Amateur and professional photographers traveled throughout France—some commissioned by the Commission des Monuments Historiques—to build photographic archives. In this context, the city of Arles, considered an “open-air museum,” became a prime setting for the emerging art of photography.
The exhibition presents a selection of these early photographs taken in Arles between 1845 and 1880, a period that saw the emergence and development of architectural photography and heritage policy.
All the photographs on display come from the collections of the Arles Media Library. A slideshow featuring nearly 70 images accompanies several original photographs.
