Edition 2017

In the studio of DATAR's photography mission

The look of 15 photographers

Closed on 24 September 2017
Dominique Auerbacher (1955), Gabriele Basilico (1944-2013), Alain Ceccaroli (1945), Despatin (1949) & Gobeli (1949), Robert Doisneau (1912-1994), Tom Drahos (1947), Pierre de Fenoyl (1945-1987), Jean-Louis Garnell (1954), Albert Giordan (1943), François Hers (1943), Josef Koudelka (1938), Christian Milovanoff (1948), Sophie Ristelhueber (1949), Holger Trülzsch (1939)

In the Studio of DATAR’S Photography Mission looks back at how important the Mission was in the careers of some of today’s leading contemporary photographers. To mark its 20th anniversary, in spring 1983 the Land Development and Regional Action Delegation, better known by its French acronym, DATAR, commissioned photographers to participate in a huge project to “record France’s 1980s landscape”. Originally planned to last just a year, the project eventually ended in 1989. Twenty-nine photographers—young or established, French or foreign—worked on the project. The exhibition gives visitors some insight into the intricacies of the creative process during a project that has become legendary in the history of photography. It will also be an opportunity to have some of the project’s little-known images dialogue with private archives.
Raphaële Bertho et Héloïse Conésa

Exhibition curators: Raphaële Bertho and Héloïse Conésa.
Exhibition coproduced by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Rencontres d’Arles.
Modern prints and wallpaper by Picto, Paris.
Framing by Circad, Paris.
The BnF will host an extension of the exhibition, French Landscapes, a Photographic Adventure, from October 24, 2017 to February 4, 2018.

  • Institutional partners

    • République Française
    • Région Provence Alpes Côté d'Azur
    • Département des Bouches du Rhône
    • Arles
    • Le Centre des monuments nationaux est heureux de soutenir les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles en accueillant des expositions dans l’abbaye de Montmajour
  • Main partners

    • Fondation LUMA
    • BMW
    • SNCF
    • Kering
  • Media partners

    • Arte
    • Lci
    • Konbini
    • Le Point
    • Madame Figaro
    • France Culture