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(all photos © 2005 Harald Johnson except where noted otherwise) |
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When I walked off the TGV high-speed train from Paris in Avignon just north of Arles, a blast of hot air signaled my arrival in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of France, named after the mighty Rhône river that flows by both towns. This was my second trip to the Arles Photo Festival in as many years, and the event just keeps getting better to my eyes.
ABOVE: Each year's Arles Festival uses a vegetable or fruit as its theme. The Rencontres de la Photographie (which translates to photographic meetings) is an annual festival each summer where thousands of photographers, mostly of the fine art persuasion, take over the tiny town of Arles, best known as the place where Van Gogh did some of his most interesting work (and where the citizens of Arles in 1889 circulated a petition to have the artist evicted, which led to his self-commitment in a nearby asylum in Saint Rémy de Provence). You can actually follow a sort of tour of several of Van Gogh's painting locations, complete with reproductions of the painting made at that spot. And beyond Van Gogh, Arles offers some of the finest Roman ruins in the world, including an arena and an amphitheater where some of the Rencontres activities actually take place. There's something very magical about sitting in a theater where plays and entertainments captivated the audience more than 2,000 years ago.
ABOVE: The Arènes (arena) sits on the highest hill of Arles. It dates from the 1st century AD, and it is still used for bullfights and other events. A cleaned section is at right.
Arles is the oldest international photo festival in the world and serves as the model for many of the others, including Houston (FotoFest) and Toronto (Contact). This year's 36th-annual installment (July 5 to September 18, 2005) featured more than 50 photo exhibitions, evening projections in the Antique Theater, seminars, workshops, portfolio reviews, competitions, prizes, parties, and oh-so-much more. Some of the most important people in photography regularly attend with professionals meeting during the first week and others taking over from there. A few notes and impressions follow:
ABOVE: "La Nuit de L'Anné." Photo courtesy of Didier de Faÿes, www.photographie.com.
• I was invited to give a lecture on digital printing by HP France, which was a major sponsor of the event along with other well-known French companies such as SFR, FNAC, ClearChannel, Dupon Labs, and also the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Others from the U.S. also invited to speak by HP included Henry Wilhelm, Douglas Kirkland, Jack Duganne, and the New York duo of Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg.
ABOVE: U.S. lecturers included (clockwise from top left): Henry Wilhelm, Douglas Kirkland, Christopher Makos/Paul Solberg ("The Hilton Brothers"), and Jack Duganne.
ABOVE: Paris-based photographer and color expert Neil Snape (left) gave a lecture on optimizing inkjet printing complete with comparison prints.
• There were photo exhibits everywhere you turned. One of the more interesting exhibition spaces was the group of old SNCF train-station warehouses a short walk from the town center (see below).
ABOVE: Clockwise from top left: photo books, portraits by Arthur Omar, "Why Mister, Why?" by Geert Van Kesteren, and "automaton" portraits by Denis Rouvre.
• HP sponsored several of the exhibits plus the very cool Hype Gallery, a kind of instant, large-format Gallery for anyone with a digital file (see below).
ABOVE: HP's Hype Gallery.
• A festival of this size takes lots of organization, and Director François Hébel and President François Barré do an admirable job.
ABOVE: On the stage, Rencontres Arles President François Barré at far right. The others shown are local and regional dignitaries who all made long speeches (the French love to talk, don't they? ;-). Inset: Arles Director François Hébel; photo courtesy of Didier de Faÿes, www.photographie.com.
• What would a photo festival be without photographers taking pictures? Below, Douglas Kirkland (from L.A.) takes advantage of an impromptu background to photograph Paul Solberg and Christopher Makos (from New York).
SIDE TRIPS...
ABOVE: (left) your faithful reporter in a lavender field (and his "Vincent" hat), If you're going all the way to France, might as well stop by the birthplace of photography in Chalon-sur-Saône and nearby Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, which are located about halfway between Arles and Paris. This is where Nicéphore Niépce made the first successful attempts of what we now call photography between 1816 and 1826.
ABOVE: (left) the world's first photograph was taken through a window on the first floor (second floor in the U.S.) of this country house in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes; Niépce's gravesite is less than a mile from the house.
And no trip to France is complete without a stop in Paris. Below is an exhibition I visited at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in the 4th District. Martin Parr himself was in Arles for the festival.
ABOVE: The Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.
----------------------------------- Harald Johnson has been immersed in the world of commercial and fine-art imaging and printing for more than 25 years. A former professional photographer, designer, and creative director, Johnson is an imaging consultant, the author of the best-selling book Mastering Digital Printing (first and second editions), and the creator of DP&I.com (www.dpandi.com). Harald is also the person who--when he was working in Paris long ago as an audio-visual director (réalisateur en audio-visuel) and operator of a private photo lab--introduced multi-screen slide shows (spectacles multi-écrans) to France. |
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