Latvians in Arles

From July 1 to 7, in Arles, France, the opening week of the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival took place. The Arles festival is considered one of the major events in photography, both in terms of its scale and the number of visitors. For photography, Arles is like Cannes for the film industry – an almost mandatory event if you want to network with industry professionals, and for those who manage to get into the official program, it’s also a great honor and fame. I have been to Arles four times already, and this time I went with photographer and Milda Books publisher Georgs Avetisjans, traveling nearly 5500 km back and forth by car.

I had several reasons for going to Arles this time. Both of our latest books made it to the short-list of the Arles Photobook award – my book The Scene in the Author Book category, and Georg’s Motherland in the Photo-Text category. Another book from Latvia also made it to the finals – the book Gleizd’s Method published by Talka in the Historical Photobook category. Together with Georgs, we also participated in the Arles photobook fair, and in addition, I had to review the works of other photographers in the portfolio review, and I encountered my zine Velvet Blood Noir for the first time, which was created using a risograph by the French publisher Editions Bessard. Between conversations and glasses of wine, I turned on my phone and filmed. Both series have English subtitles.