Les Rencontres d'Arles 2025: Our Favorite Exhibitions

Back from Arles after an adventure in the Mobile Lab during the festival’s opening week, we all agreed on one thing: this is something you must not miss this summer. So we decided to highlight our top 3 favorite exhibitions in this article (we could have listed more, but we didn’t want to spoil everything or make this too long). If you're a fan of exhibitions, love photography, and are passing through the region this summer—go! You have until October 5, 2025.

You'll discover black and white and color prints, vintage prints made by the artist himself, modern silver prints, and digital works—by both iconic photographers and emerging talents—all exhibited in Arles’ unique venues and cultural landmarks.

1. Letizia Battaglia — ≪ I Have Always Searched for Life ≫

Letizia Battaglia (1935–2022) is featured for the first time at Les Rencontres d'Arles. A key figure in Italian photojournalism, it was essential that her work be presented at the Festival, and she was given a prominent place in the beautiful Chapelle Saint-Martin du Méjan.

Throughout her career, Letizia photographed Palermo with deep humanity—from life to death—hence the exhibition’s title “I Have Always Searched for Life.” After starting in the Italian press in the early 1970s, she joined L’Ora in Palermo, where she documented the violence of the mafia for over a decade. She didn’t see her photography as an art form but rather as a job, a tool for exposing the city’s poverty and its ties to the mafia—realities that were often censored in mainstream media. This exhibition mirrors the brutality of her images—crime scenes, lifeless bodies—with moments of joy and vitality: family meals, children playing, religious festivals, portraits of young women, daily life, lovers kissing…

The exhibition presents more than 100 works, including books, publications, and magazines, illustrating her exceptional humanist commitment. It shows not only the political impact of her work—turning crime scenes into almost theatrical moments—but also her aesthetic sensitivity to religious rituals, popular festivals, and everyday Palermo life.

What stood out to us:
The balance between tragedy and hope: each print evokes both death and the persistence of life.
A raw yet necessary confrontation with the violence of the 1970s–80s, counterbalanced by faces of humanity and resilience.
The editorial and activist dimension—especially her large public prints in Palermo, symbols of street-level, alert-driven journalism.

→ Our take: A powerful and committed exhibition that masterfully balances mafia warfare with celebrations of life. A must-see.

   
➡️ On view until October 5, 2025, at (11) Chapelle Saint-Martin du Méjan, Arles

2. The World of Louis Stettner (1922-2016)

Brooklyn, Paris, post-war subways and train stations—Louis Stettner (1922–2016) offers a subtle blend of American street photography and French humanist photography, with a poetic, geometric, and sober aesthetic. He discovered photography when he realized it could be a personal means of expression, not just reportage.

This retrospective features nearly 150 photographs—some never before shown and printed by the artist himself—alongside archive documents, contact sheets, and personal writings. The mood of his images feels like something out of fiction, like a noir film. His black-and-white shots are mysterious, sometimes even uncanny, with distinctly graphic compositions. Deeply committed to the humanist movement, he often places people at the center of his images. Outraged by social injustice, he created a series on workers, capturing their gestures and bodies in anonymity. He descended into the subway to photograph everyday people, documenting their expressions on the way to work.

The exhibition also reveals his lesser-known work in sculpture and painting. He explored nudes, abstraction, and color variations whenever he needed a break from photography. He used to say: "When I sculpt, I feel I should be photographing. When I photograph, I feel I should be sculpting." At the age of 90, he started a large-format series in the Alpilles, photographing tree trunks 14 times.

What stood out to us:
The elegance of his urban compositions, where geometry and human gestures intertwine.
The New York / Paris series, capturing a post-war world rebuilding itself, with a discreet yet vibrant humanity.

→ Our take: A thoughtful and refined dive into the post-war era, where the ordinary becomes sublime. A sensitive tribute to a photographer who captured the essence of daily life.

   
➡️ On view until October 5, 2025, at (4) Espace Van Gogh, Arles

3. David Armstrong

At LUMA Arles, deep inside Frank Gehry’s tower, the underground space hosts a quiet, intimate exhibition dedicated to David Armstrong (1954–2014), a key figure of the Boston School and friend of Nan Goldin. The exhibition is built around large-format vintage portraits on the walls, original silver prints, and enigmatic landscapes—revealing an artist deeply focused on emotion, loss, and memory.

At the center of the concrete space lie massive glass-topped tables filled with countless medium format contact sheets, many scribbled with notes. This gives viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Armstrong’s process—his black-and-white portraits of 1970s–80s New York youth, a rebellious and free-spirited generation that you’ll have fun spotting on the walls.

In the next room, the contrast is striking: digital screens project a slideshow of his color photographs. The format shifts from intimate portraits to snapshots of carefree life—apartment parties, convertible rides, getting ready for a night out, beach trips. The vivid colors and raw emotion speak volumes about a generation that approached life with a distinct attitude.

What stood out to us:
His portraits, like Cookie at Bleecker St. or Stephen at Home, breathe trust and tenderness—capturing suspended moments.
His hazy landscapes, silent witnesses of the post-AIDS era, create an atmosphere filled with nostalgia and fragile existence.
The emphasis on analog photography fosters immersion and intimacy with his portrait work.

→ Our take: A rare and delicate exhibition. In this image bunker, Armstrong reminds us of the strength of a simple, affectionate gaze. A meditative, immersive experience.

   
➡️ On view until October 5, 2025, at (22) La Tour LUMA, Arles

These three exhibitions share a deep humanity: from Battaglia’s fierce photojournalism, to Stettner’s urban poetry, and Armstrong’s bittersweet intimacy. Each invites us to pause, observe, and feel. At Arles 2025, this Top 3 deeply moved us by making the invisible visible, and by evoking emotion through image.

Les Rencontres d'Arles
From July 7 to October 5, 2025
Arles, 13200

Discover the program