Les Rencontres d'Arles

Founded in 1969, Les Rencontres d’Arles is the world’s first internationally renowned photography festival. Around 20 heritage sites in Arles host nearly 40 exhibitions every year throughout the summer. During opening week, the Ancient Theatre serves as a venue for evening slideshows. Various photography trends are compared and contrasted at panel discussions, lectures and portfolio reviews. Teaching activities in schools and courses by famous photographers also take place year round. A cultural incubator featuring a wide array of events and exhibitions, the festival combines short and long time. It is an annual survey of photography in a festive spirit. Every year, it reveals trends, breaks new ground, decrypts images, generates meaning and manufactures content. A centre of experimentation and crosscutting research, the festival is a place where artists and visitors can ponder the state of the world. It is also a setting where photography is reinvented through hybridisation, contamination, comparison, friction, and contact at the crossroads of disciplines and trends. Interaction and interdisciplinary dialogue recall how very alive and well it is. Photography’s ability to address not just artistic but also social, cultural, historical and other issues still surprises us. And the well-named Rencontres de la Photographie echoes and promotes historical as well as contemporary artistic practices.