A world blown the wrong way up: my Arles picture pageant picks | Images

At a time when the world is gripped by disaster, and conversations swirl with discuss of battle, political upheaval and nuclear assault, the work of the famend Japanese photographer Kikuji Kawada feels extra related than ever.

On show at this yr’s Rencontres d’Arles, Kawada’s seminal sequence The Map – created from his visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki within the aftermath of the atomic bombings 80 years in the past – kinds the cornerstone of an exhibition proven in France for the primary time by the Kyotographie pageant group in collaboration with Sigma. These haunting photos stand as a robust inventive response to the trauma of nuclear devastation, layered with political metaphor and historic weight.

I went contained in the Atomic Bomb Dome on their lonesome … what I noticed on the location was the hint of violence

Moving by way of the many years, Kawada’s work reveals an evolving inventive language – one which embraces new strategies and applied sciences to replicate a world in fixed flux.

In the chapter The Last Cosmology, he focuses time and time once more on the occasions of 9/11, making the sky start to really feel like a theatrical set for deadly catastrophe.

Now aged 92, Kawada remains to be photographing each day and is an enthusiastic and dedicated Instagrammer.

I can add an image to Instagram and now extra individuals will see it than will learn a weekly journal

Among the pageant’s standout exhibitions is a superbly curated tribute by Simon Baker and Elsa Janssen to the life and work of Yves Saint Laurent. Rich with iconic prints by vogue images greats corresponding to Irving Penn, Guy Bourdin and Annie Leibovitz, the exhibition dazzles with visible historical past. Yet the true fascination lies within the intimate, elegant portraiture that traces Saint Laurent himself all through his life – capturing not only a designer, however a cultural icon.

In sharp distinction, the crisp traces of Brazilian modernist structure – captured by a collective of newbie photographers from the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB)–hint the rise of contemporary São Paulo from 1939 to 1964 in all its geometric concrete splendour. While celebrating architectural innovation, the photographs additionally forged a essential eye on the influence of urbanisation throughout all sections of society.

Exploring the previous whereas making an attempt to ascertain relations within the current is Diana Markosian’s sequence Father. When Markosian was just a little lady rising up in Moscow her mom woke her in the course of the evening, packed a suitcase and fled together with her and her brother to observe an American dream. Her father was not forewarned and spent years making an attempt to hint his absent household whereas her mom, settled in California, eliminated his picture from household images, prompting a profound sense of confusion and thriller for the younger Diana.

Markosian is a masterful storyteller. In the work on present on the pageant she creates a transferring and atmospheric description, made by way of documentary images, movie and artefacts, of her journey again to a relationship together with her father.

Every pageant has its headline act, and this yr Rencontres d’Arles welcomes the celebrated artist Nan Goldin. Her images flows like a stream of consciousness – uncooked, intimate, unfiltered – capturing each the sweetness and chaos of a life lived on the sting, marked by love, loss and habit.

In Stendhal Syndrome, on present at Arles, Goldin attracts from her archive of mates and lovers, juxtaposing private portraits with classical masterpieces. The result’s a poignant act of elevation – granting members of her group dignity, stature and reverence.

Goldin is an activist pushed by a fierce dedication to amplifying the voices of marginalised individuals and holding the highly effective to account – she famously took on the Sackler household, exposing their position within the opioid disaster throughout the US. And true to kind, throughout her acceptance of the Rencontres d’Arles 2025 Women in Motion award, she took the chance to lift her concern over the devastating violence and humanitarian disaster in Gaza, screening a powerfully edited movie. Her function is uncompromising, confronting essentially the most disturbing points of life head on with a transparent and resounding name to motion.