Discovery Award Louis Roederer Foundation 2027

The Rencontres d'Arles invites galleries, art centers, and cultural institutions to propose exhibition projects by emerging photographers for the 2027 Discovery Award, with a €15,000 jury prize and €5,000 public prize.

Overview

The Discovery Award Louis Roederer Foundation celebrates emerging voices in contemporary photography and recognizes artists whose work deserves wider international visibility. Since its creation, the prize has served as a key platform for discovery, supporting photographers at early stages of their careers and amplifying new perspectives within the field.

Selected proposals will form part of the Discovery Award exhibition during the 2027 edition of the festival. Two awards will be given during the opening week: the Jury Award, which includes the acquisition of artworks for a total of €15,000, and the Public Award, which awards €5,000 in acquisitions. In both cases, the prize is shared between the artist and the supporting organization, and the acquired works enter the collection of the Rencontres d'Arles.

This year's invited exhibition curator is Yining He, a China-based researcher and curator whose work focuses on the intersections of philosophy of technology, media ecology, and global photographic art. She will work on the development of the projects from selection to exhibition design. In her curatorial statement, she writes: "We are looking for image makers who don't just picture the shifting ground. We want those who push against it and argue with it."

Each selected project will have an exhibition space of approximately 10 linear meters (50 m²). The Rencontres d'Arles will provide a production budget of €3,000 for each exhibited project, cover insurance during the exhibition, handle mounting and dismounting, and provide accommodation and travel for the artist during opening week.

Practical Info

Since 2021, the prize has been closely tied to institutions and organizations such as galleries, art centers, artist-run spaces, community spaces, and cultural institutions that identify and support emerging talent. Only these professional structures may apply; artists themselves cannot submit directly. Each organization is invited to propose an exhibition project for one artist or collective whose recent photographic work has been discovered or deserves to be seen by an international audience.

Applications must be submitted online before midnight Paris time on 8 December 2026. Each submission should include a short presentation of the organization (maximum 400 characters), the organization's exhibition history and portfolio, a short biography of the artist (maximum 700 characters), the artist's CV including exhibitions and publications, the artist's portfolio, a title and presentation text for the exhibition project (maximum 1,500 characters), a list of proposed works with dimensions and medium, an exhibition layout or scenographic simulation, an estimated production budget using the provided template, and a selection of 10 images from the project. All texts must be submitted in French or English.

If selected, the artist and partner structure commit to producing and presenting the exhibition within the framework of the Rencontres d'Arles 2027. The project must not be exhibited publicly prior to the festival. The organization is responsible for producing the works in ready-to-hang condition, roundtrip transportation of works to Arles or Paris, insurance during transportation, and supervision of the project in coordination with the festival and curator.

Shortlisted projects will be announced in January 2027 on the Rencontres d'Arles website. The jury award is determined during the festival's opening week by a jury of experts invited by the Rencontres d'Arles. The public award is determined by festival visitors' vote. The exhibition will run from July to October 2027 as part of the 58th edition of the Rencontres d'Arles.

About Rencontres d'Arles

Every summer since 1970, over the course of more than forty exhibitions at various of the city's heritage sites, the Rencontres d'Arles has been a major influence in disseminating the best of world photography and playing the role of a springboard for photographic and contemporary creative talents.