Each and every summer we are back in The Rencontres d'Arles. This Summer, the festival turns 50. It’s a long story that’s seen the history of photography pass by. Twenty-six artistic directors have come and gone, presenting over 1,234 exhibitions under the watchful eyes of Arles’ founders, Lucien Clergue, Jean-Maurice Rouquette and Michel Tournier to whom the festival is paying tribute this year.
As Sam Stourdzé - Director of the Rencontres d'Arles - explains: "With 50 shows for its 50 years (...), [we continue] with the same high standards to achieve our goals of revealing trends and discovering the new generation. This year, complementing many historical shows—Helen Levitt, Variétés, Photo/Brut, Germaine Krull and so on—we are offering four new sequences corresponding to the program’s themes: My Body Is a Weapon, On the Edge, Inhabiting and Building the Image. (...) Talking about yesterday, today and tomorrow, tirelessly exploring photography, entering its zones of friction, where artists reveal the unspeakable, the Rencontres d’Arles has gone all-out to offer an ambitious, eclectic, electric program.” Stay tuned for next special reports on the Rencontres d’Arles 2019.
