53rd Photography meeting d’Arles runs from 4 July to 25 September 2022. This year, 40 exhibitions are offered to the public, which are grouped under five main themes: “Perform”, “Experiment”, “Emerge”, “Explore & Witness”, and “Review return”. Pay attention to the highlights of talented female photographers such as Susan Meiselas, Lee Miller (1907-1977) or Léa Habourdin. Here is a small preview in the image.

Achievement : Olivier JUSZCZAK

• Five main themes – “Perform”, “Experiment”, “Emerge”, “Explore & Witness”, and “Revisit” – emphasize the 53rd edition of the Rencontres de la photographie in Arles.

• Exhibition An avant-garde feminist of the 1970s, which brings together more than two hundred works by seventy-one female artists from the Verbund collection in Vienna, is presented for the first time in France. From the 1970s, it shows the work of the first artists to propose a new “image of women”, denouncing sexism, social inequality and patriarchal power structures.

• Still with the theme “Performer”, Susan Meiselas and Marta Gentilucci proposed body map which draws a map of the skin and gestures of an elderly woman.

• The “Experiment” category includes a total of six exhibitions. Luka Hoffmann from Switzerland shows us his street photography work done with a freehand view camera (without a tripod). Very original practice.

• Exhibition heaven song juxtaposing historical and contemporary photographs. He discusses the consequences of cloud computing technology on climate change and geopolitics.

• The “Emerger” category highlights the 10 artists selected for the Louis Roederer Discovery Prize, with the aim of exposing the evolving photographic scene.

• During the opening week, the jury awarded the Louis Roederer Discovery Prize, which awards the winner and the structure that supports the project through the acquisition of 15,000 euros. Public award for the Audience Prize through the acquisition of 5,000 euros.

• Five other artists are also exhibited in this theme. Wang Yimo’s China exhibition consists of videos, experimental animations and light installations, set against the backdrop of a used power plant.

• Or Pierfrancesco Celada who paints a portrait of Hong Kong and its complex and multifaceted reality.

• The theme “Explore & Testify” consists of eight exhibitions. In Forest pictures: expand the worldLéa Habourdin presented his work on wild forests through two methods: l‘anthotype, an image made from light-sensitive plant material, and screen printing, a direct printing technique, in which the ink is made from plant species.

• Collective exhibition But it’s moving presents photos of life as in the United States of the 21st century.

• The “Revisit” category allows in four exhibitions to rediscover the photographer’s work through the archives. Like Lee Miller of America (1907-1977), who was Man Ray’s inspiration but also a professional photographer.

• Or compatriot Mitch Epstein who made eight trips to India between 1978 and 1989. Note that another 15 exhibits are presented as part of the “Grand Arles Express” in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region.