6 hours in Arles // France, July 2024

Like most of my “adventures” and what I can only refer to as side-trackings (as in “I got side-tracked”, or, more accurately, “I side-tracked myself”), the decision to go to Arles in July was made at the very last minute. I’d made the trip to Provence the day before, and when I got there, my brother, his wife, and her best friend who happens to be a photographer, were floating the idea around. So I jumped on the opportunity.

Just for the record, I had just decided at the very last moment to hitch a ride on my dad’s quick trip to Toulouse from Valle d’Aosta and back, to go visit my brother and his newborn in Aix-en-Provence (for those who aren’t familiar with Mediterranean geography, Aix is kind of halfway), so yeah, spontaneity is my game, I’m not a planner, and that’s also why I’ve grown accustomed to traveling solo, most people like to know what’s coming, and it can grow uncomfortable on both sides.

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Anyways, from these few hours (half of which I spent roaming around on my own because of the point I just made), I brought back a few frames, and a few thoughts.

1. the images

2. extra: one more image I didn't take

It’s a portrait I got on the central square.

There were a few guys set up with Afghan boxes making portraits, and I chose someone who seemed friendly, and he was awesome.

He was working directly on 4×5 paper, for the negative and the positive, and then making contact prints from the paper. The reason for this was because it keeps costs low, still gives consistent results, and makes his process simple (always the same chemicals and the same developing times). I’m not going to lie, I’ve been wanting to give his paper process a try ever since, but I haven’t made it to the darkroom since the summer. I’m also going to confess that there’s a box living in our attic I’ve been thinking of converting into an afghan box after this experience.

Also, the photographer I approached was also awesome because he’s the founder of a large format camera manufacturer based in France: Fasquel Cameras. He built his own afghan box, thanks also to his know-how with building cameras.

So it was all win, I walked away with a portrait of myself I did not make, IN PRINT, wearing one of my signature cameras around my neck (he told me to keep it, thought it added much to the image and the story, and he was right). And I had a fantastic conversation with him – by the way his name is Raphaël Goutte and you can find him on instagram @felix_marcel. We talked cameras, large format, processes and other geekeries, and met on our shared love of Sally Mann (whom he met last year in Arles, she was curious, unassuming and he showed how he worked).

3. random thoughts, in no particular order

Once I’m late, there’s no such thing as too late – when it comes to sharing a summer adventure on my blog, I mean. As a matter of fact, you must know that since I knew I was going to publish this article past relevance, I made it a point for it to be very late, because I might as well. As long as the next edition hasn’t started, I’m still on point.
Arles in the summer is full of photographers of all sorts. There’s inevaitably those who are very full of themselves, but there’s also plenty of curious people and photographers who’ll take you on an adventure. Yes, an afghan-box portrait on the main square (and all the conversation around it) qualifies as an adventure.
Photography is the point, but if upon arrival you stumble on a market, get side-tracked. I personally got a very heavy quantity of Astérix and Tintin albums to bring home, but had it not been totally unreasonable luggage-wise, I would have also gone for a market basket or two.
Not everything is for everyone, and that’s OK. So give things a chance, but don’t waste your time if something doesn’t speak to you, there’s much else to see.
Actually, let me correct this last though: there is too much to see. You will saturate, accept it.
You can’t go wrong with the classics.
Best conversations are to be had with the employees at the gate, when exiting exhibitions.
There’s more to Arles than Arles. For the anecdote, last year I also had a rushed impromptu visit to Aix-en-Provence (I’ve got ancient family ties to the area, it’s one of those places) and when I left, all I could fit was a pit stop in Mougins, near Cannes, which is east of Aix, on the way toward Italy, unlike Arles which is west of Aix. I was driving a rental cinquecento with a goofy clutch back to Italy through the coast, and I knew I needed some quality time with myself before the road got seriously freaky (for those unfamiliar, the highway between Nice and the Italian border is totally insane, you need your full faculties to drive it). Anyways, I’d seen on the Arles program that they had a retrospective on Harold Feinstein so I decided to go have a look. And the exhibit was absolutely fabulous.