Since its creation, the Rencontres d'Arles has promoted photography and all its stakeholders, from photographers to artists, curators and publishers. With this in mind, the Rencontres d’Arles associates the Louis Roederer Discovery Award with all exhibition spaces: through their trailblazing work, galleries, art centers, non-profits, independent venues and institutions are often the first to support emerging artists.

PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE BREATH
The 2022 Louis Roederer Discovery Award focuses neither on theme nor genre, but on the attitudes of the selected photographers towards image creation, taking a “pre-photographic” viewpoint on what drives or gives rise to a project. Here the artists begin with the intimate. On a wide range, from trauma and mourning to (re)defining the artistic self, the artists share an approach by which experience is expertise. Though formed at the verge of being, the works on show resonate beyond the particular to forge ties with conditions we have in common. The intimate thus becomes a space for the critical exploration of our society. That which the photographers are informs what they look at and what they decide to show. We might say it involves them, but in another way. Here they’re involved in a relationship between the self and the world, between them and us.
Taous Dahmani

With support from the Louis Roederer Foundation and Polka.