Le musée arlésien de la photographie : Nouvel accrochage des collections

In 2026, photography will celebrate its 200th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the Ministry of Culture has launched a major celebration season, which will highlight historical and contemporary works, as well as national and regional public collections, through the end of 2027. The City of Arles is joining in by offering, from September 2026 to September 2027, a program of festivities exploring the connection between architectural heritage and the medium of photography since the mid-19th century, as well as the presence within its borders of several photographic collections, of which the Réattu Museum’s is arguably the most unique. Conceived by curator Jean-Maurice Rouquette and photographer Lucien Clergue, the Réattu’s photography collection was, in fact, the first of its kind established in an art museum in France, in 1965. Based exclusively on the acquisition of fine-art prints, it
quickly attained the same prestige as the collection of paintings, sculptures, and graphic arts that the museum had inherited, under the title “Photographic Art Section.” Now comprising more than 6,000 prints, the collection derives its richness and balance from both its representation of the major movements in the history of photography—such as French humanist photography and American “Straight Photography,” photojournalism, fine art photography, and experimental photography— —and support for contemporary creation, driven by an active acquisition and exhibition policy. The exhibition thus features more than 200 original prints by some 50 photographers, as well as several slide shows that further reveal the depth of this exceptional collection.