Planche(s) Contact, a festival of photographic creations, is celebrating its six years and its seventh edition. Six years old, that’s the age at which children go to the “big school”. For this festival, it’s the time needed to join the club of the important photography festivals. Since its creation in 2010, Planche(s) Contact has remained faithful to its founding principles and today it has established itself as a unique creative meeting point, a major festival on the map of national photographic events.
When the city of Deauville decided to create its own photographic festival Planche(s) Contact, in 2010, it wasn’t to create just another festival, but to conceive a unique festival with a seminal idea: to focus on residence programmes for creating the work and on a public commission to exhibit it and create a photographic fund.
In a process that tempted many photographers, Planche(s) Contact set as a theme the exploration and restitution of everything that constitutes the identifying factors of the city. Year after year, Planche(s) Contact arouses and combines the many viewpoints of well-known and emergent photographers and students of the great European schools of photography, on the subject of the city and its many faces.
Each year, a large part of the commission enhances the status of international photography.This year, Planche(s) Contact gave a free hand to eight photographers – Bernard Descamps, Joakim Eskildsen, Maia Flore, Laurence Leblanc, Patrick Tourneboeuf, Paolo Verzone, and Anna Broujean, and to a single project bringing together architecture and photography, titled “Archisable”. All of them have been invited to unleash their talent and express their own vision of Deauville. These photographers are succeeding Massimo Vitali, Kishin Shinoyama, Rinko Kawauchi, Gunnar Smoliansky, Paolo Roversi, Terri Weiffenbach, Filip Dujardin, Harry Gruyaert, Kourtney Roy, Kristine Thiemann and Brian Griffin, who were invited to previous editions of the festival.
The exhibitions embrace different photographic styles, in genres that include, portraiture, reportage, the nude, landscape, fiction and staged photographs, still life, fashion, architecture, re-compositions of reality…
The viewpoints of photographers of the city of Deauville, their different styles contribute to the originality and the wealth of Planche(s) Contact. Moreover, by favouring emergent photography, each edition invites and gives support to ten young talents. Ten students from European schools of photography compete for two prizes and receive grants that finance and reward their works.
The fifteen Off exhibitions associate the work of photographers who live in Normandy. The 25th Hour competition, an event both festive and participatory, brings together all lovers of photos and invites the public who likes taking pictures to compete.
Philippe Normand, Artistic Director
Festival Planche(s) Contact
From 20th October to 6th November 2016
Then Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays until 27th November 2016
Deauville, France
Three exhibition venues and four open-air exhibitions.
Information at:
http://en.deauville.fr/festival-photographic-creations
