If you find yourself heading to Arles for Les Rencontres D’Arles and OpenWalls Arles this summer:
Los Angeles-based photographer Osceola Refetoff’s solo exhibition “It’s a Mess Without You” opens at Galerie Huit Arles on July 4, 2022. There will be an artist’s reception on July 7, 12h-15h. It is presented by 1854 Media – publisher of the British Journal of Photography – in association with the gallery as part of OpenWalls Arles, a global photography award program. The show remains on view through September 25, its run coinciding with the entire duration of Les Rencontres D’Arles, the world’s premier international photography festival.
During the initial throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, “It’s a Mess Without You” won OpenWalls Arles 2020’s top prize – also known as “The Story Award” – in the “Daily Life” competition, which recognizes a single photographer for a complete portfolio. The show was open to the public as a site-specific installation that summer in the historic 17th-century vaults under Galerie Huit’s main floor in the ancient town of Arles, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Les Rencontres was cancelled though, and attendance was limited. This year’s “part deux” presentation makes it available to all those flocking to Arles for the finest in photography.
Offering open windows for OpenWalls, Refetoff’s “It’s a Mess Without You” comprises color photographs made through the windows of abandoned structures in the California desert. All images are in-camera single exposures, not composites. Refetoff says, “In this age of digital manipulation, many people assume the scenes outside the window frames have been captured at a different location. They are not, and I think that premise is central to the work. Here, the window operates not only as a literal subject, but also an aesthetic and narrative device to frame the story of these landscapes, and the derelict structures that are tenuous monuments to our interaction with desert environments.”
Pictured: “It’s a Mess Without You – Cinco, California – 2011” (first printed 2014)
www.ospix.com/
www.1854.photography/awards/openwalls/winners/osceola_refetoff/
www.1854.photography/2020/07/its-a-mess-without-you-osceola-refetoff-explores-abandoned-dreams-in-the-american-west/
www.galeriehuitarles.com/
