by Wayne J. Cosshall August 5, 2006 (text and images below © 2006 Wayne J. Cosshall) (A version of Wayne's report originally appeared on the The Digital ImageMaker website) (with Added Notes by Harald Johnson at end) The Rencontres D'Arles de la Photographie opened 4th of July and runs through to 17th of September with photographic exhibitions, folio evaluations and much more. ABOVE: Many photo exhibitions were held in several former railway sheds. These were connected by gravel paths lined with orange flags (à la Christo's Central Park project), which formed an interesting subject in its own right for all the photographers present. This was the first Arles photo event I have managed to get to, courtesy of Hewlett-Packard (a big thank you), one of the major sponsors of the event. Photography takes over this old Roman town and in addition to the official festival events, there are photographic shows all over town and spread over two-and-a-half months, though the core festival week runs at the start of July. ABOVE: Les Ateliers de SNCF, the old railway warehouses on the edge of town, were the setting for several of the exhibitions. Above are visible portions of two important shows in the Atelier de Mécanique by Guy Le Querrec and Jean Gaumy, both of Magnum Photos. Arles is a great opportunity to over-dose on photography. People fly in from all over the world for a combination of exhibitions (lots of them), lectures and socializing with old and new friends. This year there was a lot of what I would call documentary-style photography on show. However, given the huge number of both official and unofficial photo exhibitions, you could find work of all genres and to suit all tastes, from straight fine-art photography through to the heavily manipulated digital. ABOVE: Lots of photographic prints were located outside. Shown is a mammoth panoramic from French photographer Jean-Francois Rauzier, who specializes in digitally manipulated "hyper-photos." In the foreground are photographers and directors of the Digital Outback Photo website, Uwe and Bettina Steinmueller. ABOVE: And here's what was inside the building of the wall shown above: HP's Print Center, which this year was housed in an old chapel. The Print Center provided printing and custom digital press (Indigo) books for any photographer who wanted it. Given how many shows were on, and how beautiful Arles is, I took to just wandering around and stumbling onto photo exhibitions in little laneways. There was also some guerrilla activity going on, with people gluing postcard-size images all over the place on walls and street signs. ABOVE: Everywhere you turned, there were photo exhibitions. I must confess to having been overwhelmed by the amount of photography on show at my first Arles. So rather than try to note individual photographer's names whose work caught my eye, I chose to instead just soak in the atmosphere and get an overall feeling for the photography exhibited. What was obvious is that photography is alive and kicking, if rapidly moving into the digital domain. The vast majority of cameras I saw were Canon, and then Nikon, digitals, though there were a fair number of Leica film cameras in evidence too. If you get the chance to go, I can recommend Arles, and I'll be back if I get the chance. Just be prepared for it to be very hot, expect visual overload, and take lots of film or memory cards! Following are more visual highlights to give you a feeling for Les Rencontres d'Arles. ABOVE: Onsite photo and photo book printing was available right outside the Photo Folio Review area. The Folio Review was new this year and provided the opportunity for photographers to have their folios reviewed by an international panel and for selected ones to have their work exhibited. ABOVE: The exhibition of new photography books from the previous year shows there is no shortage of desire to publish great photo books. ABOVE: Many churches were pressed into service as exhibition venues. ABOVE: Talks, seminars, and workshops were omnipresent. Here, David Saffir from California discusses a hot topic at one of the HP Technical Breakfasts. Other presenters included: Henry Wilhelm, Andrew Darlow, Andrew Behla, Neil Snape, and Gérard Niemetzky. ABOVE: Arles is a great place to socialise with other photographers. Here we have, from left, Nadia Salemeh, Helen Golden, Mark Alberhasky and his wife Cindy, and John Henshall. Mark is a columnist on the DIMi site. John (from England) and myself (from Australia) spent the night telling dirty jokes to our American friends. A great time was had by all, and we discovered that English and Australian humor seems to be universally enjoyed. Perhaps it was the wine. :) Wayne J. Cosshall is a writer, educator and artist. His main publishing effort, at present, is www.dimagemaker.com, a website with articles, reviews, etc. on all topics having to do with imagemaking. His personal art site is www.artinyourface.com. Wayne has been involved in digital imaging since 1978 and has gone from running a university research group in computer graphics to writing for and editing basically all Australian photography and graphic design magazines, and contributing to many U.S. ones. Along the way, he has been Assistant Director of the International Digital Art Award for the last five years and has exhibited his own artwork locally and internationally. Wayne sees himself primarily as a teacher, whether that is done through the vehicle of lecturing, running workshops, mentoring, or through his writing and publishing activities. Wayne can be contacted at wayne@dimagemaker.com. ^ back to top