LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award 2025

A selected author will receive a €25,000 production grant, including €3,000 in royalties, to help turn their dummy into a photobook co-published by Les Rencontres d'Arles and a yet-to-be-determined publisher.

Overview

For the 56th edition of the festival, Les Rencontres d’Arles and the LUMA Foundation are once again offering the LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award, a prize to help publish a book model. Initiated in 2015 and endowed with a production budget of €25,000, this award is open to professional photographers and artists using photography, upon proposal of a book model that has never been published. Special attention will be paid to experimental and innovative editorial forms.

Practical Info

The award is open to all photographers and artists using photography of all ages and nationalities. Their work must have appeared in group and/or solo shows and publications that have gained them national or international recognition. The submission can be individual or collective. Only one project may be submitted. It must be unpublished and not under contract to any publisher. The project submitted must be as close as possible to its final version, including the form and materials (type of paper, etc.), and technically feasible within a traditional book production framework. The project must be financially feasible within the production budget allocated by the award and may be modified by the designated publishing house if it is awarded the award.

The project must be submitted both physically and digitally completing the online form and submitting title and cover of the dummy, a short presentation of the project, a short biography, and a CV. In the event that the project is pre-selected or if it wins, a second copy will be requested in order to be kept in the archives of the Rencontres d'Arles; the copy initially received will be exhibited during the 2025 edition.

A pre-selection of works will be made by Les Rencontres d'Arles and LUMA Foundation during the month of June, followed by the designation of the winning work, which will be announced during the opening week of the festival, on Friday, July 11 at the Théâtre Antique. The jury will take into account the editorial quality of the presented project and its technical and financial feasibility.

The shortlisted projects and the winning dummy book will be exhibited from July 7 to October 5, 2025 as part of Les Rencontres d’Arles official program and, in whole or in part, online on Les Rencontres d'Arles website, for one year after the participant’s consent. Authors will be asked to send a second copy, not returned, which will be included in the archives of Les Rencontres d’Arles.

The award comes with a €25,000 production grant including €3,000 of royalties, for the author or authors. This sum is intended exclusively for the production of the presented project. Les Rencontres d'Arles, in collaboration with the chosen publisher, will ensure the project’s editorial and financial follow-up.

The book will be co-published by Les Rencontres d'Arles and a yet-to-be-determined publisher in consultation with the winner. Les Rencontres d'Arles will cover the costs of producing the winning work within the limits of the award’s endowment (pre-press, printing, publication) and will ensure the editorial follow-up in collaboration with the chosen publishing house. The choice of the service provider will be made according to the type of project proposed and in consultation with the author. Production of the book will begin in late 2025, early 2026.

About Les 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.