![\"Pin](\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=https:\/\/www.anothermag.com\/art-photography\/17323\/rencontres-d-arles-2026-the-best-photo-shows-to-see&media=https:\/\/images-prod.anothermag.com\/1000\/azure\/another-prod\/470\/5\/475967.jpg&description=Park)
<\/a>Park Chan-wook, Faces 13, 2013Courtesy of the artist\n Park Chan-wook at Lee Ufan Arles<\/p>\n
Next: a filmmaker with a lesser-known but no less impressive photography practice. Park Chan-wook \u2013 the auteur behind some of contemporary cinema\u2019s most exquisitely crafted thrillers \u2013 has taken over the top floor of fellow South Korean Lee Ufan\u2019s foundation in the heart of the city. Beautifully restored by Tadao Ando, the former townhouse is a suitably poetic setting for the European debut of Park\u2019s photographic explorations.<\/p>\n
Few photographers possess the director\u2019s finely tuned ability to see \u2013 and convey \u2013 the narrative potential inherent within a seemingly unremarkable scene. Through Park\u2019s lens, a set of closed summer parasols emerges as a cluster of melancholic ghosts, all drooping white-sheet bodies and gloomy expressions. A lone bird flies toward the mouth of a whorled cloud as if it\u2019s the entrance to a new realm. The curation invites just as much attention: the image of a dead whale is placed alongside a close-up of a weathered grey wall with a stone that looks uncannily like a whale\u2019s face, while a photograph of an elegantly twisted tree trunk hangs next to a dark interior shot with an almost-identical helical column at its centre. The show is a masterclass in gripping storytelling through static imagery and mustn\u2019t be missed.<\/p>\n
Inside the imposing Palais de l’Archev\u00each\u00e9, one of the festival\u2019s key venues on the Place de la R\u00e9publique, a compelling exhibition delves into the history of Ghana\u2019s independence \u2013 gained in 1957 after more than a century spent under British colonial rule \u2013 and the role of art, music, literature, theatre and dance in reshaping Ghanaian identity thereafter. It features a treasure trove of documentary imagery \u2013 by James Barnor, by American photographer Willis E Bell in collaboration with Ghanaian playwright Efua Sutherland, by Paul Strand \u2013 all of which opened up \u201cnew spaces of representation for the country and its people, far removed from colonial-era imagery\u201d. The show\u2019s final room is dedicated to a new generation of contemporary Ghanaian artists whose practices draw on, and bring new meaning to, such archival imagery. This includes Carlos Idun-Tawiah, whose constructed visual narratives \u201cblend fiction and nonfiction, past and present, memory and imagination to explore the profound beauty and complexity of African life\u201d, and Rita Mawuena Benissan, who translates archive photography into striking textile works.<\/p>\n One of three shows on display at the Maison des peintres this year, Ozymandias by the Indian artist Aman Alam makes for profoundly affecting and beautiful viewing. Alam began the monochrome series \u2013 which takes its title from Shelley\u2019s 1818 sonnet reflecting on the illusion of permanence \u2013 as a means of processing his grief after his beloved grandmother Naseem was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s. Early works examined his grandmother\u2019s \u201cunique perception of the world amidst corrupting memories and an eroding sense of self\u201d, but the ongoing project soon expanded into a broader enquiry into \u201cwhat it means to be known, to remember, and to forget\u201d. More abstract images \u2013 including fleeting snapshots of animals and a dried walnut resembling the human brain \u2013 are interspersed with candid depictions of Alam\u2019s family as they navigate the painful reality of caregiving, as well as intimate pictures of his grandmother performing rituals, such as prayer, that persist despite her cognitive decline. The result is a work that resounds with love just as much as it does loss \u2013 and firmly establishes Alam as an artist to watch.