ADDED NOTES... (text by Harald Johnson; images too, except where noted) Here's a little story from this year's Arles to give you a flavor of what happens over and over in this photo-crazed town... I ran into New York-based, Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey at the Magnum Photos party late one afternoon. "Hey, Harald," he said when he spotted me and came over with his glasses propped high on his forehead. "You gotta see my show before you leave." David was giving a lecture in two days, but I was leaving then, so would miss it. We agreed to meet at the HP lecture space in the Arlatan Hotel the next PM. They had a digital projector all set up, and I knew we could get in and use it during a down period. It would be just me and him viewing his digital slides. I was honored by the invitation and readily accepted. So the next day I'm walking over to the Arlatan and I run into someone I know entering the Place du Forum [shown in the pano image at top of this page]. It's virtually impossible NOT to run into people you know in Arles! He asks me where I'm going, and I mention that I'm meeting David Alan Harvey, who's going to show a few images in private. "Can I come along?" was the immediate response. I figured David wouldn't mind; what's another person? "Sure." The two of us then run into another mutual friend on the way. "Where you guys going?" Same story, and we invite her along as well. The three of us find David in the meeting room off the courtyard at the Arlatan. He's setting up his laptop, and introductions are made. Turns out he also ran into a couple of friends, and they're there as well. More introductions, although half of the people already know each other. We all sit facing the screen, someone turns off the room lights, and David starts his show. He has a couple of photo stories loaded, and the images are mezmerizing. Gang members who David has been interacting with for some time... Dancers caught in mid-movement on the dance floor... David has an amazing ability to put you, the viewer, right in the middle of the action, as though you were on that same dance floor dancing right next to the couple pictured, an invisible witness. "There are two ways to be invisible with photography," David explains to me later. "You either get far away, use a long lens. Or you get so close that you're just part of the scene and everyone forgets you're a photographer; you're just one of them. I go for the second approach." As the images dissolve into each other, the oohing and aahing from the audience continues, a little louder than I would have expected, and I turn around in my front row seat. To my surprise, the room is half-full! Like some kind of insect radar, people just knew that there was a "happening" happening, and they found their ways to that little lecture room and David Alan Harvey showing some pictures. That's Arles. Some more images to help flesh out the Arles scene... ABOVE: This image taken at the Espace Van Gogh is pure Arles. Here you have a photo exhibition, a photo portfolio review, and a photo discussion or debate, all in a 10-square-foot area. Now multiply that out to an entire town, and you have some idea of what Arles is all about. ABOVE: Another view of the HP Print Center. You couldn't miss the long panorama titled "Commémoration" by Jean-Francois Rauzier. This 1+ GB image is normally displayed at the amazing size of 1352x250 centimeters (that's 44x8 feet!). It was printed slightly smaller here in sections. ABOVE: Flipping one of Wayne's images around, this is the inside of the Portfolio Review, with photographers and reviewers hard at it. ABOVE: Well-known French photographer Bruno Barbey of Magnum Photos wowed attendees at his HP Creative Cafe lecture with his superb imagery. ABOVE: And American icon Joel Meyerowitz did the same on another day. Other Creative Cafe speakers included: David Alan Harvey, Douglas Kirkland, and Jean-Francois Rauzier. ABOVE: The striking over-sized mesh prints in the "Recadrer L'Histoire" exhibition of Susan Meiselas of Magnum Photos in Les Ateliers. ABOVE: Pink Bow at the Eleni Bakopoulos exhibition "Minotaur." ABOVE: Instant wall art. Photo by David Saffir. www.davidsaffir.com ABOVE: A highlight of the Arles festival are the nightly shows at the Théâtre Antique (antique Roman theater). These open-air shows start late and feature image projections on a screen 10 meters high with a choreographed sound track that blasts out to the crowd of up to 2,000 photo enthusiasts who are known to loudly acclaim their appreciation or disdain. Headsets are available with simultaneous English translation. In the image above, poet/rocker Patti Smith adds to the entertainment. Photo by Andrew Behla. www.behladesign.com ABOVE: No, this is not another photo screening. This was the audience watching the World Cup Semi-Final (France v. Portugal) in Arle's Place de la République. Official Arles Rencontre events were postponed in advance to adjust for the interest in this match. (France won!) Photo by David Saffir. www.davidsaffir.com Harald Johnson is a digital printing and imaging consultant and the author of the books Mastering Digital Printing, Second Edition and Digital Printing Start-Up Guide, both published by Thomson/Course Technology. He can be reached at harald@dpandi.com. ----------------------------------- Arles Details: Les Rencontres d'Arles July 4 - Sept. 17, 2006 10 rond-point des Arenes 13200 Arles, France info@recontres-arles.com www.rencontres-arles.com ^ back to top read other Events Reports here

Home | About Us | Advertise | Contact Us

News & Reviews | How-To's | Resources