[Leica] International Photographers meeting Arles france

[Jeff Williams <jeffwill_nz@yahoo.fr>]

Dear Lug

If you are anywhere near Arles in the south of France
before August 19 drop in to visit the 32nd
international meeting of photographers.

I went over on Saturday to see what it was like and
found myself biting off more than I could chew!
Saw five exhibitions in one day, which unfortunately
left three to go - should have made it a weekend
rather than a day visit. Luckily I will have time to
go back again before it finishes.
You can read all about it on http://www.rip-arles.org
although I personally found the site a bit difficult
to navigate.

Saw lots of American photographers, German
photographers, French off course! In fact everyone
seemed to be carrying a portfolio and camera bag.
Leica neckware was all around.

Briefly the exhibitions include:-

Winogrand's street theatre - Garry Winogrand took
photos in the US cities in the sixties and seventies.
These photos are as fresh today as ever and they were
for me personally the best work that we saw. 
I have to embarrass myself and say I hadn't heard of
him before. I must read more photobooks!

Luc Delahaye and others - Paris metro shots. Don't
know how he did it but every shot shows a close
up of someone on the metro, all printed on steel sheet
and hung from the ceiling as if they were sitting
together in a carriage.

Remake Berlin - eight international photographers
photographing Berlin. Interesting images, some a
bit too wierd for my taste, but I guess they are very
arty in Berlin.

David Rosenfeld - Fake passers by;  again unusual
photos on people "snapped" and showing mock
surprise. The english translation called it an
illusion of unconvincing street photography, which was
a very apt description.

Peter Lindbergh - gorgeous black and white work,
mainly fashion. 

Polaroid sponsored "eyes" competition. shots of one
eye of famous people, with another photo of
the person holding the "eye" photo. More amusing than
interesting, although the shot of 
David  Lachapelle was also a bit unusual!

Impressions of the exhibition and festival? I have
never seen so many photographers walking around with
their portfolios. Hundreds of them. See the web links
for some pics. 

<http://fr.y42.photos.yahoo.com/jeffwill_nz> pick
Arles RIP

Also popular was the publishers area where you could
go and show your work. People were queuing up and from
what I could see of the standard from peering over
shoulders I was happy to leave my work at home....

The Leica area was also popular as Leica had several
photographers (of repute apparently) patiently
reviewing peoples work. They also had a nice little
display of M series and R series hardware, Miniluxes
and other goodies. A technician was on hand to discuss
problems personally, and they were taking orders for
their magazines, as well as catering to the likes of
me who wanted to squeeze of a frame with every M
series lens they had. Never seen a Noctilux in the
flesh before, but now I have my shot!

Varta had teamed up with Leica and were replacing
batteries free of charge. Except that they had run out
of M batteries, but I got a 123 for the Minilux and
spent half an hour trying to find the battery
comparment on the O....

Most popular spot was the "Gallerie d'Essai" where you
left your portfolio to be reviewed by a jury of
photographers. They were chosing one portfolio a day
and hanging it the following day in the gallery.
This gallery was sponsored by the French company Photo
Service and I thought it was a great idea. The stand
of work on display seemed very good indeed. Lots of
fresh ideas.

All in all a very nice interesting day. I have a TriX
to develop tonight and I hope I have some nice shots
of photographers looking at other photographers work!
The web pix were taken on the finepix. Sorry :-)

Regards to you all..
Jeff  "le kiwi" 
P.S.  34 deg today, sunny as! The south of France is
not such a bad place to live..



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