UFO Show Captivates with Amateur Images
Les Rencontres de la Photographie, the world's most prestigious photography festival in Arles, France, is showcasing 'We Are Not Alone: Alien Images,' a standout exhibition drawing on dozens of UFO photographs from private and public archives. Most images were made between the 1960s and 1980s, when UFO sightings peaked, particularly in the US. While the pictures are often the result of rudimentary tricks or misidentification, their idiosyncratic storytelling captivates viewers.
Included are works by Paul Villa, a mechanic from Albuquerque who claimed telepathic communication with aliens, and Billy Meier, a Swiss man who has taken over 1,400 UFO photographs since childhood. One of Meier's images appears in the famous 'I Want to Believe' poster from The X-Files. The exhibition also features footage from the 1995 Ray Santilli pseudo-documentary 'Alien Autopsy,' which aired on international news channels, highlighting the power of belief in convincing viewers of fabricated images.
First Major Solo Show for Paul Kodjo in France
At La Crosière, the Ivorian photographer Paul Kodjo, who died in 2021, receives his first major solo exhibition in France, the result of over 15 years of preservation work with an archive of thousands of negatives. Kodjo photographed Abidjan's dance halls and fashion, and was among the first African photographers to create 'photo novels.' The show centers on theatrically staged scenes of seduction, romance, and subterfuge from the 1960s and 1970s, originally printed in a weekly Sunday paper. These photographic soap operas, with titles like 'Lost and Found,' reveal the culture and social attitudes of a prosperous era in Ivory Coast.
Animal Model: 200 Years of Animal Photography
At Méchanique Generale at Luma Arles, 'Animal Model' spans 200 years of animal photography, from 19th-century naturalism to TikTok videos. Curated into sections, it features serious artists such as Elliot Erwitt, Andreas Gursky, Roni Horn, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, alongside Masahisa Fukase's 'Ravens' series—an angsty exploration of mental illness through symbolic birds. The show also highlights Polish biologist Simona Kossak, who lived in the Białowieża Forest with a lynx and wild boar for three decades. The exhibition's themes of coexistence align with other shows at Luma, including Verena Paravel's 'Delta,' which uses innovative camera and sound techniques to reveal sounds usually inaudible to humans, and Saodat Ismailova's 'Amanat, The Sacred Forest,' a poetic film series shot in Kyrgyzstan's Arslanbob walnut forest, known for its hallucinogenic nuts and rich folklore.
Ming Smith and Martine Barrat: Overlooked Masters
At the historic Saint Anne church, 80-year-old American artist Ming Smith's 'Wandering Light' marks her first solo show in France. Her soft, blurred black-and-white photographs, such as the 1978 masterpiece of Sun Ra, capture energy and refuse to fix subjects in space. Meanwhile, Martine Barrat's 'Soul of the City' showcases her intimate portraits of South Bronx gangs and residents from the 1970s. The 93-year-old photographer, who moved to New York in 1968, worked closely with the Roman Kings and Ghetto Brothers. Her film 'You Do the Crime, You Do the Time' drew thousands to the Whitney in 1978. Barrat's minimal compositions, featuring a six-year-old boxer or a gang leader on his release day, are compared to the work of Bruce Davidson and Roy DeCarava. As she states, 'It is in places of violence that I find love.'
Festival Challenges Hierarchies
While some group shows feel stale and celebrity exhibitions by Patti Smith and Charlotte Gainsbourg misfire, the festival's focus on UFOs, animals, magical forests, and interconnectedness creates a harmonious whole. By placing amateur alien pranksters alongside William Klein, and elevating neglected masters alongside viral TikTok videos, Les Rencontres de la Photographie continues to challenge what makes a valuable photograph for our times. The festival runs at various venues in Arles until 4 October.
