In partnership with PhotoSaintGermain, the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris has invited the École nationale supérieure de la photographie d’Arles to present a group exhibition. Curated by Audrey Illouz and Vincent Lambert, assisted by Salimata Ida Traoré, with the collaboration of Tatiana Rosette.
Photography is intrinsically linked to a material history, dependent on the extraction of minerals—from the silver used in the medium’s early days to the search for rare earth elements essential to the construction of our technological tools today. Drawing on the theme of extractivist legacies—a central focus of research at the Beaux-Arts de Paris—the exhibition *Histoires matérielles* brings together twenty-eight students and recent graduates from the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the École nationale supérieure de la photographie d’Arles.
It takes the materiality of the image as its starting point to uncover, beneath the surface, the hidden stories associated with it. In a related vein, it addresses the modes of production of a work, adopting an archaeological approach to the image as well as ecological and postcolonial perspectives. It embraces both experimental and documentary forms. Manipulating the material, extracting resources or data, and unearthing stories and archives to reveal hidden areas are all avenues explored.
Artists from the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris: Juliette Barthe, William Basseux, Léonard Berthou, Rachel Borensztejn, Josefa Caruz Clément, Augustin Décarsin, Léna Drulhes, Nathan Ghali, Amalia Khalifa, Clarisse Pillard, Nazanin Pirmohammadizadeh, Joseph Rozé, Ika Ryu, Mattéo Sita, Mona Tchepiega.
Artists from the ENSP Arles: Calista Bizzari Malou, Guillaume Chevalier Fustec, Susanna De Vido, Pol Gallo, Marion Hamiez, Aïda Lechugo, Adrien Limousin, Gabrielle Lubliner, Lila Niel, Luka Perkins-Petit, Mélina Rard, Eliot Stein, Teeradon Thongsaard
Special thanks to Guitemie Maldonado and the students and graduates of the École du Louvre: Adrien Barbault, Marie Brochec, Erin Browne, Dylan Brune Armessen, Angèle Cloup, Alix Fortin, Matilde Guidi, Ema Holgado, Marie Juery, Albane Liébel, Xin Shan, and Ema Sikora for their writing, as well as Aymeric Gherrak and Léa Citi for stage management, and Florence Clec’h.
With support from the Neuflize OBC Corporate Foundation and Dupon.photo.art
Photo credits: © William Basseux, Untitled, 2026, and © Pol Gallo, Construction: Overlay, 2025
