 20years of a story in motion”: at the invitation of Rencontres d’Arles, MYOP celebrates its 20th anniversary on stage.
“Interstices of dreams”, a unique dialogue between words of LebaneseQuebec playwright Wajdi Mouawad and images of Alain Willaume from the Tendance Floue collective.
Presentation of the 2025 Madame Figaro Arles Photography Award.
Presentation of the Pictet Prize.
Friday11July, 9:45pm – midnight
The Live Magazine of Les Rencontres.
Presentation of the 2025LUMA Rencontres Dummy book award.
Presentation of the 2025Discovery Award Louis Roederer Foundation.
10years of the MRO Foundation at Hôtel Blain
Nestled in Arles, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation is an international platform supporting emerging artists, fosters cross-disciplinary experimentation and presents thought-provoking exhibitions to the region. In2015, the Foundation acquired the historic Hôtel Blain, a 17thcentury mansion located at the heart of the city. What followed was a meticulous restoration that transformed the abandoned building into a contemporary exhibition space. Balancing preservation with innovation, the Foundation restored frescoed ceilings, stone staircases and vaulted rooms while outfitting the space to host visual installations. Since then, each summer during Rencontres d’Arles, the Foundation has presented an independent curatorial program spotlighting documentary practices and marginalised perspectives. In2025, the Foundation celebrates 10years of artistic engagement at Hôtel Blain — a milestone that reflects its ongoing commitment to art and global cultural dialogue.
faced barriers to employment. They work at the festival for six months —three months of training, followed by three months on the job— thanks to a supported contract scheme.”
A shower of awards
Women in motion award, Discovery award, Book award, Pictet Prize, Madame Figaro Photography prize,
LUMA Dummy book award… Every edition of Les Rencontres d’Arles brings a shower of prizes, celebrating every facet of photography — from publishing and emerging talent to championing the work of women photographers.
A singular and committed figure, Nan Goldin [seep.88] is the much-anticipated recipient of
the 2025Kering Women in motion award. Following in the footsteps of Susan Meiselas (2019), Sabine Weiss (2020), Liz Johnson Artur (2021), Babette Mangolte (2022), Rosângela Rennó (2023) and Ishiuchi Miyako (2024), she will receive this honour, which celebrates the career of an outstanding photographer, during the evening of 8July at the Roman Theatre. The occasion also offers a chance to discover her exceptional solo exhibition at Saint-Blaise Church [seeboxp.96].
While emerging talent and young artists feature throughout the programme, each year the Discovery Award Louis Roederer Foundation [seeboxp.12] shines a special spotlight on them.
A dedicated exhibition at Monoprix, curated by Mexican commissioner César González-Aguirre, puts their work centre stage. Awarded during the evening of Friday11July at the Roman Theatre, this prize stands out for rewarding both the artists and the organisations supporting their projects — whether galleries, art centres, associations or institutions. These are the very places that help launch artists’ careers. Two prizes are awarded, one by the jury and one by the public, worth €15,000 and €5,000 respectively, each resulting in the acquisition of exhibited works.
“It made perfect sense for the strong affinity between the Foundation and the art of photography to culminate at Rencontres d’Arles,” justifies Frédéric Rouzaud, president of the Louis Roederer Foundation, which became the award’s patron in2018.
“We share common values and a desire to reveal tomorrow’s talent.”
Since its inception, Rencontres d’Arles has also celebrated the creativity of photographic publishing through the Book award, supported by the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature. All 123competing
EVENT RENCONTRES D’ARLES2025
“Spells”
titles are on display at La Mécanique Générale throughout the festival. Each of the three categories —Author’s Book award, Historical Book award and Photo-Text award— comes with a €6,000prize, with winners announced during the Opening week at the Roman Theatre on the evening of 8July.
Opening week
The beating heart of the festival, Opening week runs until 13July and is an event in its own right, day and night [seeboxp.15]. For over 15years, Photo Folio review has offered portfolio reviews during this inaugural week. For around twenty minutes, photographers, students and keen amateurs can meet with experts from around the world, who guide them in their practice and projects. At the invitation of Rencontres d’Arles, France PhotoBook hosts the fourth edition of the Arles Books Fair from 8to12July at the École nationale supérieure de la photographie and the Collège Saint-Charles. Dedicated to the richness and variety of editorial practices, the fair features meetings with photographers and authors. To round off the marathon of Opening week, the Night of the year on Saturday 12July takes over the entire city with visual walks and some forty large-scale projections. This popular —and free— celebration of photography pulses with highlights, carte blanche screenings, performances and DJsets.
The festival’s reach extends beyond the city centre and into the wider region [seeboxp.36]. For the second year running, Arles-based association LaKabine leads the “off” programme, with 120exhibitions scattered across the city [seep.84]. Co-directed by Florent Basiletti and Juliette Larochette, this entirely free “off” defines itself as a “true artistic laboratory”, encouraging experimentation and dialogue around contemporary image-
To mark the 10th anniversary of the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation [seeboxp.15], “Sortilèges” transforms Hôtel Blain into a threshold between worlds — between the visible and the unseen, the rational and the enchanted. “Critised, feared or heavily manipulated, image has always carried a strong spiritual dimension,” says Florent Basiletti, whose curatorial vision embraces what has long been denied in Western narratives: the existence of other energies, other truths. Against a backdrop of colonial rationalism and modern hyper-rationality, this exhibition reclaims spirituality not as folklore but as a powerful tool for re-seeing the world. “Spirituality is reemerging as a vital force — to understand the energies of the living world, of plants, but also the energies within ourselves.” Featuring voices from Ghana to Sweden, Taiwan to the Roma diaspora, “Spells” lifts the veil on “forgotten or rediscovered narratives”, from persecuted witches to ancestral memory. The witch, as Basiletti insists, is “undeniably a political figure”, reclaimed by feminism as a symbol of resistance, but also one whose spiritual dimension deserves renewed attention. At the heart of the exhibition is the belief that photography itself has always been in dialogue with the invisible. “The image continues to raise deep questions about our relationship with the unseen.” Through works like Maja Daniels’ aquatic communion or Ian Cheibub’s spiritual invocation of his grandmother in the cellar of Arles, “Spells” invites viewers to question everything. Basiletti adds: “Let us listen, observe and discover why” — a call to open ourselves to a multiplicity of stories, sensations and energies that conventional narratives have long tried to silence.
“Spells”
Until 5October. Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation 18 rue de la Calade. Arles. www.mrofoundation.org
making and transforming Arles into a “creative playground”. Françoise de Panafieu, president of Rencontres d’Arles, welcomes this fluidity between the “in” and the “off”: “We are delighted by the revival of the ‘off’ which, alongside the wealth of initiatives from Arles’ cultural players, further strengthens the city’s exceptional artistic and local vitality.” Last year, the Arles public discovered the extravagant and exuberant world of Kourtney Roy [seep.60] during the “off”; this year, she returns to the “in” with her exhibition “The tourist” at the former Mistral school [seeboxp.63]. There’s no doubt that, for one summer at least, Arles truly earns its nickname as the “capital of the image”.
Centred around a call to engagement, the 56th edition of the Rencontres d’Arles brings together the “Disobedient images” of an uncertain world — offering both a glimmer of hope and the first sparks of resistance.
Historian Françoise Denoyelle describes Rencontres d’Arles as a “seismograph” of contemporary society. That metaphor rings especially true this year, as the festival turns its gaze to memory, identity, and place — from postcolonial perspectives in Brazil and Australia to American fault lines and the affirmation of plural, Indigenous and emerging communities. “As nationalism rises, nihilism spreads and environmental crises mount, the photographic voices featured this year push back against dominant narratives. They celebrate cultural, gender and ethnic diversity,” explains Christoph Wiesner, director of the Rencontres, in his foreword to the 2025edition. His chosen theme, “ Disobedient images”, sets the tone for the entire programme. He shares his reasoning.
The theme for this year’s edition is “Disobedient images”…
This year, I felt it was essential to address the power and persistence of images. Whether for political motives or attempts to rewrite history, every time someone tries to erase an image, it re-emerges —one way or another. That is even more true today, in the age of the internet, social media and now AI, but it is not a new phenomenon. Images have a kind of permanence— like a form of memory. Because there are so many copies, an image always survives somewhere. Erase it in one place and it surfaces in another. That is what makes it disobedient. We saw this recently in the United States when the authorities attempted to de-index certain historical or military images in order to erase uncomfortable photos and erase diverse voices. The results were absurd — for instance, removing from archives images of the Hiroshima bomber, “Enola Gay”. Scholars
and ordinary citizens mobilised to protect and preserve those records. This idea of disobedient images also opens the door for younger artists from diverse communities to share their perspectives — on history, on memory and on how they see themselves portrayed in the present.
This year, the Rencontres shines a spotlight on the Southern hemisphere, with a focus on Australia and Brazil. How did that take shape?
I often say that building a programme is a bit like sedimentation. As festival curators, we receive many proposals and see a huge variety of work. At a certain point, it starts to make sense — to bring certain threads together, to offer a view of a region, to support a particular vision or to write a new chapter in the wider programme. Take Australia, for instance. We have wanted to build an exhibition around its photographic scene for several years now. Australian photography often grapples with questions of history and its relationship with Indigenous communities — key themes the Rencontres regularly explores. But until now, we had not found the right opportunity.
Images always play a role — for better or worse. They are never neutral. From the very moment photography emerged, it refused to behave. It has made its way into everything: the mundane, the intimate, the unexpected, the everyday and the realm of art. Every dimension of human life ends up, at some point, documented, depicted, photographed. Photography lays bare all that is human. —Christoph Wiesner
Then, during conversations around the France-Brazil cultural season, the idea emerged to draw a parallel between Australia’s photographic scene and Brazil’s vibrant emerging movement — both revisiting histories long written by the descendants of colonisers and confronting them with Indigenous realities that have endured in the shadows. That encounter between the two scenes sparks an extraordinary creative energy — one I find deeply stimulating.
Nan Goldin will also be celebrated this year…
We are absolutely thrilled to announce Nan Goldin as the 2025laureate of the Women in motion award. Again, this honours an artist with a powerful commitment to her community. In her case, the idea of community extends beyond geography. She creates an intimate family of sorts — bringing together her inner circle, her friends, her chosen kin. Nan Goldin also holds a special place in the history of the Rencontres. She is one of the few female photographers with a long and meaningful connection to the festival, along with figures like Babette Mangolte and Susan Meiselas. Even though their work received less attention at the time, their contributions were absolutely vital. Nan has been a regular presence in Arles since the1980s. In2009, she restaged her iconic work The Ballad of sexual dependency at the Roman Theatre and curated an exhibition on David Armstrong. It is deeply moving to honour someone so closely intertwined with the festival’s story.
What will you be showing?
Her recent work will be on view at Saint-Blaise Church, where she presents Stendhal syndrome — a stunning project born from a residency at the Louvre. The Stendhal syndrome refers to that dizzying moment when one faints in the face of overwhelming beauty. In this exhibition, Nan Goldin juxtaposes classical masterpieces —photographed in some of the
world’s most prestigious museums— with intimate portraits of her loved ones, lifting them into a timeless realm. She has poured her entire life into her art. We also wanted to acknowledge her activism — particularly her fight against the Sackler pharmaceutical dynasty. What she achieved is simply extraordinary. [Editor’s note: Nan Goldin and members of her activist group staged protests against the
3 questions to… Patrick Wack
Could you introduce your project “Azov horizons”, currently on show at the Abbaye de Montmajour?
Contrary to what one might assume, this project does not focus on war or Ukraine. At its core, it is a cross-border exploration of the Sea of Azov — a visual encounter with its unique light and colours. I have returned there every summer since2019. During my research, I realised the Sea of Azov holds significant geopolitical interest. Donbas lies nearby and the Russian navy had already all but annexed the sea. I set out to craft a narrative on the move, alternating my summers between the shores of the two bordering countries, Russia and Ukraine, while maintaining a summery perspective and the formal style typical of seaside photography.
What stages did your journey involve?
In2021, I travelled to the Ukrainian side, spending considerable time in Berdiansk and Mariupol. By2022, I was based in Russia as a correspondent. This allowed me to undertake an extensive journey along the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov, passing through occupied Crimea. The warv had begun. The surge in propaganda, the country’s militarisation and the emergence of a new historical narrative then shifted the direction of my story. I returned to the Ukrainian side in2023 and2024, spending time in Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa to document the aftermath of occupation.
How has your project evolved?
