Les Rencontres d’Arles Photographie is one of oldest photography festivals dedicated entirely to documentary photography. Each year in June, Europe’s photography scene takes over the French town of Arles. Visiting the exhibitions is one part of the program, but the most important part takes place during the first ten days of the festival, when curators, critics, museum directors and photographers meet to forge new collaborations, ideas and to enlarge their network.
Every year there’s one main exhibition, which is curated by the festival director. Next to this main exhibition there are several ‘trails’ – like the Rock trail with rock (music) photography tracing back to the founding year of the festival – each trail revolving around a guest of honour.

The program exists of numerous exhibitions throughout the town of Arles, workshops, portfolio reviews, book awards and a school program. There is also a Photo Folio Review, for which you pay €280 for ten sessions of 20 minutes each. Contact person for this part is Elena Fertil. Email: photofolio@rencontres-arles.com, telephone: +33 (0)4 90 96 76 06. Registration forms and guidelines can be found on the website.

The festival awards several prizes: The Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award goes to a photographer or an artist who uses of photography, whose work has recently been discovered internationally. The winner receives €25,000 and is chosen by a jury of photography professionals present in Arles during the opening week.
The Contemporary Book Award of €8,000 goes to the best photography book published between 1st June 2009 and 31st May 2010. The Historical Book Award of €8,000 goes to the best thematic book or monograph published between 1st June 2009 and 31st May 2010. The Book Award winners are chosen by the five Discovery Prize nominators: Rencontres d’Arles president Jean- Noël Jeanneney, and LUMA Foundation founder Maja Hoffmann. Entry forms are available on the website.