Rencontres d´Arles 2024 and a very down-to-earth approach to portraits
As every year I visited the Rencontres d'Arles photo festival in the south of France in June. Unlike in previous years, I visited the city in the third week of the festival and not in the opening week. Most of the events had already taken place and the city was a little quieter. Some pop-up galleries and exhibitions as part of the parallel Off Festival were no longer running. Nevertheless, five days were more than enough for me to see a lot.
Among the exhibitions of the Rencontres d'Arles festival I was particularly impressed by the works of Lee Friedlander at the Lumaturm and Mary Ellen Mark at the Espace van Gogh. The breadth of human encounters captured in her photographs was truly moving. I also enjoyed the exhibition of female Japanese photographers near the monastery, although the books by Japanese photographer Hiromix, which were difficult to obtain, were unfortunately locked behind glass. The Off Festival, which runs concurrently, includes InstantArt, where international photographers showcase original Polaroid works. This is a fantastic opportunity to engage with the revival of instant photography in an artistic context.
With the current photographs in the exhibitions, I sometimes found the composition and overall quality of the pictures a bit lacking. The photographers' themes or intentions overshadowed everything, which didn't do the pictures any good and didn't really capture the audience's attention. But that is certainly a matter of opinion.
In addition to the numerous exhibitions, the days in Arles were also perfect for enjoying the tranquillity and lifestyle of the deep south of France.
A very down-to-earth approach to portraits
Anyone visiting Arles will also notice the increasing number of street photographers who offer to create analogue portraits using often homemade wooden cameras. These photos are taken and developed directly on the street, often with a self-made camera. After 30 minutes at the latest, you will have your portrait in your hand. The functioning of the Minutera camera with negative and positive processes is extremely pragmatic and can be realised with the simplest of means.
Street photographer Guillaume and his camera Minutera with his client Justine posing for the portrait.
The photographer positions the person to be portrayed and focuses the image on the focusing screen. A light-sensitive photographic paper is inserted into the photographic paper holder in the camera so that the photographer can reach into the camera by hand without light penetrating. The lens cap is then removed to expose the photographic paper. The exposure time is usually only a few seconds, sometimes the time is measured and sometimes the photographer follows his intuition.
The exposed photographic paper is placed in the camera's developing tray to make the image visible and then in the fixing bath to stop the development and stabilise or fix the image. After fixing, the paper is rinsed in a bucket of water to remove the chemical residue and the developed photo paper shows a negative image of the subject.
The negative is mounted on a holder in front of the camera, and the camera is aligned and focussed on the negative. Another piece of light-sensitive photographic paper is inserted into the photographic paper holder in the camera.
Washing out the positive image after development and fixing in the analogue process.
The negative image is photographed again so that a new, positive image is created on the second piece of photographic paper.
The same development process (developer, fixer) is applied to the new photographic paper. The result is a positive image of the original motif. After fixing, the image is rinsed again with water and dried. This two-stage process makes it possible to produce both negatives and positives with simple means and without expensive equipment.