Pedal to the metal! The best of Arles 2026 – in pictures
The Guardian revisits a selection of photographs presented at the 57th edition of Les Rencontres d’Arles, highlighting works across the festival’s various exhibitions, from historical archives and documentary practices to contemporary approaches that reconsider the possibilities of the photographic image.
Among the featured selections is Ayana V. Jackson’s photograph To Be Black and Female in the Spanish South-West, in the Style of Selika Lazevski (2023), presented as part of her exhibition at the Abbaye de Montmajour. Jackson’s practice is described as a deconstruction of 19th- and 20th-century portraiture, using performative embodiment to challenge the colonial gaze and examine how racial and gendered identities have been historically constructed. Through her reimagining of figures such as Selika Lazevski, a Black equestrian performer in 19th-century France, Jackson reconstructs overlooked narratives of the African Diaspora and restores agency to women whose histories have often been excluded from dominant accounts.