My aim has been to develop a photographic language that reveals a visual coherence between these two warring nations, paving the way to address more political themes, all while preserving a vibrant, colour-driven approach. This project’s fundamental ambiguity lies here: beneath the surface, something stirs — a rising sense of unease, a latent violence. Ukrainians have lost sight of their sea’s horizon, along with any hope of reclaiming it. This sense of loss also forms a central thread of the project.
Sackler family, whose company marketed OxyContin, a powerful opioid responsible for widespread addiction across the US.]
You have previously mentioned your passion for private collections. What makes Marion and Philippe Jacquier’s one [seep.68], presented this year, so distinctive?
Marion and Philippe Jacquier are true hunters of vernacular gems — a niche within the photography market. I have known them for years, since my time at Paris Photo, and their approach is completely unique. They have amassed over 10,000anonymous and amateur images, quietly set aside over the years, without ever really putting them on show. It is a captivating visual archive — fragments of past lives and everyday snapshots. There is one woman, for instance, named Lucette, who brought back hundreds upon hundreds of holiday snaps from her travels. She is the sole subject in all of them, always out of focus! About twenty years ago, Marion and Philippe founded the gallery Lumière des Roses, which they decided to close in early2025. Following its closure, Antoine de Galbert Foundation acquired their collection and will soon donate it to the Musée de Grenoble. We are showing a first selection from the collection at the Cloître Saint-Trophime.
Had you worked with Antoine de Galbert before?
I have long admired his work at La Maison Rouge. His curatorial eye is radically free and his sensitivity is, in my view, quite extraordinary. Whether or not the artist is wellknown does not matter to him in the slightest. In2023, he already supported us by helping present another collection —that of JeanMarie Donat— made up of popular portraits unearthed from the archive of a former photo studio in Marseille.
Could you say a few words about the Rencontres’ Off programme [seep.84]?
In the world of festivals, there is a saying: “A good In needs a good Off.”
One brings strength to the other and it is the richness of both that creates real resonance — much like the dynamic in Avignon. Take Kourtney Roy [seep.60], for example. She exhibited in the satellite programme in2024 and this year she features in the official Rencontres lineup with
her exhibition “The tourist” at the former Mistral school [seeboxp.63] I believe the Off is vital —not only for the city, but for the entire image ecosystem: photography, visual storytelling and creative production. It deserves its full place in the festival’s landscape.
3 questions to… Aurélie de Lanlay
Aurélie de Lanlay is Deputy Director of the Rencontres d’Arles.
2024 has been your record-breaking year with 160,000visitors. How do you manage such a crowd?
We are not aiming to expand the festival at all costs — that is simply not our philosophy. Our priority is to offer the most diverse range of exhibitions possible to attract a wide and varied audience. We want to provide multiple levels of interpretation so that each visitor can take away something meaningful, whatever their background, perspective or sensitivity. One of our major strengths lies in the diversity of our venues. Whether it is a disused industrial space, a cloister or a church, artists encounter installation and scenographic opportunities they would never find in traditional white cubes. This broad palette of exhibition settings, the atmosphere breathed into these heritage spaces, also gives visitors a unique way to discover the history of the city.
What do you think explains this success?
All year long, we work in depth on our programming — take, for instance, the Opening week, with over a hundred events. It draws together professionals, amateurs and photographers alike in a vibrant moment of exchange and shared intensity. It is a highlight on the photography calendar. We also commit deeply to local engagement — developing visual literacy, fostering critical thinking. It is the consistency and sincerity of this mission that wins over the public. Many return year after year, forming a loyal and engaged audience. Another key factor is the yearround involvement of the people of Arles. We take part in a programme of social and economic inclusion, training and employing staff from the local area. There is a real sense of ownership, of pride in being ambassadors for the festival on the ground. This collective experience restores confidence and plays a crucial role in professional reintegration. The figures speak for themselves: eight months after working at the Rencontres, 70% of those employed have moved into permanent or fixed-term contracts.
2025 marks the edition just before photography’s bicentenary. Are plans already taking shape?
We are not saying too much just yet, but we are working with the Ministry of culture and the Lux network. Naturally, we will also be developing our own projects. We are looking at various angles — historical dimension, collaborations with institutions exploring the evolution of photography and so on. But for us, the bicentenary is not just about celebrating the history of an art form. The real question is: how do we celebrate a medium with such a direct, singular relationship with its audience? How can we create something truly popular and accessible? How do we sharpen our vision and critical thinking? How do we support the younger generations who will become tomorrow’s citizens? These are the questions we must ask ourselves when the time comes to celebrate 200years of photography.
In a study of the social, political and cultural shifts shaping the contemporary world, the 56th edition of Rencontres d’Arles adopts a polyphonic approach, where photography becomes a tool for resistance, remembrance, the circulation of identities, as well as intercultural and intergenerational dialogue.
“Magma in the ocean”, Brandon Gercara. Magma, a transformative force
“We shape our territories with our lava,” states Brandon Gercara in PlaybackofKwirthought. Born in1996 in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, the artist lives and works in Réunion, where they develop a committed practice at the intersection of art, research and queer and decolonial activism. Their work, deeply rooted in Réunion’s social realities, echoes those of other territories marked by the invisibilisation of minoritised bodies. Their exhibition, “Magma in the ocean”, presents the multifaceted work PlaybackofKwir thought, created on the occasion of the first visibility march held in Réunion in2021. Through drag performance, the artist symbolically transforms the Piton de la Fournaise into a space for affirming kwir identities (a Creole and activist reimagining of the word queer). Lava thus becomes a metaphor of a transformative force, creating another reality and symbolising a tool of resistance against postcolonial systems of domination. Through playback, in Lip sync of thought, Brandon Gercara embodies feminist discourses, such as those of Françoise Vergès, Asma Lamrabet and Elsa Dorlin, in order to “to be heard by an audience that does not necessarily read”. The series Conversations extends this exploration by giving life to extra-terrestrial figures, “bodies that we don't know,” in the artist’s words. They interpret testimonies through drag, allowing a liberating exaggeration that transcends insults and stigma.
“Magma in the ocean”
Until 5October
Maison des Peintres 45 boulevard Émile-Combes Arles. www.rencontres-arles.com
“Father”, Diana Markosian. The story of a separation
Forced separation, unsettling reunions and a fragile reconstruction of a lost bond, “Father” presents an intimate narrative about absence and memory. Born in Moscow in1989, Diana Markosian [seeboxp.54] was separated from her father at age seven when she emigrated to the United States in1996 with her mother and brother, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Soon afterwards, her mother removed every trace of the man from their family photographs.
“For most of my life, my father was nothing more than a silhouette in our family album,” she writes in the publication Father, released in2024. Fifteen years later, after an extended search, she finally finds him. Facing her is a stranger who asks: “Why did it take you so long?” Curated by Claartje van Dijk and co-produced by the Rencontres d’Arles and Foam, the exhibition brings together documentary photographs, family archives and vernacular images. It traces the silence, erasure and return of a relationship deeply marked by distance. In Santa Barbara, her first
publication released in2020, the artist had already revisited her family story through her mother’s perspective, blending staged photographs and films.
“Father”
Until 5October Monoprix Place Lamartine. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
“Double”, Carol Newhouse and Carmen Winant. A photographic correspondence
Over the course of a year, a photographic dialogue unfolded across the United States between Carol Newhouse (born1943), based in Berkeley, and Carmen Winant (born1983), living in Columbus. Curated by Nina Strand and presented at Croisière, the exhibition “Double” showcases the exchange between Carol Newhouse’s archives, co-founder of the feminist lesbian community WomanShare (1974), and Carmen Winant’s radical reinterpretation.
Using Carol Newhouse’s techniques, both artists worked on the same rolls of film, exposing each other’s images through the process of double exposure. This approach challenges the supposed singularity of images and the notion of a sole author, fostering a collaborative creation shaped by shared perspectives. Reinventing ourselves and our stories? This is the question raised by the two artists in this exhibition. Through this collaboration, they explore intergenerational transmissions, the political legacies of feminism and the renewal of experimental feminist photographic practices.
“Double”
Until 5October Croisière 65 boulevard Émile Combes Arles. www.rencontres-arles.com
“Women, sisters”, Erica Lennard. A Portrait of intimacy and sorority
In this exhibition, curator Clara Bouveresse revisits for the first time the genesis of Erica Lennard’s book Women, sisters. Drawing on previously unseen archives, she places the project within the current context of “feminist revival,” while outlining a dialogue across eras. Published in1976 by Éditions des Femmes, the book brings together a series of portraits taken by Erica Lennard and a poem by her sister Elizabeth. This project forms a visual and poetic exchange, driven by the close bond between the two artists and their circle. Through direct nudes, far from any “aestheticising” or “geometric” vision, Erica Lennard “gives body and flesh to sisterhood,” emphasises Clara Bouveresse, creating images where bodies become spaces of expression. “Desire returns to the one who desires. But not to the one who is desired,” writes Elizabeth Lennard. This direct and intimate approach, pioneering during the revival of nude photography which was then in vogue, now resonates with contemporary reflections on the body, intimacy and female relationships. Bringing together poetry, archives and photographs, the exhibition documents the making and context of the project through a thematic structure: hippie influence, friendships and female circles, the nude or living landscapes — early signs of a sensitivity to nature that would later lead the artist to photograph gardens and writers’ homes. It also highlights portraits of actresses such as Jeanne Moreau, Delphine Seyrig and Charlotte Rampling.
“Women, sisters” Until 5October Espace Van Gogh 18 place Félix-Rey. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
“On country”. A reflection of ancestral ties
In Sainte-Anne Church, Arles’ former archaeological museum from1825 to1995, curators Elias Redstone, Kimberley Moulton (Yorta Yorta), Pippa Milne and Brendan McCleary present “On Country: Australian photography”, co-produced by Les Rencontres d’Arles and PHOTO Australia. “Country” is a term used by Australia’s First Peoples to express a spiritual and cultural connection to land, water, sky and ancestors. Being “on Country” means embodying a place, bearing its memory and assuming its responsibility. Featuring both Indigenous and nonIndigenous artists such as Ying Ang, Michael Cook, Liss Fenwick, Tace Stevens, Robert Fielding and Elisa Jane Carmichael, the exhibition moves away from ethnographic perspectives to show photography as a tool for self-expression and transmission. It highlights the resilience of First Nations cultures despite two centuries of colonisation and offers new narratives of identity and future across a land home to over 250language groups.
“On country: Australian photography” Until 5October
Sainte-Anne Church 8 place de la République Arles. www.rencontres-arles.com
“Yves Saint Laurent and photography”. An intimate relationship between fashion and photography
Long regarded as secondary to fine art photography, fashion photography emerged in the 20th century as a distinct genre at the intersection of aesthetics, advertising and staging of clothing. It became a vital medium for shaping and disseminating designers’ images. The exhibition “Yves Saint
Light show, dekotora meeting, Aichi, Japan (2024), Louise
Laurent and photography” explores the couturier’s close relationship with this visual art form, through the eyes of some of the century’s most influential photographers. Curated by Simon Baker and Elsa Janssen, with scientific curatorship by Serena Bucalo-Mussely assisted by Nastasia Alberti and Clémentine Cuinet, the exhibition unfolds in two complementary sections. The first brings together over 80works tracing the chronological evolution of fashion imagery and iconic portraits, such as those by Irving Penn in1957 and Patrick Demarchelier in2004. The second, conceived as a cabinet of curiosities, presents around 200items from the archives of Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, including contact sheets, publicity notebooks, campaign catalogues, press clippings or personal photographs. Yves Saint Laurent made photography a language in its own right, placing it at the heart of his creative vision. He collaborated with major figures such as Cecil Beaton, William Klein, Helmut Newton, Sarah Moon, Robert Doisneau and Andy Warhol, among others.
“Yves Saint Laurent and photography” Until 5October Mécanique générale 33 avenue Victor Hugo. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
“U.S.Route1”, Berenice Abbott, Anna Fox and Karen Knorr. Crossing the country, crossing time
From2016 to2024, Anna Fox and Karen Knorr travelled the 3,800kilometres of U.S.Route1, from Fort Kent in northern Maine to the Florida Keys. Their journey was far from arbitrary, it retraced the path of Berenice Abbott, who
3 questions to… Jean-Michel André
What led you to create your project, “Room 207”, which you are presenting in Arles this year?
On 5August1983, during a family stopover on the way to our holiday, my father was murdered along with six others in a hotel in Avignon. The case has never been fully solved. Investigators considered three possible explanations. My father, a diplomat, might have been a target. They also explored a financial motive involving the hotel manager. Media settled on the theory of a robbery gone wrong but, in the end, none of these hypotheses proved truly convincing.
