The opening week of the Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles began on July 6, and the festival runs until October 4. This 57th edition features some forty exhibitions in the official program, in addition to just as many in the fringe program. The official poster is by Carlos Idun Tawaih, a young Ghanaian photographer born in 1997, whose series of intimate scenes inspired by his family albums is part of the exhibition "Ghana, Dreaming of Independence," presented at the Archbishop's Palace. This exhibition retraces the twenty years following Ghana's independence on March 6, 1957, after nearly a century of British rule, and explores the role of photography in the construction of a national identity, notably through the portraits taken by Paul Strand in the years following liberation.
Perspectives from around the world: Harlem, Sainte-Soline, Abidjan, and the Black woman in history
Among the exhibitions in the official program, several stand out. Martine Barrat presents her immersive work in the gangs of Harlem and the South Bronx during the 1970s at the Van Gogh Gallery, a perspective marked by "respect, humor, and fraternity," according to the catalog. Ming Smith, the first Black photographer to be accepted into the MoMA collection, exhibits her moving images, influenced by jazz and blues, at Saint Anne Church. Rebekka Deubner shows her research at Croisière, conducted from April 2023 to December 2025 with farmers, activists, and market gardeners in the Deux-Sèvres region, after attending the Sainte-Soline protests. Paul Kodjo, for his part, recreates 1970s Abidjan through his popular photo-novels. Ayana V. Jackson presents three series at Montmajour Abbey focusing on Black women throughout history, from the Mexican Revolution to the period of slavery. The exhibition "Animal Model" also brings together two centuries of animal photography, from William Wegman to Elliott Erwitt.
William Klein honored on the centenary of his birth
To mark the centenary of William Klein's birth, two exhibitions pay tribute to him: one at the chapel of the Museon Arlaten as part of the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival, and the other at the Polka Gallery in Paris. A painter, photographer, and filmmaker, Klein had the foresight to decipher the mechanisms of media manipulation as early as the 1950s, a foresight that resonates today with social media and fake news. The Arles exhibition, curated by Raphaëlle Stopin, notably features original plates from the maquette of his book *Life is Good and Good for You in New York* (1956), which earned him the Nadar Prize. It also explores his films, including *Mister Freedom* (1969), described by the curator as "a grotesque fable" and "a chilling echo of the Trump era," and *Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?* (1966), in which Klein uses "the fashion industry's own tools to better blow it up."
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