Director of the Rencontres de la Photo d'Arles, Christoph Wiesner, Seeks a Mix of Renewal and Loyalty

How did the transition between directors take place after 2020, when the festival was limited to two evenings at the Théâtre Antique? With Sam Stourdzé, the handover period was rather short, because of Covid-19—but it never crossed my mind to start again from scratch. I felt it important to build on the festival's foundations and preserve the spirit of Arles while including new perspectives. What makes the Rencontres so rich is its amazingly wide gamut. And I want to maintain the balance between past and present, the familiar and the new. With twenty-odd exhibitions, the 2021 edition is less extensive than previous ones. Is this because of health constraints? Partly, yes, because some venues are too small or labyrinthine. To compensate, we are going to involve more gardens, like the one near the railway station, already used in the past, where there will be three exhibitions. We're also moving into a new garden near the Théâtre Antique, where large prints of North Korea by Stephan Gladieu will be exhibited in a way that puts visitors in the photographer's…