Two key moments prompted me to start this project. The first came in2012, when I became a father myself. I realised my daughter would one day ask about her grandfather. Yet, after the trauma of that night, I suffered complete amnesia. I started researching the event and my father’s life as I could no longer remember him. Then, in2013, the daughter of his partner at the time —whom I call O.— got in touch. I had only seen her twice, the day before and the day after the tragedy. I was seven; she was seventeen. Unlike me, she remembered everything. In our email exchanges, which I include in the project, she describes how we heard the noises, saw the bodies and how the police came to question us…
How did the idea of building a photographic project around this tragedy come about?
I delved into press archives and the judicial investigation as well as family photo albums and vernacular photographs since I had no memories left. I picked up the project again in2020, photographing places I might have visited with my father — Senegal, Germany, Avignon and others. The work revolves around a reconstructed, reinvented memory. It is a photographic collection that touches on mourning and liberation. Photography becomes a restorative tool, allowing us to transcend horror.
What message would you like to convey?
At the heart of this project lies hope. Of course, trauma sits at its origin, but the initial search for truth quickly became a quest for release. The project is as much about reconstruction as it is about re-enactment. I also question the limits of the image. What can we show? Why? How? And for whom? All these questions surround the dramatisation of news stories. I deliberately avoid pathos and spectacle. What I highlight is a journey of repair. How can one transform horror into a work of art? That, too, is the power of art in general and photography in particular.
in1954 followed the same road with her assistants Damon and Sara Gadd. The American photographer documented a landscape reshaped by the rise of the automobile and the growing standardisation of the built environment. Her project, long confined to a maquette due to the patriarchal structures of the photographic world, was only brought to light in2013. Sixty
years later, Fox and Knorr revived this journey: “We wanted to do a contemporary and collaborative road trip,” they explain. Their photographs draw a critical portrait of present-day America, addressing national policies, the marginalisation of minorities, healthcare access, gun rights or police violence, among others. They also observe the rise
of tourism and real estate development, as well as how poverty is increasingly pushed out of sight. Under the Trump presidency, they noticed the spread of campaign signs, verging on propaganda, across private gardens and empty plains. “The storm is coming,” they warn. Curated by Gaëlle Morel, the exhibition brings together 88images by the three photographers, forming a visual dialogue across time. Colour photographs on painted walls, black and white prints paired with extracts from Abbott’s journal, the display “connects the local to the global,” past to present.
“U.S.Route1”
Until 5October Palais de l’Archevêché 35 place de la République Arles. www.rencontres-arles.com
“In the place of others”, Claudia Andujar. Witness to margins
Presented at Maison des peintres, Claudia Andujar’s exhibition “In the place of others” is the first international retrospective dedicated exclusively to the work she produced in Brazil during the1960s and1970s, prior to her involvement with the Yanomami people. Born in1931 in Neuchâtel to a Jewish and Protestant family, Claudia Andujar grew up in Transylvania and survived the Holocaust. She settled in São Paulo in1955, where she began a photographic career marked by her focus on vulnerable communities, a strong affinity with humanist photography and a graphic approach that went beyond realism. Curated by Thyago Nogueira, the exhibition is the result of two years of archival research and brings together the series Famílias brasileiras (1962-1964), her photo
Associated Arles
As part of the Associated Arles programme, institutions, museums, festivals and collectives join the Rencontres d’Arles to present exhibitions in resonance with the festival’s main programme. At Croisière, in collaboration with Association du Méjan, four artists brought together by Pierre Starobinski explore intimacy, body and image: in “No day without night”, Olivier Christinat brings together image and text. With “Faceless”, Sarah Carp transforms family memories into theatrical scenes. Keight presents a photographic narrative following the sudden loss of his brother in “Metadiscovery”. Finally, Augustin Rebetez unveils a “Primitive manifesto”, sculpting a total world infused with magic and defiance. At Vague, Kyotographie festival presents, for the first time in Europe, Kikuji Kawada’s three major series — The map, The last cosmology and The caprices — a meditation on memory and time. LUMA pays tribute to David Armstrong with an exhibition conceived by Wade Guyton and Matthieu Humery, fifteen years after his work was first shown in Arles by Nan Goldin. Musée départemental Arles antique marks the 30th anniversary of its iconic building with “Le Musée bleu. An architecture in the color of time”, in partnership with the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine. Musée de la Camargue presents “Atlas and herbarium of Camargue” [seeboxp.78], a series of botanical cyanotypes produced between2019 and2024 under the direction of Anne Fourès and Estelle Rouquette. Musée Réattu hosts the largest monographic exhibition ever devoted to Béatrice Helg, whose work merges photography, sculpture and light. The MYOP agency celebrates twenty years of documentary photography with a group exhibition bringing together the perspectives of twenty committed photographers over two decades of contemporary history, including Ed Alcock, Guillaume Binet, Julien Daniel and Agnès Dherbeys, among others.
Grand Arles Express
From Aix-en-Provence to Marseille, via Nîmes, Rognes, Carros or Port-deBouc, Grand Arles Express offers a photographic journey across eight cities in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Occitanie regions. Conceived as an extension of Rencontres de la Photographie, this off-site programme explores social memory, intimate narratives and changing landscapes. In Aix-en-Provence, “Exteriors — Annie Ernaux and Photography” brings the author’s words into dialogue with everyday images from the collection of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. This attention to memory also runs through “Carros in light” at CIAC, where documentary photographs from the1980s meet contemporary creations. In Marseille, “The warp thread” solo exhibition by Éléonore False at FRAC Sud weaves a language between textiles, image and perception, while the Centre photographique Marseille hosts “Lost and found” by the duo Elsa and Johanna, offering an immersive nostalgic fiction. This same interplay between presence and illusion continues in La Celle with “Utopia”, where Georges Rousse transforms the abbey’s architecture into photographic mirages, playing with light, material and the memory of place. In Nîmes, Carré d’Art presents a retrospective of Ivens Machado, bringing together performance, raw materials and corporeal memory. In Port-de-Bouc, “And don’t come telling us that the wind blows everything away” reveals the poetic potential of a shoreline shaped by both industrial and personal narratives. Finally, in Rognes, “Losing time” blends sound, text, scent and image in a collective sensory experience that questions our perception of time and the memory of spaces.
essays for the magazine Realidade (1966-1971), A Sônia (1971), Rua Direita (c.1970) and her early journeys into the Amazon (1970-1972). It sheds light on a largely unseen period of her work, before the pivotal moment of her encounter with the Yanomami in1971.
“In the place of others”
Until 5October
Maison des Peintres 45boulevard Émile-Combes Arles. www.rencontres-arles.com
“Eileen Gray/Le Corbusier, [E-1027+123]”, Stéphane Couturier. Fragments of architecture in motion
VillaE-1027 carries a truly eventful history. Designed in1926 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin by Irish designer Eileen Gray and architect Jean Badovici, it was abandoned a decade later by its creator. Jean Badovici then invited Le Corbusier to take over the site, where the latter produced eight mural
compositions. This modernist building, which had fallen into dereliction by the late1990s, underwent two major phases of restoration between1999 and2021 before becoming a site open to visitors. Isolated in a natural setting not far from Arles, it takes its name from a code made up of its creators’ initials: Efor Eileen, 10forJ (Jean), 2forB (Badovici) and 7forG (Gray). Stéphane Couturier draws upon this same code in the title of his exhibition, “Eileen Gray/ LeCorbusier, [E-1027+123]”, where 12and3 refer to the initials of LeCorbusier. Through photography, the artist composes a visual reading of the site, merging temporalities and perspectives. In an artistic synthesis, he overlays LeCorbusier’s murals with the lines of Eileen Gray’s furniture, blends interior architecture with the surrounding landscape and plays with transparency, reflection and disjunction. “I put photography to the test of figuration and temporality,” he explains, assigning the image the power to convey a shifting, unstable and ephemeral
“Black is beautiful”
Before it became a universal slogan, “Black is beautiful” was first a way of seeing. That of Kwame Brathwaite (1938-2023), a New York based photographer who devoted his life to celebrating Black beauty in all its power and diversity. Centre de la photographie de Mougins pays tribute to him with the first European retrospective of his work, presented as part of the Grand Arles Express. Co-founder of AJASS and the Grandassa Models collective, Kwame Brathwaite developed an autonomous Black aesthetic as early as the 1960s, drawing inspiration from the ideas of Marcus Garvey and Carlos Cooks. His photographs weave together culture, music, political activism and pride in identity. From concerts at the Apollo to Pan-African tours, he accompanied the voices that shaped history, including Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Bob Marley, among others. His images, both archival and declarative, resonate today as powerful affirmations of self-determination. They are held in major collections, from MoMA to the Whitney Museum.
“Black is beautiful” Until 5October Centre de la photographie de Mougins 43 rue de l’Église. Mougins www.centrephotographiemougins.com
reality between document and fiction. Presented at Montmajour Abbey, the exhibition establishes a dialogue between “two timeless places,” both managed by the Centre des monuments nationaux.
“Eileen Gray/Le Corbusier, [E-1027+123]”
Until 5October
Montmajour Abbey
Route de Fontvieille. Arles
www.rencontres-arles.com
“Wild”, Laurence Kubski. On the edge of wildness
In2024, selected for the 14th Fribourg Photographic Survey —a government-led initiative to build a contemporary photographic heritage of the canton— Laurence Kubski returned to the land of her childhood to conduct a year-long investigation into human-wildlife relationships. Through her project, she explores “microcultures around species within the boundaries of a territory.” Hunting practices under quotas, wildlife ranger surveillance, artisanal taxidermy, volunteer veterinary care, drone use to detect fawns or bird ringing, Laurence Kubski portrays a fauna under control, between monitoring, regulation and fascination. To this documentary approach, the photographer adds a personal dimension, marked by memories of her rural childhood, blending intimate recollection, fiction and direct observation. “Does wildness without human contact still exist?”, she asks. In the book Wild, published at the end of the project, historian Valérie Chansigaud writes: “Wildness thus becomes one of the norms of the world around us, norms we continuously produce.” The exhibition “Wild”, held in the Ancien Collège Mistral, features a display free from chronology or hierarchy, encouraging a “fragmentation of
subjects.” Particular attention is given to presentation methods, using woven straw frames, a technique now almost extinct.
“Wild”
Until 5October
Former Mistral School 2 rue Condorcet. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
“Octahydra”, Batia Suter. Architectures of memory
Presented in the Cryptoportiques of Arles, Batia Suter’s installation Octahydra unfolds within a structure designed by architect Sami Rintala. The work takes the form of a monumental montage of digitally altered images, sourced from books, encyclopaedias and vintage magazines. Through this visual narrative, the artist explores the emotional resonance of images and their ability to generate meaning outside their original context: “What interests me,” she explains, “is what happens to images when you change their context.” By juxtaposing artefacts, monumental buildings and modest constructions, Batia Suter questions architectural memory and its connection to imagination. For her, these photographic archives are “prototypes of themes relating to human thought and the workings of imagination.” The title Octahydra, derived from an earlier version entitled Octahedral in Norway, refers to molecular structure and its transformative potential: “Nothing has a final form,” the artist notes. This principle of deconstruction runs throughout the installation,
which resists linear or time-bound interpretation. By linking the archaic to the banal, the mystical to the domestic, Batia Suter constructs a mental and sensory space where images activate both memory and imagination. She creates a “dialogue with space” that restores to images their power of fiction, emotion and collective projection.
“Octahydra”
Until 5October Cryptoportiques
Arles Town Hall. Place de la République Arles. www.rencontres-arles.com
“Only you can complete me”, Louise Mutrel. Passion, daily exaltation
Through a series of thirty photographs, Louise Mutrel immerses us in the Sunday gatherings of dekotoras, elaborately decorated trucks that emerged in1970s Japan. For their drivers, often manual labourers or road workers, these vehicles become objects of pride, care and spirituality. “There is a deeper dimension to hobbies in Japan,” she explains. During a six-month residency at Villa Kujoyama, the artist observed, documented and photographed the practices of Art Truck Clubs, which gather to parade and share their passion. “I attended one club’s first meeting of the year, held in a Shinto temple, where a ceremony was performed to bless the trucks.” These mobile sculptures often feature sacred and protective figures such as Niō, the temple guardians, Ebisu, the god of the sea, or Hannya, the demon of nō theatre. Through tight framing, unexpected angles and saturated colours, Louise Mutrel captures the sensory intensity of these moments. The installation in the Summer garden recreates the experience of these gatherings, as if one were “moving from truck to truck.” The exhibition’s title, “Only you can complete me”, is taken from a slogan painted on one of the dekotoras. For the artist, these words evoke “a conversation, an intimate, almost romantic address between the truck and its owner.”
