Besides perhaps its claim to fame as the town where Vincent Van Gogh sliced off his ear about 140 years ago, the southern French city of Arles is best known for its annual Les Rencontres d’Arles, quite likely the world’s premier annual summer photography festival. 

Founded in 1970 by Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, writer Michel Tournier and historian Jean-Maurice Rouquette, the summer-long festival dominates the city from the beginning of July through the end of September. The number of visitors topped 100,000 for the first time in 2016 and more recently drew 145,000 in 2023.

Photography exhibitions are staged everywhere, from galleries and museums to restaurants and cafes, even butcher shops and bakeries. There is also ample spillover onto the walls of this city of 51,000 – that’s what this post illustrates, in 18 photos, taken in October 2025, about 10 days after that year’s edition concluded.

I enjoy places where art, mostly unauthorized, tends to gradually take over a city’s walls – most certainly more than the owners and/or tenants of the buildings whose exteriors are turned into exhibition spaces. I didn’t like it all but I liked the attitude behind it. There was plenty on display throughout Arles immediately post-fest, so it appears that enough of the city’s residents like it, or at least tolerate it, too.

2026 Arles Festival dates: 6 July through 4 October.

Photos from 16 October 2025.