Arles Photography Festival: Photos, Fact and Manipulation – Judith Benhamou Reports

Over the previous few years, Arles has turn out to be one of many main centres of up to date artwork in France through the summer time, because of the numerous cultural occasions which have grown alongside the legendary Photography Festival, Les Rencontres d’Arles, which runs till October 4. We will quickly return to the complete programme of up to date artwork exhibitions organised by the Luma Foundation, whose tower, designed by Frank Gehry, sparkles brilliantly within the sky above the capital of the Camargue area.

400 artists

This 12 months’s pageant options 47 exhibitions unfold all through town—and past—showcasing the work of 400 artists. In the previous, when the pageant was Arles’ sole inventive attraction, it embraced an experimental spirit, usually intersecting with different types of visible artwork. The 57th version is extra restrained, on the danger of presenting works that lack originality. It has intentionally returned to its photographic roots.

Edward Steichen

In this spirit, the excellent exhibition is undoubtedly the one devoted to Edward Steichen (1879–1973), a real genius of images who richly deserves this renewed consideration. Born in Luxembourg, raised partly in France earlier than settling completely within the United States, Steichen first earned worldwide recognition as a style photographer and portraitist earlier than changing into director of the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). There he curated the landmark exhibition The Family of Man, bringing collectively 503 pictures by 273 photographers to have fun the universality of the human expertise.

Moonlight: The Pond

That is historical past. At the Mécanique Générale venue, nonetheless, the exhibition focuses on one other important side of Steichen’s work: his profound love of nature. Here, the artist returns to his authentic calling—that of a painter. His photographic prints possess the standard of real work. Among his most celebrated photos is Moonlight: The Pond (1904), whose delicate interaction of sunshine and shadow approaches abstraction. One print of this {photograph} offered in 2006 for the extraordinary sum of $2.4 million.

Ruud Priem

In the picture, timber streak the background whereas their reflections ripple throughout the pond within the foreground. The surrounding vegetation dissolves right into a darkish halo. “His relationship with nature is a fundamental part of who he was. We wanted to reveal this dimension of his work,” explains the exhibition’s curator, Ruud Priem.

For the pageant’s director, Christoph Wiesner, images paradoxically helps us “read the world more accurately” at a time when photos are in all places. Appropriately, this 12 months’s theme is “Worlds to Revisit.”

Ghana: Dreaming Independence

One significantly compelling exhibition on the Archbishop’s Palace( Palais de l’archevêché) explores the significance of photographic storytelling in Ghana, the primary sub-Saharan African nation to realize independence in 1957. Entitled Ghana: Dreaming Independence, it illustrates the newly impartial nation’s dedication to forge its personal cultural identification after British colonial rule and to share that imaginative and prescient throughout the African continent.

Paul Strand

Western photographers flocked to Ghana, amongst them the famend American Paul Strand (1890–1976), who on the time confronted political suspicion within the United States due to his left-wing sympathies. One putting instance is his portrait of a girl carrying conventional gown whereas attending college—a robust picture of a society embracing each heritage and modernity.

Park Chan-wook

Among the surprises of this 12 months’s version is an exhibition on the Lee Ufan Space, presenting 68 photographic prints by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, who additionally served as president of the jury at this 12 months’s Cannes Film Festival. His color pictures intentionally draw consideration to scenes that often go unnoticed: flowers discarded in a garbage bag, fruit lined with ants. Yet the outcomes are unexpectedly lovely.

Until the day I die

Park stays modest about his photographic work: “In images, I’ve managed to assemble solely half of my universe.

Until the day I die, I’ll proceed making an attempt to finish it.” He additionally revealed that his subsequent movie will probably be an American western centred on revenge—a venture eagerly awaited.

Clement cogitore

Finally, one of many pageant’s most authentic creations comes from Clément Cogitore (born 1983), a up to date artist who can be an opera director. This summer time he’s staging The Magic Flute on the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Showing the previous to talk about now

At the Espace Van Gogh, guests can watch a thirty-minute movie assembled from a variety of archival footage, accompanied by a textual content written by the artist himself. Cogitore explores the political reinvention of reminiscence and its many transformations. The steady circulation of photos and reflections creates a putting sense of abstraction by means of its sheer density.

“I wanted the video to be shown at the same time as the opera in Aix. The opera opens with images from the Second World War. Treating the past in this way speaks directly to the present,” the artist explains. Cogitore impressively combines filmmaking, writing and stage route inside a single inventive imaginative and prescient.