“Only you can complete me”
Until 5October
Summer garden
Boulevard des Lices. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
Costume worn by Zizi Jeanmaire, designed by Yves Saint Laurent for the show Zizi, I love you (1972), Jeanloup Sieff
Four exhibitions at Rencontres d'Arles elucidate the breadth and originality of Brazil’s contributions to photographic arts over the past century.
If there is a difference between photojournalists and photographic artists, it lies in their intentions. Photojournalists intend to capture reality — to point a lens at whatever is happening so everyone else can see it as truthfully as possible. The intentions of photographic artists are more particular. Each has their own reasons for making images and conveying an individual perspective tends to be more valuable than asserting a universal truth.
Perspective takes centre stage in a suite of exhibitions highlighting Brazilian photographic arts at the 2025edition of the Rencontres d’Arles. Brazil has long been a battleground in a culture war, in which photography is a weapon of choice. On one side are colonisers and elites who use photography to codify their limited version of history, which usually glorifies their ambitions and hides their sins. On the other side are those whose stories and perspectives have been sidelined or erased by so-called official photographic accounts of history. Brazilian photographic artists featured at this year’s Rencontres d’Arles are on that side of the battle. Their work pushes back against elitist and colonial power structures, offering evidence of how complex and multi-faceted Brazil’s true history is.
“Many Brazilian photographers today are using their images to retell the histories of the country, of themselves and of their communities,” says Thyago Nogueira, head of the Contemporary Art and Photography Department at Instituto Moreira Salles and founding editor of ZUM magazine. Nogueira curates the exhibition “Ancestral
futures”, which features the work of more than a dozen Brazilian artists and collectives whose work subverts traditional perspectives on Brazil.
“The show also maps a visual dynamic that is new in Brazil, in which artists have been working with archives, using them to produce new images, Nogueira says. Many of these artists come from backgrounds that were erased, not presented or were marginalised in the broader telling of the history of Brazil.” By building new images from existing images, modifying or re-contextualising photographs in historical archives, these artists are able to propose what Nogueira calls “new histories”. These new histories can form foundations upon which unexpected futures can be built.
Mayara Ferrão’s work is particularly illustrative of Nogueira’s concept. An Afro-Indigenous artist, Ferrão has been researching photographic archives that document the lives of enslaved Black women, her ancestors. “She is sure that some of the women were in love with each other, that there was affection
between enslaved people, who also had kids and that they had a life that was not only about oppression,” Nogueira says. But, he says, there are no photographs showing those aspects of their lives. The enslavers and colonisers only took photographs that reinforced their own stereotypes about enslaved people and Indigenous people as objects of amazement or objectification. With no photographic equipment of their own, enslaved and Indigenous people had no means to photograph themselves. This is why the only record that exists is that of the oppressors.
Ferrão exposes the falseness of that record by using generative artificial intelligence tools to create new images that perfectly resemble the photographs the oppressors took. These new images show the richness of her ancestor’s lives. They show women in love and people experiencing affection, tranquility and joy within their community. In one sense, Ferrão is making historical deep fakes. Her intention, after all, is to convince people to rethink what they think they know, similar to the intention of a conspiracy theorist or propagandist. The difference is that Ferrão is honest about her fiction. She acknowledges up front that what we are looking at is not a real photograph from the past but a constructed image that shows a “truer” truth than the lies in the official archives.
Several other artists featured in “Ancestral futures” also deploy new technologies such as AI in their work. Some collage digital images from materials sourced from the Internet. Others foster imagery from Pop culture or Hollywood films. Their approaches are perhaps controversial, especially in the case of AI. Nogueira says that is part of the point he wants to make with the exhibition. “You cannot challenge
history and rethink the past without also challenging forms of visual production and photography itself, he says. The idea is to show not only how these artists are bringing home these new histories, but also how they are creating other forms of image making. We are looking at the new generation and also challenging how Brazil is presenting itself. They are not necessarily photographers, because they do not go click to use photography as a window to the world. They build images from other images, to make sense from a combination of different narratives that have never been articulated together.”
It is also important to Nogueira that many of the artists he curated into “Ancestral futures” are part of the Afro-Brazilian, Indigenous or LGBTQ communities. “They do not come from a traditional western White perspective, he says, which makes them more aware, to see things we do not normally see and think about things we do not normally think about. This is a strong movement in Brazil. It is making us rethink our institutions. This is why I proposed it to Arles. What a festival should do is push forward these ideas and be on the frontline of image making. We need to see what is new, what is being articulated — not only the
“Te lobster war”
Photography is traditionally seen by the public as a medium that captures reality or at least a cropped version of it. More than ever, however, a sense of skepticism overshadows whatever truth photographs allegedly convey. Deep fakes are commonplace and even children have the tools and skills to turn a photograph into a lie. “The lobster war” exhibition takes this atmosphere of contemporary photo-skepticism into account, and uses it “to question our relationship with history, war and national myths.”
The exhibition grew out of a curatorial research project between curator and art critic Jean-Yves Jouannais, artist and teacher Mabe Bethônico, scenographer Elizabeth Guyon and a group of students from the École nationale supérieure de la photographie local to Arles. It imagines a speculative past or alternate history, in which lobster-based cultural trends spread across the world following a real political and military dispute between Brazil and France in the1960s over lobster fishing.
The actual Lobster war began when Brazil took measures to restrict French lobster boats from operating within its territorial waters. French officials saw this as illegal because they said lobsters swim. Brazil disagreed, saying lobsters walk and might hop, but never swim. The dispute was quickly resolved and mostly forgotten. “The lobster war” exhibition asks what if it was not forgotten? What if it reverberated throughout the culture, influencing fashion trends, festivals, propaganda, religion and art?
The exhibition might confuse viewers or even seem like a joke. Yet some might walk away from it believing what it claims to document is all true. It begs the question — how reliable are any official accounts of history, especially when we are seemingly faced with photographic proof?
“The lobster war”
Until 5 October ENSP
30 avenue Victor Hugo. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
Brooch (detail, 2025), Thomas Bouniol, Célia de Feral, Teva Lan-Yeung, Denis Valery Ndayishimiye, Maria Teresa Neira Barres, Mélina Rard, Joffrey Sebault and Jacinta
historical great masters but the new generations that are responsible for putting new questions to a conversation.”
At the same time, Nogueira is also aware that the work of past generations of Brazilian photographic artists has not yet received the international attention he feels it deserves. For this reason, he curated a second exhibition for this year’s Rencontres d’Arles focusing entirely on the work of Claudia Andujar, a 93-year-old Swiss-born Brazilian photographer
and activist. Andujar is an influential advocate for the sovereignty and rights of the Yanomami people, an Indigenous community native to the Amazon rainforest. “She is a very important person in Brazil, as far as making space for vulnerable communities,” Nogueira says.
She moved to São Paulo in1954 and spent the next two decades photographing Brazilian life. Her pictures captured the humanity and vulnerability of her subjects and clearly advocated for environmental issues. Andujar later transitioned
“Construction deconstruction reconstruction”
The first time mass audiences outside of Brazil became acquainted with the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB) was when the Museum of Modern Art in New York held the group’s first museum exhibition outside of Brazil, in2021. The FCCB was founded in São Paulo in1939 and officially defined itself as an amateur photography club. Yet, these so-called amateurs demonstrated an undeniably high level of mastery and imagination. FCCB members were experimental, abstract and had an eye for the profundity hiding in plain sight in their Modern world.
The group’s achievements remain little known internationally. “Construction deconstruction reconstruction” aims to change that by bringing the works of 33FCCB photographers to the Rencontres d’Arles for the first time. Considered solely within the context of photography, the FCCB’s work seems surprisingly contemporary. When also considered in the broader context of other mediums such as painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and filmmaking, for which Brazil is widely recognised, it is clear that these photographic artists were visionaries who saw beyond their time.
In addition to simply sharing that under-appreciated legacy with contemporary audiences, “Construction deconstruction reconstruction” also asks what defines an amateur? Today, when almost anyone has access to a camera and editing software, tens of millions of new photographs are taken every day. It is becoming more difficult to ascertain which images were taken by amateurs, which were taken by professionals and which were created by AI. The members of the FCCB may have considered themselves as ordinary as people who are walking around with phone cameras today. The quality of their work, however, shows that there are qualities that set great photographs apart. What makes the difference between an amateur and a professional is not a university degree or a license, but sensibility, imagination and an artist’s eye.
“Construction deconstruction reconstruction”
Until 5 October
La mécanique générale
33 avenue Victor Hugo. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
away from full time photography, becoming a full time activist and political organiser. In his exhibition at Arles, Nogueira brings together several photographic series Adujar created in those early decades of her life in Brazil, including Brazilian families (1962-1964), photographs taken while Andujar lived for days or sometimes weeks with various families; A Sônia, photographs that reflects upon womanhood (1971); Rua fireita, Andujar’s street photography series (c.1970); images she took for Realidade magazine (1966-1971) and her early photographs of life in the Amazon rainforest (1970-1972). “I am proposing to understand the initial years of Andujar’s career, Nogueira says. She is someone descended from holocaust survivors. She moved to Brazil and took up photography and connected to people in a deep way, giving space to their frailty and their humanity. The exhibition maps different ideas she developed around photography and society, and how those ideas were articulated.”
In addition to the two exhibitions Nogueira curated, Rencontres d’Arles2025 features two other exhibitions centred around Brazilian photography. One is a conceptual exhibition called “The lobster war” [seeboxp.46], which uses staged imagery to superimpose a speculative cultural impact upon an actual historical event. The other is a group exhibition titled “Construction deconstruction reconstruction” [seebox], which features the work of an amateur photography club founded in1939, known as the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB). This exhibition demonstrates the profound impact the FCCB had on the development of Brazil’s avant-garde in the 20th century. As with Nogueira’s exhibitions, “The lobster war” and “Construction deconstruction reconstruction” approach history from the different perspectives of speculation and fact. They show that Brazil is a place of contradiction and imagination, where the past as well as the future has yet to be defined.
Seven exhibitions at Rencontres d’Arles2025 explore contemporary perspectives on family, examining parenthood, sisterhood and the constructed kinships of twerkers and voguers.
Some people say family is not a natural human state, but a social construct — something with symbolic rather than objective meaning. But connections between people are universal. Those connections are the foundations of kinship —a sharing of blood, origins, characteristics or sensibilities— and family is just another word for kin. What are social constructs, however, are the definitions various cultures invent for family. For example, more and more societies around the world are attempting to codify a family as one woman, one man and their natural offspring.
Such limited conceptions of kinship are challenged by the Families stories section of the 2025Rencontres d’Arles, which features seven exhibitions that elucidate a liberated concept of family. Each in their own way, the artists behind these exhibitions assert their natural freedom to shape and reshape their families. They propose a cultural condition in which people have agency to embrace personal, unrestrained and fluid ideas about who they choose to call their kin.
bonds
Two of the artists featured in the Families stories section address fatherhood, but in different ways. Camille Lévêque’s exhibition “In search of the father” approaches the topic from a broad, communal perspective. Over more than a decade, Lévêque has accumulated a substantial archive of photographic images that offer glimpses of fatherhood. Some of these images came from photo albums scavenged from thrift stores. Others came from Internet searches.
Some were sent to her from strangers she contacted online. She has simultaneously gathered written testimonies from people around the world documenting their various perspectives on what fatherhood means. By bringing these images and texts together and in some cases intervening with them, Lévêque exposes and critiques the tropes of fatherhood, including the expectations children and society place on fathers, and that fathers place on themselves. A range of emotions, from sadness and disappointment to whimsy and humour, co-exist in Lévêque’s work, as she alludes to the sober suggestion that contemporary notions of fatherhood are irreparably saddled with unreachable and often absurd demands.
Diana Markosian takes a more individualised approach to fatherhood in her exhibition “Father”. She invites viewers inside of her years-long personal journey to reconnect with her own father after she was separated from him as a child. When she was seven
Parental
FOCUS
years old, she was whisked away from her family home in Russia by her mother in the middle of the night. They relocated to Santa Barbara, California, a place that held a mythical countenance in Markosian’s imagination thanks to the popular TV show of the same name that was popular in Russia at the time. Markosian’s father, meanwhile, had no idea where his wife and child had gone. He searched for them but came up empty. After more than a decade, Markosian tracked her father down and the two reconnected. The exhibition, which includes photographs, a complementary publication and a film, documents the physical and emotional complexity of their reconciliation.
