The Rencontres d’Arles book awards were created at the same time as the festival in order to support the swift growth in the publishing of photography books and to help them reach a broader public. There are now three categories of awards: authors’ books, historical books and, since 2016, photo-text books. The Fondation Jan Michalski pour l’Écriture et la Littérature backs and encourages the Photo-Text Award, which celebrates the relationship between words and images. Each award comes with a €6,000 prize and singles out the best photography books published between June 1, 2016 and May 31, 2017. A jury of photography book experts announces the winners’ names during opening week. Each book is received in two copies: one is deposited at the library of the École Supérieure de la Photographie d’Arles, the other put on public display throughout the festival period.

The shortlisted books for the Book Awards are now online:
> Authors book award
> Photo-Text book award
> Historical book award

The jury composed of Florian Ebner (Centre Pompidou), Laia Abril (photographer), Jerome Marc (Fnac), Vera Michalski (Fondation Jan Michalski pour l’écriture et la littérature), Wim Van Sinderen (Fotomuseum Den Haag) and Newsha Tavakolian (photographer) deliberated today. The winners are:

AUTHOR BOOK AWARD 2017
Ville de Calais
Henk WILDSCHUT
GWINZEGAL, french version editor ; Henk WILDSCHUT, english version auto edited

SPECIAL MENTION FOR THE AUTHOR BOOK
Kent Klich, Gaza Works
Kent KLICH, Louise WOLTHERS, Dragana VUJANOVIC OSTLIND
KOENIG BOOKS LTD, Sweden.

PHOTO-TEXT AWARD 2017
The Movement of Clouds around Mount Fuji, photographed and Filmed by Masanao Abe
Masanao ABE, Helmut VÖLTER
SPECTOR BOOKS, Germany.

HISTORICAL BOOK AWARD 2017
LATIF AL ANI
Latif AL ANI, Morad MONTAZAMI, Tamara CHALABI
EDITIONS HANNIBAL, Belgium.