Jonas and the entire team of The Eye of Photography have repeated it all week: the Rencontres this year are exceptional. We talked about two of the masterpieces, Annie Leibovitz and Roger Ballen. The third one was missing: Michael Wolf. Go to the website of his gallery and judge for yourself!
With the absence of time, too, and lack of space, we missed the Dior exhibition on Serge Lutens and Tyen at 15 rue du Cloitre, the Paris Berlin Photo group at 7 rue de la Roquette, the Edith Piaf exhibition in colors at the Ortiz Foundation. Check out the hallucinating photo of the corpse of boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash and was Piaf’s lover.
There was also the WIPLAY newspaper that Julie Plus, her founder, calls the Pif Gadget (a legendary French comic book) of the world of photography and which takes again the tradition of the daily newspaper of the first Rencontres d’Arles. There was this wonderful photographer, Denis Barrau, who also publishes a book of nostalgic memories of the beginning years of the Festival.
And in the tradition, there was the reception of the Prix Pictet, the most beautiful of the week, as usual, the Galoubet, still the best restaurant in town! And then, a great sadness: the closure of the terrace of the North-Pinus hotel where everyone was meeting and that its owner decided to reserve only to its tenants. Consequence: there is nobody left and it is sinister!
The opening week of Arles was magical, and the festival will be the same until September. Next year comes the opening of the Gehry Tower, by the Luma Foundation, at the ateliers. Then… !!!!
Jean-Jacques Naudet