In the exhibition “Alma”, Keisha Scarville explores her journey of grief and acceptance after her mother died. Scarville’s relationship with her mother did not end with her mother’s death. It took on a new dimension, in some ways more complicated and nuanced. One of the heaviest ways her mother lingered in her life was through the possessions she left behind — especially her clothes. Mobilising those clothes as costumes, shrouds, decoration and regalia, Scarville composed the series of self portraits that are on view in “Alma”. By reanimating these fabrics that her mother had once worn, she formed a new connection with her presence, at the same time as being overcome by her absence. Loaded with emotion, tenderness and exquisite beauty, Scarville’s portraits feel ghostly and yet alive.
Sister families
The concept of sisterhood is examined and expanded in “Women, sisters”, a solo exhibition of the work of photographer Erica Lennard. The curation is founded on Lennard’s relationship with her biological sister Elizabeth,
who appears as a model in many of the photographs. It then expands to include intimate photographic portraits that Lennard took of other women, including friends and professional associates. These were Lennard’s found and chosen sisters, whose spirit and body both were captured in her photographs. Lennard’s œuvre is notable not only for the technical prowess she wielded but for the unconventional eye she had for composition and light. Her ability to convey the depth of the personal connection
she shared with her subjects communicates the kinship she and her sisters, born or chosen, shared.
Exhibition “Double” further elaborates on notions of sisterhood by connecting two female photographers of different generations. Carol Newhouse is a founding member of the WomanShare Collective, a lesbian feminist collective established in Oregon in1974. She has been a leading figure in the Feminist photography community for more
3 questions to… Diana Markosian
Exhibition “Father” at Rencontres d’Arles tells the story of Diana Markosian’s reconnection with her long estranged dad. When she was seven years old, Markosian was whisked away from her native Russia to California by her mother in the middle of the night. After more than a decade without contact with him, Markosian embarked on a long and difficult journey to find and reconnect with her father, who it turned out had been looking for her, too. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication and documentary film, which together explore the nature of absence, estrangement and reconciliation.
How did you begin expressing yourself through photography?
My entry point to photography was writing. That has anchored me as a storyteller. I started photographing when I was 20. I wanted to see the world and found photography by chance. It became my purpose. My compass to the world. I no longer felt lost or alone. In time, it evolved into something deeper: a way to express the parts of myself I could not put into words. I see photography as a way of reconnecting. It allows me to explore my inner world. I shoot both digital and film. I want to keep evolving — whether it is film, photography or something else.
How did you decide to do this project about reconnecting with your father?
I found my father in my twenties and the experience was overwhelming. I did not know how to make sense of it all. In the confusion, I turned to photography — not just as an outlet, but as a way of finding my way back to him. Back to a culture and a country I had lost in childhood. In many ways, photography became the support I never knew I needed. It gave me something steady to hold onto while I tried to reconnect with pieces of myself I thought were gone.
How did you use light to tell the story of your reunion with your father?
The way I photographed my father mirrored my inner world — shaped by sadness, grief and a deep sense of loss. For much of that decade, I was working through those emotions, trying to come to terms with the reality of meeting the man who was supposed to be my father. The feelings ran deep, often beyond words. The photographs I made are only fragments — small expressions of an experience that felt so overwhelming.
than 50years. Carmen Winant is an artist and educator who became acquainted with Newhouse’s work while researching the bedrock years of Feminist philosophy and art. Winant reached out to Newhouse to initiate a creative dialogue. Their conversations yielded the photographic collaboration that gave this exhibition its name. Over the course of a year the two shot rolls of pictures that they then sent to the other, who then exposed the same film with pictures of their own. These double exposures mingle unexpectedly, like improvised harmonies, stretching notions of content and authorship while offering a new idea of what sisterhood can mean.
Chosen kin
Chosen families do not only have to include the living. They can also include people from other eras. Nan Goldin’s slideshow Stendhal syndrome [seeboxp.96], which earned her the 2025 Kering Women in motion award for the Rencontres d’Arles, depicts an extended family Golden has constructed from both present and past. The title refers to a condition in which someone experiences an intense physical or emotional reaction from an encounter with something beautiful. It is named after author Marie-Henri Beyle, whose pen name was Stendhal, and who went into a fit of ecstasy while visiting the Basilica of Santa Croce. “Stendhal syndrome ” expresses the ecstatic beauty Golden finds in art history and in her contemporary friends and lovers — who she photographed in poses evocative of beloved Classical, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces. Golden’s images suggest her chosen family has existed forever, re-manifesting throughout eras and that she is also a member of an artistic family that has existed since ancient times.
Lila Neutre’s exhibition “Dancing on ashes (Open fire)” documents the
constructed kinships she found while documenting members of the twerking and voguing communities. Both communities, she says, are loci for “popular, aesthetic and political struggle”. Neutre’s perspective is nurtured by her research into the history of these cultural traditions. Twerking, she notes, evolved out of centuries of African diasporic dance practices. Voguing, meanwhile, represents a still-evolving amalgam of fashion show aesthetics and club dance culture, especially popular within the LGBTQ and Drag communities. Neutre captures her subjects in a mixture of posed and spontaneous photographs. “Dancing on ashes (Open fire)” offers compelling evidence that the social bonds that define and uplift these two chosen families go beyond what the camera sees.
In search of the father
French photographer Camille Lévêque has been asking questions about fatherhood for more than a decade. Her questions were inspired by complications she experienced within her relationship with her own father — complications exacerbated by his death. Her search for answers sent her scouring through physical and digital archives of photographs people took of, and with, their fathers. She reached out to strangers asking for them to share their testimonies about having fathers or being fathers. Each inquisition brought as many new questions as answers.
From this vast source material, Lévêque has accumulated a visual and written chronicle she believes identifies something essential or universal about fatherhood, or about society’s various definitions and expectations of it. She shares her research in the exhibition “In search of the father” at Rencontres d’Arles2025.
Lévêque’s images expose the many tropes of masculinity that so often shape how fathers present themselves to society. Written interviews from various fathers accompanying these images offer support of, and counterpoints to, those tropes. Are fathers supposed to be powerful protectors? Wise educators? Stern authoritarians? Do they have a choice not to be those things? As society evolves, are fathers able to adjust their approaches and expand the definition of their role? Can patriarchy ever come to mean something positive or is the word doomed to evoke oppression? Even when a man strives towards an idealistic or altruistic vision of fatherhood at its best, what are the consequences if they fail in their children’s, or society’s, eyes?
“In search of the father” addresses these questions in ways that are simultaneously whimsical and terrifying. The whimsy comes from the ways Lévêque’s images and words poke fun at society’s simplified vision of masculinity through the role of fatherhood. Terror comes from the same place.
Through Kourtney Roy’s cinematic lens, glamorous yet trashy dreams unfold.
Born in Canada in1981, Kourtney Roy has established herself in contemporary photography with an aesthetic that blends glamour, kitsch and cinematic flair. Often featuring herself in her work, she portrays characters who exist in a hyperreal yet unsettling reality. Alongside her photography, she also identifies herself as an independent filmmaker.
It is exciting to see The tourist at Rencontres d’Arles.
What was your creative approach for this series? How did this come about?
It happened quite naturally. My gallery had been following the scene in Arles for some time and several people recommended exhibiting my work. The festival expressed interest in The tourist series [seeboxp.63] and everything unfolded from there. I never actually asked their reasons for selecting that series — I was just happy they did! Regarding the scenography, there are around 25to30images, including 20framed prints, large-scale wallpapers and window stickers. Most framed works were created for a previous show but my gallery added new elements for this presentation. They proposed a layout that I immediately approved: it begins with bright yellow tones and gradually shifts to cooler ocean blues, evoking a journey from morning to evening. The painted walls follow this gradient, creating an immersive atmosphere.
Well, I did not start with a specific message. Instead, I just envisioned a woman who enjoys swimming pools, plastic, heavy makeup, drinking and peroxide hair. She embodies a somewhat trashy and exaggerated persona. My focus was
primarily on creating an atmosphere and I developed a character that resonated with that essence.
So the character came before the narrative…
Yes, absolutely. The character is central to my work — she even appears in other series, like Trashissima. In that series, she adopts a slightly different form, set in Italy, embracing a touch of vulgarity and exaggerated kitsch: loud colours, modern clichés and a baroque sense of extravagance. She evolves with each series, yet her essence remains unchanged. In The tourist, I imagined her as someone you would find in places like Cancún or Miami — excessively sunny and colourful, almost bordering on the absurd. It is like a fake holiday photo album from a trip no one truly wanted to experience… but I undertook it for you. I love inhabiting her persona and allowing her to transform across different contexts.
Is it a dream world for her?
It is a dream world that has become real through photography. Holidays
Naquin and Nahir Fuente
Marilyn wig (The tourist, detail, 2019-2020), Kourtney Roy
Kryptic is Kourtney Roy’s first feature film — a surreal story born from the artist’s desire to translate her vivid photography into cinematic forms. Developed in close collaboration with British screenwriter Paul Bromley, the film merges Roy’s fascination with kitsch aesthetics, ambiguous narratives and psychological isolation. At its core, Kryptic follows a woman entangled with a mysterious monster, though Roy resists defining the plot too precisely and describes it as a “weird story”. Kryptic is a cryptic journey that unfolds like a cinematic extension of her photography, focusing more on mood and tension than linear storytelling.
Roy conceived the monster concept herself and collaborated with Bromley for over a year to shape the screenplay. Shot over a month in Canada with a full production team, Kryptic marks a shift from Roy’s previous short films, which she characterises as more “rock and roll” and improvised. Despite her background in photography, Roy embraced the collaborative nature of filmmaking, relinquishing control over cinematography to Director of Photography David Bird, whom she praises for the film’s stylised look.
Drawing on influences from the 1990sglam and trash aesthetics, Kryptic is visually saturated and emotionally strange. Although rooted in her visual universe, the film leverages the immersive potential of cinema, offering viewers a deeper exploration of Roy’s imagination.
“Te tourist”
Kourtney Roy’s photographic series debuts for the first time in France at the former Mistral school. The exhibition showcases around 25to30pieces, including 20framed prints, large-scale wallpapers and window stickers, which together explore the archetype of a flamboyant and extravagant tourist. The series centres on a single character — a woman who embodies a theatrical persona with heavy makeup, peroxide hair and a love for swimming pools and plastic accessories. Through this character, Roy depicts a sense of psychological isolation, portraying someone who lives within her own fantasies. As the series progresses, Roy introduces additional characters to explore more complex interactions and relationships within this universe. Drawing inspiration from cinematic references, particularly from the1990s, films such as Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Showgirls and Leaving Las Vegas have influenced the series’ trashy yet glamorous aesthetic, shaping the tone and visual language of The tourist. Alongside the exhibition, The tourist series is also published in a book edited by André Frère, offering a deeper insight into the artist’s exploration of identity and the spectacle of tourism.
“The tourist”
Until 5 October Former Mistral School 2 rue Condorcet. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
represent a singular, imagined universe that you can immerse yourself in. Unlike books or films, a holiday allows you to live your dreams. However, reality often falls short of our expectations, which is why we capture snaps: to shape a version of reality that aligns with our imagination. In my work, I embody different people, live out their dreams and inhabit alternative worlds. This is the essence of my self-portraits — a desire to exist within the artistic realms I create and to belong to them entirely. After completing the work, I always carry something from each of these worlds. There is a personal connection between me and the characters I bring to life. They are aspects of my identity, influencing one another, making it a deeply internal experience rather than an entirely external one.
Why Cancún and Miami in particular?
These locations inspired me to craft this series, as I imagined where these stereotypical individuals would go on holiday. I thought of Cancún as a popular destination for American women’s holidays and spring breakers, as the weather is pleasant and it is affordable. As I continued the series, I also included Miami, which is somewhat different from Cancún, featuring a retro vibe and a softer pastel feel. To me, these two destinations are like sisters; they are different, but at the same time, they reflect the bling bling of the bodysuits by the sea, the poolside, the sunshine, the tans, the artificial nails, the stylish swimwear…
Do you improvise your shoots?
I plan the wigs, costumes and props, but once I arrive at the location everything becomes improvised. On The tourist I collaborated with
It is rather pleasant to be superfcial; in fact, it is just hedonism.
—Kourtney Roy
a make-up artist and a hairdresser. In the morning, I would come in with my fake nails and tan; they would apply my makeup, help me get dressed and then we would go for a walk. Perhaps I have a rough idea of where we are going, but I have not created a storyboard for every photo. Often, I create small drawings or mood boards to spark inspiration, but it is all about letting myself be influenced by the atmosphere of the place. When the process becomes too precise, the images tend to lose spontaneity and emotional impact. Leaving room for intuition leads me to authentic work.
