Spotted at the Rencontres d'Arles, festival of photography

Last week the World Photography Organisation team had a chance to spend a few days at Les Rencontres D’Arles, a festival of photography that’s been held in the city of Arles in the south of France since 1970.

It’s one of the biggest photography festivals in the world, taking over museums, churches, heritage sites, homes and other beautiful spaces in this sun-soaked city, from early in the morning to late at night.

The diversity of venues in which exhibitions and other events are held is a welcome challenge to curators, which is reflected in the myriad of creative ways images are displayed, hung and projected. It’s a perfect opportunity to discover established and emerging lens-based artists from around the world, providing visitors a chance to immerse themselves in all things photography.

For a city that has inspired the likes of Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Cartier-Bresson, it’s no wonder photographers, artists, curators and culture enthusiasts flock to it every year to network, discover incredible art and to find inspiration for their next project.

While we strolled from one exhibition to another, we couldn’t help but notice some familiar names. Discover below our Les Rencontres D’Arles highlights featuring past winners of the Sony World Photography Awards.

Cristina de Middel

In 2012, Cristina de Middel won 2nd Place in the Conceptual category in the Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition for her series ‘The Afronauts’ which tells the story of Zambia’s involvement in the 1960s space race. Her award-winning project had gone on to feature in the 2013 edition of Arles.

In the 2024 edition of Arles, visitors can explore Cristina de Middel’s new series ‘Journey to the Center.’ An image from this project was also chosen as the leading image on Les Rencontres D’Arles’ marketing material.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER
ÉGLISE DES FRÈRES PRÊCHEURS
1 JULY - 25 AUGUST 2024

Journey to the Center is a series that borrows the atmosphere and structure of the Jules Verne book Journey to the Center of the Earth to present the Central America migration route across Mexico as a heroic and daring journey rather than a runaway.

In this version of the journey, the starting point is Tapachula, the Southern border of Mexico with Guatemala, and the journey ends in Felicity, a small town in California that is officially the “Center of the World”. The absurdity of this landmark, from where you can see the border fence, just adds a layer of dystopic disappointment and becomes the perfect colophon for a contemporary version of a heroic jest, where the final destination is little less than a roadside touristic attraction.

With a language that combines straight documentary photography with constructed images and archival material, the narrative becomes multi-layered to complete the simplistic approach that media and official reports provide to the complex phenomenon that migration is.

Cristina de Middel

Rinko Kawauchi

Rinko Kawauchi was awarded the Sony World Photography Awards’ Outstanding Contribution to Photography title in 2023. This prestigious award recognises a person or a group of people that made a significant impact on the photographic medium. Previous awardees include Graciela Iturbide, Martin Parr, William Klein to name a few.

The Japanese photographer, famed for her poetic depictions of everyday occurrences, is an Arles veteran, previously exhibiting her works in a solo show in 2004. This year you can find a selection of her photographs in a group exhibition ‘I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Photographers from the 1950s to Now’.

I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographer from the 1950s to Now
PALAIS DE L'ARCHEVÊCHÉ - ACCESS - FIRST FLOOR
1 JULY - 29 SEPTEMBER 2024

I’m So Happy You Are Here offers an exciting new perspective on Japanese photography: a much-needed counterpoint, complement, and challenge to historical precedents and the established canon—an electrifying expansion of our understanding of Japanese photographic history, but also of photo-history at large. Over the past decade, the world of photography has made a concerted effort to fill critical gaps in its historiography. The excavation and recovery of women’s work, including this one, serves as a testament to the liberating nature of self-representation and self-expression, and to the importance of photography as a medium to express and share one’s own story: to be heard and to be seen.

Curated by Lesley A. Martin, Takeuchi Mariko and Pauline Vermar

Juliette Pavy

Juliette Pavy received the prestigious title of this year’s Photographer of the Year at the awards ceremony in April. Her series Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women empathically documents the effects of involuntary birth control programme enforced on Greenlandic Inuit women in the 90s.

Pavy won a range of prizes, including $25,000 and a solo display at the London exhibition the following year.

We spotted a selection of the French photojournalist’s images in a group exhibition organised by Collectif D’Hors Format, Nous n’avons pas grandi ensemble.

Nous n’avons pas grandi ensemble
13 PLACE VOLTAIRE
1 - 7 JULY

Nous n’avons pas grandi ensemble showcases the works of six artists exploring the universal theme of youth in contemporary society. The group exhibition delves into stories reflecting dreams, fears and anxieties associated with the coming-of-age and proposes that, despite our differences and divisions, the exciting yet tumultuous period on the brink of adulthood is something that we can all relate to, even if our perspectives shift.

Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark, celebrated for her empathic photojournalism focused on the plight of the dispossessed, was awarded the Sony World Photography Awards’ Outstanding Contribution to Photography title in 2014.

A selection of her most in-depth photography projects is being shown in her solo show Encounters at the Espace Van Gogh.

Encounters
ESPACE VAN GOGH
1 JULY - 29 SEPTEMBER 2024
Grounded in the themes and passions that help distinguish the photographer’s oeuvre, at the heart of Mary Ellen Mark. Encounters are five of her most in-depth projects, often realiszed most definitively in book form. These projects focus on institutionaliszed women in the Oregon State Hospital, street children in Seattle, as well as sex workers in Mumbai, the needy and dying in Mother Teresa’s charities and travelling circus families in India. In addition to her most iconic pictures, rare archival materials such as the photographer’s contact sheets, personal notes and official correspondence provide insight into the genesis of these long-term series for the first time.

Curated by Sophia Greiff and Melissa Harris

Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccini

This photography duo’s work has been recognised in the Sony World Photography Awards twice so far! This year Caimi and Piccini were awarded 2nd Place in Professional competition’s Environment category for Tropicalia, a series of diptychs juxtaposing humans and their environment. In 2019, they won 1st Place in Professional competition’s Discovery category for Güle Güle.

We’ve spotted Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccini’s book ‘Rhome’ at the Arles Book Fair!

Rhome by Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccini, published by Leporello Books

A journey through the multiple microcosms of Rome, far from a stereotyped and tourist-friendly image to discover the most intimate and surprising side of the city. People, places and situations, forming a dense connective tissue, a mycelium of existences.