For ten years now the LUMA Foundation has been backing the Rencontres d'Arles Discovery Award and the Contemporary and Historical Book Awards. This year brings a new era in the collaboration between the Foundation and the Rencontres: with a subsidy of 180,000 € for the programming, production and organisation of the Discovery Award exhibition and prize-giving ceremony, LUMA is reaffirming its commitment to creative photography and its practitioners.

The Discovery Award goes to a photographer or an artist making use of photography whose work has recently been discovered or deserves to be. Every year a panel of directors and teachers from major photography schools is chosen to nominate candidates for the award. Each candidate is given a solo exhibition in the Parc des Ateliers and the winner is chosen at a public vote by photography professionals during the professional week. The winner receives 25,000 €.

THE NOMINATORS OF THE DISCOVERY AWARD

Phillip S. Block, Deputy Director for Programs for the International Center of Photography in New York, John Fleetwood, Head of the Market Photo Workshop, a school and gallery for photography in Johannesburg, Tadashi Ono, Director of the new photography/contemporary art section at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, Jyrki Parantainen, Professor of Contemporary Art Photography for the Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki and Olivier Richon, Professor of Photography at the Royal College of Art in London.