All your series are very colourful. How do you decide on the colour palette?
I adapt to the setting. In Miami, there is a lot of blue: the sky, the sea, swimming pools and even sometimes the artificial grass! Thus, the colours are locally inspired. Sometimes I exaggerate some shades, like the bright pink poppy tones featured in The tourist While it is not strictly a series palette, these colours draw me in, so I ended up using them frequently, or even exaggerating them. I also rely on sunlight, plus a little flash to eliminate shadows, as I prefer images that are relatively flat with minimal contrast.
Do you incorporate irony or humour into your work?
Humour is a natural part of who I am; I truly enjoy it. I do not know if it is something I deliberately do, but it feels both intentional and natural. It is important not to take
yourself too seriously. We are capable of anything. Being profound does not exclude the possibility of humour; they can coexist!
Your photos depict various female archetypes. Was that intentional?
I had not consciously thought about it that way, but it makes sense. Archetypes often emerge from the unconscious — they are part of how we intuitively understand the world and each other. Even without pejorative or harmful intent, characters in photos can embody these familiar roles because we project meaning onto what we see. Clothing, gestures and expressions all carry cultural and emotional weight, and people tend to categorise them as a way to make sense of what they are observing. I do not see that as limiting; it is more a shared visual language. But what interests me is that each image evokes a feeling that something is either about to happen or has just happened. It is spontaneous in the moment, yet when the viewer looks at the photos later, it feels like a story is unfolding, like a slice of a larger narrative. It is like snapshots from a movie that no one knows, not even me.
Do you also look at photography by other artists?
Yes, I do, though these days I find myself more inspired by cinema. There was a time when I looked at a lot of photography, but over time, I have drifted away from it as my primary source of inspiration. I still appreciate it, but films have become a more vivid influence. Visually, I truly enjoy Edward scissorhands. It is such a bright and surreal film. Whenever I feel like something is missing or I am searching for a spark, that film often comes to mind.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am preparing for a residency in Naples, which will conclude with a gallery show in February2026. This exhibition features a photographic exploration of Italy. I have already captured numerous scenes across the country with Swiss Life, including a seaside resort in Rimini, where I collaborated with composer Mathias Delplanque. Following that, I did another series since I have a passion for Italy, travelling with clothes, a small tripod, my camera and a few wigs. Additionally, I am considering a second film; I already have some ideas in mind. The themes often lean towards the darker and more sombre side, as I am intrigued by Canada’s crime history. There is an initial version of the script currently being revised. Our next step is to persuade my producer and then we will seek funding.
Kourtney Roy
Courtesy Kourtney Roy
Pink mattress 2 (La touriste, 2019-2020), Kourtney Roy
Marion and Philippe Jacquier founded the Lumière des Roses gallery and have patiently assembled a vast collection of 10,000vernacular photographs. Their exhibition “In praise of anonymous photography” offers a glimpse into this remarkable archive.
Jacquiers explore images and margins. For over 15years, this couple produced independent cinema, nurturing the early careers of directors like Christophe Honoré and Anne Fontaine. They travelled the festival circuit and climbed the Cannes steps — they can proudly claim four of their films entered official selection. “A complicated profession” in a ruthless industry. At the turn of the2000s, the couple decides to turn the page. “We simply had enough. We needed to invent a new way of working together, differently,” Philippe Jacquier remembers.
Photography already lurks in the background. Family heritage comes first — Philippe Jacquier’s great-grandfather worked as an operator for the Lumière brothers, then became photographer to the Sultan of Morocco in the early 20th century. For the couple, the idea of turning to still images takes root gradually. “We rather like exploring edges, margins — that is what we had already sought in cinema,” Philippe Jacquier reveals. But which direction to take? Since the late1990s, the vintage photography market has exploded. Auctions for Willy Ronis or Doisneau soar beyond the Jacquiers’ reach. As novices, the couple turns to flea markets, initially from curiosity. “Photography appeared everywhere. Scientific photos, erotic photos, old photos, family albums… Thousands of images without authors that did not fit market codes.” Torch in hand, Philippe scours the flea markets at dawn, brings his finds back to Marion and they sort through them patiently together. “I was rather the first filter, she recalls. We did not necessarily always share the same tastes, but we matched up quite well. And I think it is good to have both a masculine
and feminine perspective.” They get caught up in the game. “We simply told ourselves we could make a business of it, naively, knowing nothing about the market.”
In2004, the couple decides to transform their cinema production offices in Montreuil into a photo gallery. Once again, Philippe’s ancestor hovers nearby. The space takes its name, La Lumière des Roses, from the screenplay title of a Japanese New Wave director who wanted to make a film about the globe-trotting great-grandfather, the first to shoot in Japan with the Lumière brothers. Their inaugural exhibition, “Amateurs and anonymous”, creates a sensation. Visitors flock in, collectors and dealers too. Within hours, it sells out entirely. “We were stunned. We kept asking ourselves: what kind of profession is this?” Marion recalls. The Jacquiers begin finding their footing at Paris Photo. Their stand faces siege. The fruits of their “photographic harvests” prove not only the cheapest photographs at the fair, but also the most eclectic. “It is a micromarket, Philippe Jacquier
Photobooth (1968), “Zorro”
Courtesy Marion and Philippe Jacquier collection. Donation from Antoine de Galbert Foundation to Musée de Grenoble
observes. Anonymous photography, long scorned, now attracts collectors and institutions. For some, these images provide a counterpoint to collections of recognised artists; for others, they offer an entry point into photography altogether.” His wife confirms: “Anonymous images possess immense freedom, they do not follow formats, it is much more entertaining…” They also encounter Christoph Wiesner at Paris Photo — now director of the Rencontres d'Arles, then the fair’s artistic director [seep.20]. “Following forgotten narratives, the richness of anonymous images asserts itself through Marion and Philippe Jacquier’s collection, he says.
Comprising nearly 10,000anonymous and amateur prints, it offers a vast corpus of visual stories mixing intimacy, documentary and the unusual. This exploration of vernacular photography reveals fragments of past lives and snapshots of daily existence.”
Jacquiers also unveil their collection beyond gallery walls. In2019, they present “The zone” at Rencontres d’Arles, a collection of vernacular photographs telling an unknown chapter of Parisian history — the story of the separation strip at the foot of the city’s old fortifications that would later
become the ring road. Apart from a few celebrated photographers like Eugène Atget or Germaine Krull, inter-war photography showed little interest in this urban and social phenomenon. To understand it, one must turn to amateur images, the only ones documenting the lives of the precarious populations who inhabited it. “We often start with a handful of images that intrigue or move us, and by bringing them together a theme emerges, sometimes after years of collecting, Philippe Jacquier explains. Other times, a rare subject drives us to patiently seek images that can embody it. For the Zone, we spent 15years finding the photos.”
We never tire of looking at these images. Perhaps because we never fully understand them. —Marion Jacquier
“In praise of anonymous photography”
After “The zone” presented at Rencontres d’Arles in2019 at Croisière, the Jacquier collection reunites with its Arles devotees through “In praise of anonymous photography”. Grouped around themes like history, intimacy or obsessions, these amateur photography gems represent only a tiny fraction of this incredible private collection that will soon join the Grenoble museum collection thanks to the Antoine de Galbert foundation’s intervention. Here we encounter a maniacal1950s pharmacist who, armed with a spy camera, creates a mugshot collection of his entire clientele without their knowledge. We fall for Lucette who, for twenty-five years from1954 to1977, brings back hundreds of holiday photos from her travels featuring herself as the sole subject… blurred! Particularly moving, twenty-year-old Jean traces in a small album the brief love story he lived with Rose in1930s Paris by photographing empty places where they met —and perhaps kissed?— marked with red crosses. “This photographic object, wildly inventive, perfectly embodies the genius of amateur photography,” explain the Jacquiers, who curated their own collection at the Cloître Saint-Trophime. “By restoring a fragment of anonymous photography’s extraordinary output, this exhibition pays tribute to all amateur photographers who exercised their vision with no limits other than their own imagination.” Anonymous slices of life that move from laughter to tears through their touching timelessness.
“In praise of anonymous photography”
Until 5 October Cloître Saint-Trophime 12 rue du Cloître. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
Other times, they stumble upon entire albums, like those of “Lucette”. Philippe and Marion recount: “We came across stacks of small photo envelopes from this lady who took organised trips between the1950s and1970s. She would write on them ‘Trip to Madeira’, ‘Trip to Holland’, etc. And opening the envelopes, we realised the sole subject of the images was herself! She appears in the foreground of every photo, standing with arms dangling, regardless of whether the pyramids stand behind her. The crazy thing is she never ages. And that is how we found 850photos of Lucette’s voyages.” Touching, never ridiculous, moving, Lucette features this year at Rencontres d’Arles as part of “In praise of anonymous photography”, the exhibition devoted to the Jacquier collection at Cloître Saint-Trophime [seebox]
Untitled (c.1930), Anonymous
Courtesy Marion and Philippe Jacquier collection.
Donation from Antoine de Galbert Foundation to Musée de Grenoble
To the recurring question “what are you looking for?”, we answer without coquetry or any desire to conceal that we do not yet know. We will not chase after a subject, technique, era or signature. We seek photographs that have not yet been seen, or at least not as we see them. Each hunter casts their own particular gaze upon images.
—Marion et Philippe Jacquier
Once again, Marion and Philippe Jacquier have decided to change course. At the start of the year, they closed their Montreuil gallery. “We wanted to stop when things were going well, not when we would find fewer photos or run out of steam,” Marion Jacquier explains. Despite the impressive corpus of 10,000images they unearthed over more than 20years, they still reject the label of “collectors”. For these “image hunters”, the time has come for transmission, not hoarding.
Recently, meeting Antoine de Galbert, founder of the muchmissed Maison Rouge, sparked something. Through his eponymous foundation, the collector and patron has decided to acquire the Jacquier collection to donate it subsequently to the Grenoble museum. This donation represents one of the most significant acquisitions in French heritage collections for these long-scorned images. Under Sébastien Gokalp, director of the Grenoble museum, the Jacquier collection will undergo research work on anonymous photography, a major exhibition and a catalogue. “It is a planetary alignment, Marion Jacquier confides with evident emotion. We could not have dreamed better: that these images, which never had the right to be quoted, should enter public
heritage.” Through the Jacquier lens, vernacular photography finally gains institutional recognition.
Vernacular photography at Arles
At Rencontres d’Arles, vernacular photography feels quite at home. American army costumes with “Fashion army” in2024; a community of drag queens with “Casa Susanna”; the Roma pilgrimage with “Light of Saints” and Marseille migrants with Jean-Marie Donat’s “Don’t forget me” in2023… This year, festival photographers embrace it like Diana Markosian, whose mother meticulously cut her father’s image from family photos [seeboxp.54] and JeanMichel André, who searches for childhood memories to reconstruct forgotten and tragic recollections [seeboxp.33]. Meanwhile, Brazilian photographers in the choral exhibition “Ancestral futures” revisit their country’s visual and community archives [seep.44] to better critique colonialism.
Archive images, family photos, holiday souvenirs, professional or industrial shots… For a long time, this vast photographic material flew under the radar of photographic criticism and curatorial practices. Yet the mystery of forgotten photography resurging at flea market corners increasingly seduces collectors and artists. As early as2002, François Hébel, the festival’s emblematic and historic director, flung open the Rencontres’ doors to vernacular photography by exhibiting Martin Parr’s collection as well as Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel’s Evidence work. “These shots reveal not only personal history, but that of an entire section of society, observes Aurélie de Lanlay, deputy director of the Rencontres. These vernacular photos that resurface into the light possess something incredible. Until they are rediscovered, they exist only for a small number or sink into oblivion. In a world of image abundance, we might wonder what our own vernacular will be…”
Set within the Cloître Saint-Trophime in Arles, “Crossing the missing fragment” is a layered meditation on disappearance and the transforming French landscape.
Flowing from Toulouse to the Mediterranean, tranquil waters of the Canal du Midi carry centuries of history, memory and environmental change. At the 2025Rencontres d’Arles, the canal becomes the stage for a personal and environmentally resonant exhibition: “Crossing the missing fragment” by artist Raphaëlle Peria [seeboxp.78], curated by her long-time collaborator Fanny Robin, as part of the BMW Art Makers program [seeboxp.81]
Memory unearthed
The origin of the project is rooted in Peria’s lifelong connection to water and her unusual upbringing aboard a barge. “I have lived on boats since I was three, she recalls. Water is not just a subject in my work — it is the very context of my life.” When the opportunity arose to create a project for the BMW Art Makers, water was a natural theme for her. But it was the rediscovery of a childhood photograph, taken by her father, that lit the spark. “The first image I had in my head as a child was a reflection. I wanted that to be the starting point,” she says. The result is a body of work that weaves intimate personal history with environmental loss.