<\/p>\n Simone Weil famously declared that attention is the \u201crarest and purest form of generosity\u201d, a sentiment entirely befitting the work of French-American photographer and videographer Martine Barrat, showcased in an exhibition at the Espace Van Gogh. The 93-year-old artist \u2013 who, rather wonderfully, has resided at the Hotel Chelsea for more than 50 years \u2013 moved from Paris to New York in 1968 to work as a dancer. An accident scuppered her original plans, and instead she sought a creative outlet in film and photography, finding inspiration and collaboration within the city\u2019s marginalised neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n With the exception of a section centred on Paris, the show homes in on Barrat\u2019s New York studies, revealing a deeply humanist artist whose curiosity comes without judgement, and whose respect and commitment to her subjects have resulted in lifelong friendships \u2013 and marvellous work. Highlights include You Do the Crime, You Do the Time, a documentary made with South Bronx gangs the Roman Kings and the Ghetto Brothers, who allowed Barrat unprecedented access to their world, and Do or Die, a raw but surprisingly tender photo series capturing young boxers-in-training across Harlem, Bed-Stuy and the Bronx.<\/p>\n Alongside excellent solo shows by Ivorian photographer Paul Kodjo<\/a> and German artist Rebekka Deubner<\/a> at the same venue, three graduates from Arles photography school ENSP have been selected to present images from their degree projects as part of this year\u2019s festival. All are worth a visit, but Can I Come to Your Place? by Denis Valery Ndayishimiye is the standout. The series is a study of \u201cthe transformations of Black masculine identities across the European diaspora\u201d and is made up of portraits of male subjects captured at home in Berlin, New York, The Hague and beyond. Each is accompanied by a text detailing the photographer\u2019s encounter with the subject, written in the second person to draw the viewer into the exchange and soften the traditional hierarchy between photographer and photographed. Initmate and engaging, the portraits reveal the quiet complexities of identity, showing Black masculinity not as a fixed idea but as something shaped by friendship, family, solitude and the spaces people call home.<\/p>\n At Arles\u2019 contemporary art institution, Luma, don\u2019t miss Animal Model, a delightful celebration of photography\u2019s encounters with the animal world, which spans two centuries of image-making and features some of the medium\u2019s biggest names. Expect to see Elliott Erwitt\u2019s comedic snapshots of big dogs, little dogs and all other kinds of dogs alongside their humans; Rinko Kawauchi\u2019s lyrical animal portraits from her renowned series Aila; and a touching selection of photographs of the Polish biologist Simona Kossak, who spent more than 30 years living in the Bia\u0142owie\u017ca Forest with no electricity or running water, sharing her home (and her bed) with an array of wild animals. Not to mention Helmut Newton\u2019s iconic shot of a crocodile appearing to devour a Pina Bausch dancer, Martin Parr\u2019s playfully observed human\u2013creature interactions, and much more besides. [NB. While you\u2019re at Luma, be sure to see the brilliant exhibitions by Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective<\/a>, and Stan Douglas \u2013 both warranting the separate Luma entry fee.]<\/p>\nCarlos Idun-Tawiah, Many Reasons to Live Again, 2022Courtesy of the artist and Galer\u00eda Alta
\n Ghana! Dreaming Independence 1957\u20131976 at the Palais de l’Archev\u00each\u00e9<\/p>\nAman Alam, Lost Horse (from the series Ozymandias), 2020\u2013ongoingCourtesy of the artist
\n Aman Alam at the Maison des peintres<\/p>\nMartine Barrat, Eric Williams, the domino champion, Harlem, 1983Courtesy of the artist and La Galerie Rouge
\n Martine Barrat at Espace Van Gogh<\/p>\nDenis Valery Ndayishimiye, Joel \u2013 The Hague (from the series Can I Come to Your Place), 2025Courtesy of the artist
\n Denis Valery Ndayishimiye at Croisi\u00e8re<\/p>\nRinko Kawauchi, Untitled (from the series Aila), 2004Courtesy of the artist
\n Animal Model at Luma Arles<\/p>\n