Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles 2022

The world-renowned Arles-based photography festival, Les Rencontres de la Photographie, is celebrating its 53rd edition this year. Its current director, Christophe Wiener, announced that the 2022 edition is dedicated to revealing the potency of women photographers who have thus far remained hidden in history. Ironically though, the majority of those featured in the show are either already well known, such as Lee Miller and Susan Meiselas, or appear as curiously dated, particularly the 1970s performers represented in the section called Une Avant-Garde Féministe, curated by Gabriele Schor from the Verbund Collection in Vienna and on display at the La Mécanique Générale. Many photographs still shock, such as Valie Export’s self-portrait, showing her sitting with the crotch of her jeans cut out and a sub-machine gun on her lap. Yet, the mass of images (200 for 73 women) is overwhelming in density, tending towards a fusion of political correctness and déjà-vu fatigue.