Last year, for 2022, Rencontres d’Arles found its audience with 127,000 visitors. Since 2016, the Madame Figaro-Arles Photo Prize has been associated with this major event, selecting eight photographers whose work stands out from the women’s program.
Hannah Darby
His journey. Born in Tehran in 1981, this Iranian photographer studied there at the Faculty of Fine Arts, then continued his studies at the University of Paris VIII-Saint-Denis.
His projects. His work Enghelab street, the revolution through booksIran 1979-1983 (Ed. Spector) received the historical book award from Rencontres d’Arles. Now based in Paris, his country of origin remains the main theme of most of his series, where he explores the complex political situation. He dialogues his footage with texts, images or archival images.
What he displays. In Persian square sunPresented at Rencontres, he is interested in the Iranian diaspora living in Los Angeles. In this new life on the other side of the Atlantic, in Téhérangeles, this immigrant population leaves subtle traces of its presence through cassettes, videos, images from directory pages that Hannah Darabi tries to capture from her teenage years. .
Persian square sunHenri-Comte room.
In the video, behind the scenes of the visits of the jury of the 6th photography award Madame Figaro – Arle
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Riti Sengupta
Image from the series What I can’t say out loud. Riti Sengupta
His journey. Born in Kolkata in 1993, where she lives and works, Riti Sengupta graduated from the National Institute of Design, India. He is competing for the Discovery Prize 2023 Louis Roederer Foundation.
His projects. Through his work, he tends to shed light on the buried effects of patriarchy in the family sphere. His works are interspersed with texts, collages and illustrations that enrich his photographic practice.
What he displays. After the declaration of the epidemic, the young photographer returns to his parents. Struggling against the traditional family pattern, she can no longer ignore the intrusions of patriarchy into the everyday life of a housewife like her mother. the starting point of What I can’t say out loud is a dialogue between mother and daughter. Through these exchanges, the photographer questions the lives of the women in his family before their status as wives and mothers, and panics at the weight of the domestic role placed on their shoulders. His exhibition benefits from the support of the VII Foundation.
What I can’t say out loudabbot-preacher church.
Maciejka Art
His journey. Born in Poland in 1983, he grew up and studied in Italy. The photographer now lives and works in Mexico. He is the winner of the 2022 Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award.
His projects. Between documentary and fine art, she mixes mediums in highly decorative compositions infused with feminism and multiculturalism.
What he displays. The project Hodja Santa stems from his encounter with an all-female Afro-Mexican community in a secluded region of Mexico. Surrounded by her members, she delves into the origins of life, wonders about the realm of women and the place of women on earth. With healers and midwives, he matured a project inhabited by the magic and spirituality of shamanism that confronts the legacy of colonialism. Hoja Santa tells the story of an inner journey that the photographer takes his audience on. This exhibition is accompanied by a book published by Actes Sud.
Hodja Santa [Feuille sacrée]On a cruise.
Hannah Modig
Image from the series Milky Way2005-2014 Hannah Modig
His journey. He was born in 1980 in Stockholm, grew up in India and now lives in Sweden. He graduated from the Scandinavian School of Photography as well as the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm.
His projects. An heir to traditional documentary photography, Hanna Modig works on themes of memory and transmission. His latest project, Searching for Sivagami, focuses on capturing traces of lost memory in the search for a missing being.
What he displays. The photographer presents two of her photo series Milky Way And Archive of nostalgia. In the first, he tries to depict the period between childhood and adulthood. He questions teenagers’ search for identity, especially in the Swedish countryside where he lives. The second brings together portraits of homeless women that Hannah Modig collected during a long-term project at the shelter. In these two series, he questions the vulnerability of people and emphasizes their universality.
Sisterhood: contemporary Scandinavian photographersSaint Anna Church.
Hien Hoang
Picture of the series Asian bistro. Hien Hoang
His journey. Born in Vietnam in 1990, now lives and works in Hamburg, Germany, where he received a master’s degree in photography. He is one of the contenders for the “Discovery Prize 2023” Louis Roederer Foundation.
His projects. Marked by discrimination and the expectations imposed on immigrants from Asia, the young artist deconstructs globalized iconography. Between the fetishization of women’s bodies, the idealization of food, and outdated fantasies about a dreamy Asia, the photographer condemns by showing the reality through the prism of distortion.
What he displays. Across the Ocean takes as its starting point a letter sent by his aunt from Berlin to his family back home. He portrays a sweet life away from his everyday reality marked by surveillance and control by the Vietnamese authorities. Years later, this dichotomy jumps out at Hien Hoang, who realizes the trauma inflicted on an entire community.
On the other side of the oceanabbot-preacher church.
Emma Sarpaniemi
Sweet Lemons, 2019 Emma Sarpaniemi
His journey. Born in 1993 in Helsinki, Finland, the photographer graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, Netherlands.
His projects. She is interested in definitions of femininity and questions its depictions in pop colors and playful scenery in self-portraits reminiscent of the mistress of the field, photographer Cindy Sherman.
What he displays. His work is featured in a group exhibition at Rencontres Sisterscap. In self-portraits full of irony, Emma Sarpaniemi displays her unfettered femininity and defines play as an aesthetic. Surrounded by her friends, she explores the theme of intimacy and friendship and redefines the female figure. Emma Sarpaniemi shares a very personal universe.
Sisterhood: contemporary Scandinavian photographersSaint Anna Church.
Samantha Box
Transpant Family Portrait, 2020. Samantha Box.
His journey. The photographer was born in 1977 in Kingston, Jamaica, lives in the USA. He graduated from Bard College in New York with a degree in Fine Arts and is in the running for the 2023 Discovery Prize Louis Roederer Foundation.
His projects. The young artist has multiple backgrounds (African, Indian, Jamaican, and Trinidadian) that fuel her reflection on identity and belonging to a dream country of origin. He reveals the wealth that diasporas carry in protein installations.
What he displays. Several series of his works are presented in Arles. All question the diversity of origins and different views of History. She responds to images of slavery with family photographs, tangible evidence of an alternative history, confronts the imposed standards of colonization with ancestral knowledge, and questions the black subject in self-portraits.
Caribbean Dreamsabbot-preacher church.
Eva Nielsen
Solar submarine, 2023. Eva Nielsen.
His journey. Born in 1983 in Le Lilas, Saint-Saint-Denis, the photographer graduated from Beaux-Arts in Paris. In his works, he combines landscapes and architectural elements.
His projects. Between screen printing and painting, between hyperrealism and abstraction, Eva Nielsen’s works are composite.
What he displays. He presents the exhibition Insolare with curator Marian Derrien, both winners of the BMW Art MAKERS program. The artist fuses photography, serigraphy and painting hybridized with a sensitive and original approach. He was interested in climatic and geological phenomena. Where the elements are very present (the intensity of the sun, the strength of the wind, the salinity of the sea, etc.), particularly in Arles and the Camargue, he questions time and the deposition of the landscape.
InsolareSaint-Trophime Monastery.
Source: Le Figaro