Central to the project is the slow disappearance of the plane trees that once lined the canal’s banks, which were being destroyed by a fungal disease known as chancre coloré. Of the original 72,000trees, more than 28,000 have already been cut down; the remainder are expected to vanish by2035. For an artist whose practice revolves around threatened plant life, this unfolding ecological erasure resonated deeply. While the dying plane trees are a central theme, they serve more as a threshold than a destination. “If I only talked about the trees, I would be a journalist, she says. As an artist, I want to go beyond
—into dreams, into questions, into memory.” For Peria, the canal is more than a setting— it is both a literal and conceptual channel.
Curating continuity
For curator Fanny Robin, “Crossing the missing fragment” marks the latest chapter in a collaboration that has spanned more than four years.
“Each new project with Raphaëlle opens up new perspectives, Robin explains. But this one felt particularly fated. Our last show concluded with an image of a boat filled with unfinished notebooks. This one opens with that same boat. It is a symbolic and natural continuation.” Their past collaborations have explored water in various forms, but this project also grapples with transparency, a concept reflected both in the materials used and the fading of memory over time.
Scenography becomes part of the voyage. Visitors move through the exhibition as if drifting on the canal. At the entrance, a map of Peria’s journey offers the only fixed geographic anchor in an otherwise
AWARD
fluid and dreamlike space. “It is more important to take the viewer somewhere else, Peria explains. Not to replicate geography, but to invite rêverie.” Later, the show is organised into five modules, including large-format Plexiglas panels that serve as translucent walls, onto which small archive images are layered. These visual juxtapositions offer viewers a sensory immersion into past and present, clarity and transparency, as well as personal memory and collective loss. “You can see through the glass, through the memories, through time, Robin says. It is an experience of drifting — like being on the water.”
The exhibition unfolds through a dialogue between two photographic sources. On one side are archival family images, taken by Raphaëlle Peria’s father during a holiday on the Canal du Midi in the early1990s. These images capture moments of everyday life: trees, boats, a redsailed “optimist” dinghy and the saturated light of a Southern French summer. In contrast are Peria’s contemporary photographs, taken during a recent return trip. She traced the canal from Toulouse to Sète —mostly by car due to the canal’s winter closure— seeking out the same viewpoints, though not to replicate them. “I did not want to match them perfectly, she says. It is not about comparison, it is about echo.” The interplay between past and present is woven into the exhibition’s structure. Archival images are embedded within larger Plexiglas panels that display the contemporary scenes. “We did not want to do a simple ‘before and after’. I wanted something more poetic, more open,” the artist notes. Her father’s photographs, re-scanned and enlarged, function like windows placed inside walls — small fragments nested in broader contexts, offering moments of pause and intimate memory.
“Atlas
and herbarium of Camargue”
“Atlas and herbarium of Camargue” is the result of a shared passion among cyanotype artists, a botanist and a writer, all of whom are committed to documenting the flora of the French Camargue. Curated by Anne Fourès and Estelle Rouquette, the exhibition brings together the distinctive perspectives of artists Arnaud Béchet, Luc Douzon, Hugo Fontès and Anne Fourès in a poetic and scientific collaboration. Between2019 and2024, the artists navigated the region’s dunes and marshes throughout the seasons, guided by the light and vegetation of the Rhône delta. Their efforts culminated in a cyanotype inventory of rare, threatened and protected plant species, captured at the height of their bloom, where scientific precision meets lyrical expression.
On view at the Camargue Museum from until 5October as part of the Associated Arles programme during the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, this exhibition is both a gesture of artistic devotion and an act of ecological awareness. “Atlas and herbarium of Camargue” welcomes visitors into a space where beauty and environmental urgency converge.
“Atlas and herbarium of Camargue” Until 5 October Camargue Museum Mas du Pont de Rousty. Chemin 6399 Arles. www.museedelacamargue.com
3 questions to… Raphaëlle Peria
How was working with your father’s photographs?
That was a big shift for me. Until this project, I had only ever worked with my own photographs. But working with my father’s archive made me take a step back. I did not choose what was in those images and that forced me to engage with parts of my history I might not have shown otherwise. It became a form of collaborative memory, his gaze and mine overlapping across decades. I initially found it challenging, but in the end, it liberated me to approach my practice in a new way.
As you scratched into these photos, did you ever worry you might be damaging them?
I have always approached photography as something too smooth. Scratching into it, lifting the paper or the Plexiglas, is my way of returning it to something alive. But these photos from my father’s album are personal, so I was aware that I was working with something fragile. But that fragility is what made the gesture meaningful. The act of scratching is symbolic; it is about memory, about forgetting, about revealing what is underneath. When I scratch, I am not destroying; I am remembering.
What emotional response are you hoping viewers will take away from this personal journey?
I hope they feel invited into their own memories. That is why Fanny and I designed the exhibition with spaces for contemplation, for silence. We did not want to overload it with text. Instead, we wanted to leave room for people to bring their own stories. The photos are personal but the themes are universal. If someone sits in front of one of the trees and just dreams a little or remembers something they had not thought of in years, that would be the best outcome for me.
Dual vision
Raphaëlle Peria
Photo Quentin Bertoux
BMW Art Markers Prize
Launched in2021, BMW Art Makers Prize supports an emerging artistcurator duo in the creation of a new image-based project. Each year, the winning collaboration receives financial backing, curatorial mentorship and the opportunity to present their work in two major contemporary art events: Rencontres d’Arles in the summer and Paris Photo in the autumn.
horses, they held the banks together. Without them, the canal’s structure is at risk.
—Raphaëlle Peria
Scratching the surface
What makes “Crossing the missing fragment” unique is Peria’s signature process: physically scratching the surface of photographs to unearth what lies beneath. Trained as an engraver, she uses gouges and etching tools to meticulously lift the photographic emulsion, carving relief into flat images. Each leaf on a tree is lifted one by one. The resulting scratched white lines become ghosts, both erasure and emphasis, absence and revelation. Over time, this technique of scratching has evolved to mirror the way memory itself degrades: through amnesia (erasure), paramnesia (superimposition) and ecmesia (temporal distortion). The process is not just visual but tactile and conceptual. “I have always felt that photography flattens reality, she explains. Scratching brings back texture, memory, presence.” In this exhibition, the physical materials deepen the metaphor. Imitation copper-leaf wallpaper evokes the coppery hues of the fungal disease destroying the canal’s plane trees. At the same time, Plexiglas panels allow light to pass through, casting shadows and reflections that invite the viewer to see themselves within the work. These choices are not decorative, but structural metaphors for transparency, loss and the persistence of presence.
After its debut in Arles, “Crossing the missing fragment” will travel to Paris Photo, where the immersive modules will be reimagined for a wall-based presentation. New works are also in development, extending the journey and its resonances even further.
Until 5 October Cloître Saint-Trophime 12 rue du Cloître. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com “Crossing the missing fragment”
Festival OFF Arles is a crucial space in the contemporary photography landscape, defined by freedom, experimentation and community.
Every summer picturesque city of Arles becomes an international epicentre of the photography world. While Rencontres d’Arles brings together the giants of the field in carefully curated spaces, another pulse runs just beneath the surface: Festival OFF Arles.
The origin of Festival OFFArles are deeply entwined with Arles’ tradition of image-making. Following the end of Voies Off (1996-2019), it was the association La Kabine — founded in2021 by Juliette Larochette, Florent Basiletti and Rosalie Parent— that took up the mantle and revived the initiative. The goal? To create an inclusive platform that honours the past while boldly embracing new forms. “The Off aims to be an inclusive and open artistic laboratory,” says Justine Ayzac, coordinator of the festival and member of the collective La Kabine. “It is a creative playground spread across the city of Arles.” Now in its second edition, OFFArles is already expanding. “This year we are including not just photography, but also drawing, performances and sound installations, reflecting the diversity of contemporary visual expression,” she adds. Indeed, the 2025edition includes exhibitions related to the Off du Festival du Dessin, further extending the boundaries of what OFF wants be.
One of the most radical elements of OFF Arles is its decentralised, democratised approach. There is no central venue, nor is there a hierarchical structure in place. Instead, Arles becomes the festival: cafés, galleries, garages, bookstores and unexpected
corners all turn into exhibition spaces. The result is a dynamic city-wide sprawl of over 106venues hosting the works of more than 660artists. This open approach invites a diverse audience —from curious passersby to seasoned professionals— to engage with contemporary photography in new ways. “The goal is to spark dialogue: not only between artists, but also between creators and the public and between art and the city itself,” explains Ayzac. Screenings are also part of the festival’s decentralised DNA, as they provide a platform for exposing a large number of talents, particularly emerging ones. These public projections democratise access to visual work and also reinforce the festival’s emphasis on encounter and visibility across all corners of Arles.
There are three tiers of participation. First, curated exhibitions by the OFF Arles team “to bring out artistic proposals that question the world, its representations, its injustices, but also its utopias.” Additionally, there is an “Associate” program that includes like-minded initiatives and activities rooted in the region’s yearround cultural offerings. Then, there
MARKET OFF ARLES
are exhibitions organised by gallery owners and artists; these are openentry exhibitions for anyone who wishes to join. “This openness and diverse narratives are part of what makes OFF so alive, Ayzac says. Anyone can be part of it, as long as they find a space and respect our shared values.” That openness comes with a vigilant ethos. While anyone can participate, the festival remains committed to inclusivity, respect and anti-discrimination. “We do not impose artistic boundaries, but we draw clear ethical lines.”
Beyond exhibitions
But OFF Arles is not just a collection of exhibitions; it is an interaction between artists, audiences and the city itself. The highlight of this synergy is the first week of July, known as “professional week”. This year, from 8to11July, Espace Mistral becomes the nucleus of daytime talks and nighttime festivities. “We will also have legal support sessions for photographers, discussions about the publishing industry, educational panels and artist screenings,” Ayzac lists. Evenings are handed over to schools and collectives, including a carte blanche to photojournalism and a spotlight on Les Rencontres de Marrakech.
Although the opening party is on Tuesday 8July, Friday 11July, marks a significant moment with the Nuit de l’Émergence. During this celebration, the 20finalists of the SAIF×La Kabine Revelation Prize are unveiled and the winner announced. Accompanied by DJ sets and projections, the night captures the spirit of OFF.
These moments of exchange are also fueled by the broader network that La Kabine cultivates throughout the year. The festival draws on the initiatives of its founding association, which works to build bridges with other festivals —both local and international— as well as with committed organisations such as Les Filles de la Photo and the
Réseau Diagonal. These collaborations enrich the festival’s public programming, encourage reflection on the contemporary photography ecosystem and facilitate the circulation of projects across the South of France region.
Emerging
voices
Throughout the summer, OFF Arles encourages a multiplicity of perspectives and artistic approaches, offering a space where emerging voices, established artists and collectives can coexist and interact with one another. The festival has become a magnet for artists seeking space for expression beyond the mainstream. It features student collectives, such as WIP from ENSP and TALM Le Mans, offering them the freedom to express themselves in any way they choose. Among the highlights are student collectives such as WIP from ENSP and TALM Le Mans, who are given full creative freedom. The program also features a diverse array of international participants, including the Moroccan Association of Photographic Art, SPIEGEL and the TANPEI KYOTO Photographers’ Association and Young Hungarian Photography — alongside emerging talents making their debut. “The diversity is stunning,” Ayzac beams. “We are showcasing everything from large-scale photographic series to intimate performances.”
Among the featured exhibitions at the Festival OFF headquarters is work by Elsa Beaumont, winner of the 2024SAIF×La Kabine Revelation Prize. Alongside her, artists in residence at La Kabine —including Pepe Atocha, Soum Eveline Bonkoungou, Frédéric Oberland and Adrien Julliard— share ongoing projects in “La Kabine intime”, a space where ideas still in formation are offered up for public reflection. Residencies are also a key part of the festival’s mission. “We do not just showcase artists, Ayzac explains. We accompany them. We give them space, time and mentorship.” Another major initiative for this year
is the launch of The Dreamers×La Kabine Award for teenagers aged 12to16 residing in the Paris, Arles, Marseille and Montpellier areas. Participants receive professional guidance and will exhibit in Paris in the fall and at OFF Arles in2026. “It is about nurturing future generations of image-makers.”
