Edition 2019

CLERGUE & WESTON

FIRST SHOW, FIRST WORKS

In July 1970, the Festival d’Arles opened the first Rencontres Photographiques under the leadership of Lucien Clergue, Jean- Maurice Rouquette and Michel Tournier with An Homage to Weston, a show of 36 prints by Edward Weston, whose photographs were then very rare in France. To mark the festival’s 50th anniversary, we are recreating the Weston show as it was presented in 1970. At the same time, we wanted to celebrate the festival’s founder, photographer and curator Lucien Clergue. Weston seems like a tutelary figure who guided Clergue’s first steps as a photographer, as his notebooks, most dating from the 1950s and unknown until now, attest. We have brought themt ogether for this show. Reuniting them for this anniversary is a way of recognizing that the history of photography is written in successive strata. Clergue’s fossilized carrion singularly respond to Weston’s anthropomorphic works.

Exhibition curator: Sam Stourdzé.
Exhibition produced in collaboration with the musée Réattu and l'Atelier Lucien Clergue.
Framing of Lucien Clergue’s notebooks by Atelier SHL, Arles.

With support from Saif.

  • 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