Companion to Les Rencontres
While the Off operates independently, its relationship with Arles —and with Les Rencontres d’Arles— is one of collaboration rather than competition. The Off began with screenings in the emblematic square of Place du Forum, offering alternatives to more institutional programming. Today, it coexists fluidly with Rencontres, even sharing spaces like Espace Mistral. “We are not an alternative, we are an extension, Ayzac says. We offer a different entry point into contemporary art; a decentralised one.” This extension also means reimagining the city itself. One of the festival’s goals is to move beyond the historic centre of Arles, reaching neighbourhoods and villages on the outskirts and developing programs that resonate with those areas. “Arles is not just the Forum and Cloître Saint-Trophime, Ayzac adds. We want to re-map the city through art.”
Looking ahead
In the coming years, La Kabine plans to deepen its partnerships with Marseille and the broader South of France region, developing a network for contemporary image culture that transcends city limits. At the same time, sustainability is a growing focus. “We are thinking about how to reuse communication materials, how to stop producing and throwing away, Ayzac notes. It is about building a festival that is as conscious as it is creative.” With plans for image education programs (EAC) in Marseille and a new familyfriendly guide launching this year to strengthen outreach, OFF continues to evolve without losing its core spirit: freedom, experimentation and care.
Courtesy Festival OFF Arles
DATA
Misty on Sheridan Square (detail, 1991), Nan Goldin
Sold for $50,800 by Phillips New York on 9 October 2024
Courtesy Phillips
NAN GOLDIN
Her raw and emotionally charged images have created a body of work that is at once personal and political.
Born in1953 in Washington, Nan Goldin has become one of the most provocative voices in contemporary photography. She emerged from the underground scenes of Boston and New York in the1970s and1980s, recasting the representation of women and marginalised communities outside patriarchal and heteronormative frameworks. Her portraits confront gender stereotypes and shed light on domestic violence, desire and queer identity.
Often drawing from her own life and community, Goldin’s snapshots are acts of remembrance and resistance. Uniting art and activism, Goldin has confronted the HIV/AIDS epidemic since the1980s, documenting the toll it took on her friends and family. Today, she continues this commitment by bringing global attention to the opioid crisis. “My work has always been about the people who are gone and the ones who survive,” she has said, encapsulating the vulnerability and emotional honesty that define her art.
Living archives
Nan Goldin’s relationship with photography began at the age of fifteen, when she first started capturing the lives of travesties and transsexuals in black-andwhite images. These early portraits already revealed the empathy that would define her work. While her photography has long resisted commodification, her influence on the art world has translated into a significant presence in the art market. As of2024, her photographs have achieved a total auction turnover of €9.6million, with an average price of€5,285 and a median price of€3,360. Her
—Pierre Naquin and Nahir
earliest works —especially those created between1976 and1984— remain the most sought-after. Photography is nearly her exclusive medium, accounting for 99.5% of her total sales. In contrast, her 60editioned works and two known drawings make up only a tiny fraction of her market, in terms of volume and value. Yet the value of Goldin’s work has never been purely economic. Her photographs are not simply images; they are intimate testaments that also act as powerful tools for activism. From her earliest portraits of friends and lovers to her more recent political engagement, Goldin has consistently defied easy categorisation.
From nightclubs to biennales
Goldin’s career is marked by a meteoric rise in institutional recognition. To date, she has participated in 1,105exhibitions, including 104solo shows and 1,001group exhibitions, which have remained in public view for approximately three months. Challenging conventional art hierarchies, she began exhibiting her work in personal
and unconventional spaces, such as her loft and nightclubs and bars in New York City during the late1970s and1980s, where the audience consisted “entirely of the people in the slide show, my lovers and friends.” Her transition into the institutional world began in1981, when she was included in MoMAPS1 with “New York/New wave”. By1985, she had her first solo exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum titled “NanGoldin/MATRIX89” and the same year, her work appeared in “Self portrait” at MoMA for the first time. She continued to gain critical traction with key exhibitions such as “American dreams” at Museo Reina Sofia (1987) and “Real faces” at the Whitney Museum one year later. Her international presence strengthened in the early1990s, with a trio of influential shows: “Pleasures and terrors of domestic comfort” at MoMA, “Self-portraits of contemporary women” in Tokyo and “Life-loss-obsession” at Museum Folkwang in Germany. A landmark moment came in2001, when she held a major solo show at Centre Pompidou in Paris. While solo shows account for only about 5% of her total exhibitions, they have remained remarkably consistent at around one or two per year throughout her career. Goldin’s activity reached a high point in the mid-2000s, with a peak in2005 featuring 32exhibitions, followed by a second peak in2010, with a total of 33exhibitions. Since then, there has been a gradual decline, stabilising at around 20exhibitions per year between2010 and2020.
Geographically, her primary exhibition presence has been in the United States, where she has made the most solo presentations. This reflects her artistic roots in the New York scene and the enduring resonance of her work within American cultural institutions. Beyond the U.S., Europe has also served as a strong platform for Goldin, particularly Germany, France and Italy. Germany,
in particular, has played a pivotal role in shaping her international reputation with frequent exhibitions in cities such as Berlin and Essen. France and Italy have similarly contributed to her global profile, regularly featuring her in major group exhibitions and prestigious venues.
In addition to her extensive museum activity, Nan Goldin has maintained a significant presence on the international biennial circuit. Her first participation was in the Whitney Biennial in1985, where she presented her iconic slideshow with soundtrack The ballad of sexual dependency (1980-1986). Goldin also participated in the 29th Bienal de São Paulo in2010 and Bienal Sur in Argentina (2022). She has been showcased twice at the Venice Biennale: first in2003 and again in2022, as part of the 59th edition, “The milk of dreams”, where she had a strong impact with her presentation of Sirens (2019-2020).
Out of mainstream
Although originally outside the commercial mainstream, Goldin has maintained strong relationships with galleries that have significantly shaped her career trajectory. She started showing with the Matthew Marks Gallery (New York) in1993, with 13exhibitions —including seven solo shows— by2021, the most with any gallery. In1995, she began exhibiting regularly with Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco. This ongoing collaboration has been central in presenting her work to American audiences in a dedicated and focused context, with 12including four solo shows since then. That same year, she initiated a partnership with the Rebecca Camhi Gallery in Athens, where she has exhibited four times. This collaboration has helped her to expand her presence into the Mediterranean art scene and reinforce her international appeal. Other notable galleries are Gagosian, Marian Goodman, Yossi Milo and Wilde Gallery.
Evolution of the number of lots offered for sale
Evolution of the average price
Evolution of the number of lots and turnover by year of creation
Nan and Brian in bed, New York (detail, 1983), Nan Goldin
Sold for $44,450 by Sotheby’s New York on 4 April 2023
Courtesy Sotheby’s Art Digital Studio
Nan Goldin’s photographs emerged from personal spaces; however, they have gradually carved out a niche in the commercial art market, particularly at auction. Her first photograph to appear at auction was in1989, when Couples (1977) appeared at Christie’s. Despite going unsold, it marked the beginning of her entry into the secondary market. It was not until1995 that Goldin recorded her first successful
15.2% of the total sales. France follows, contributing €1.3million (or 13.6% of overall sales) with an average price of€ 5,350, close to the general market average. Germany, meanwhile, has seen a high volume of lots (530 in total), accounting for 20.3% of the works offered. However, despite this large number, the total sales value is significantly lower, at just €655,975 (or 6.9% of total sales); works sold in Germany tend to fetch lower prices on average. While the three major Western auction houses primarily drive Goldin’s market —Christie’s, accounting for nearly 30% of total sales, Sotheby’s with 19% and Phillips— her presence has gradually expanded beyond Europe and the United States. In2008, she made her first appearance in an Asian auction, with a modest sale in Tokyo of Alf and Fritz/ Volcano Fritz, 5days old.
Over time, Goldin’s raw and intimate style has impacted not only contemporary art but also the world of fashion. While she has never worked as a traditional fashion photographer, her portraits from the1980s and1990s —particularly those depicting drag performers and New York’s queer nightlife— have influenced the aesthetics of alternative fashion culture. Two examples of this crossover are Misty and Jimmy Paulette in taxi, NYC (1991) and Joey in front of Roseland, NYC (1991), both of which have fetched notable results at auction. The former was sold by Christie’s for $8,000 (€7,120), marking the first time Goldin’s work surpassed the €/$5,000 threshold, while the latter was sold by Sotheby’s for£15,000 (€22,961). Their performative style, dramatic makeup and vibrant presence blur the line between documentary and fashion
My work has always been about the people who are gone and the ones who survive.
—Nan Goldin
“Stendhal syndrome”
auction result: Ivy in the garden, Boston (1973) sold at Tajan in France for the equivalent of€915. Ironically, though the United States hosts the majority of her exhibitions and remains her most consistent market, her first actual sale there came only in1996, when Clements at hotel Savoy, Berlin (1996) fetched just over€1,000 at Christie’s New York. Goldin’s market presence has since grown considerably. By2024, more than 2,600lots had been offered at auction, with nearly 70% finding buyers. While her most active market remains the United States, accounting for over half of total sales and achieving her highest average prices, her reach has extended globally. The United Kingdom ranks second, generating
Stendhal syndrome is a psychosomatic condition in which individuals experience intense physical and emotional responses when exposed to overwhelming beauty, particularly in art. Presented as a multimedia installation at the 2025Rencontres d’Arles, Nan Goldin’s Stendhal syndrome (2024) reclaims this phenomenon, exploring beauty, intimacy and the human condition. The work merges classical art with personal narratives and is on display from 7Julyto5October at Saint Blaise Church in Arles. The installation features a slideshow juxtaposing photographs of classical, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces — captured by Goldin over two decades in museums such as the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Prado — with intimate portraits of her friends and lovers. Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Goldin reimagines her subjects as mythological figures such as Galatea, Orpheus and Hermaphrodite. Accompanying the installation is Goldin’s own narration and a soundscape composed by Soundwalk Collective, with a music piece by Mica Levi.
“Stendhal syndrome”
Until 5 October Saint-Blaise Church Impasse de Mourgues. Arles www.rencontres-arles.com
The camera is as much a part of my everyday life as talking or eating or sex. —Nan Goldin
editorial. This early merging of selfstyled personas and photographic storytelling laid the foundation for partnerships with fashion houses such as Gucci and Dior, who have embraced her emotionally charged and cinematic aesthetic. In fall2024, Goldin expanded her fashion-related body of work with a new series titled We will always have London. Six photographs from the series were offered for sale at Gagosian with starting prices of $28,000each.
The ballad of sexual dependency
Produced from1980to1986,
The ballad of sexual dependency stands as Nan Goldin’s most iconic body of work. Composed as an autobiographical slideshow of over 700colour images, it captures the intimate lives of Goldin’s friends and lovers in scenes of tenderness, conflict, addiction, joy and grief. Among the most harrowing images is a self-portrait, Nan one month after being battered (1984), in which the artist stares out with two bruised eyes, one bloodshot. “The ballad of sexual dependency is the diary I let people read, Goldin wrote. The diary is my form of control over my life. It allows me to obsessively record every detail. It enables me to remember.” This deeply personal project has not only redefined documentary photography but has also found resonance in the art market. Her top auction result to date remains Ballad triptych (19771986), a concentrated grouping of three photographs from the Ballad series. Sold by Christie’s New York on 8May2012 for$180,000 (€138,276), it remains the only work by Goldin to have exceeded €100,000 at auction. Several individual images from the Ballad have also achieved significant prices. Self-portrait in kimono with Brian, NYC (1983), a poignant exploration of intimacy and identity
from her relationship with her then-partner Brian, sold at Christie’s New York in2023 for$92,000 (€85,471; $115,920/€107,693 with fees). Likewise, Nan and Brian in bed, NYC (1983) —a depiction of the emotional complexity between the artist and her lover— was sold by Sotheby’s in1998 for$14,500 (€12,510), marking the first time a Goldin photograph surpassed the €10,000threshold. A year later, Greer and Robert on the bed, NYC (1982), another intimate moment within the Ballad narrative, broke new ground when it was sold by Christie’s for
$34,000 (€31,924), becoming her first work to exceed the €30,000mark.
Although initially conceived as a projected slideshow, The ballad of sexual dependency was first published as a book in1986, one year after it was shown at the Whitney Biennial, further cementing its place in postmodern photography. To date, The Ballad remains a raw, unfiltered archive of lives lived at the margins while celebrating survival and emancipation.
