Established in 1986 as a festival for young fashion designers, and adding a prize for emerging photographers in 1997, the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion accessories, Hyères has established itself as a small but beautiful festival with a cutting-edge handle on photography in fashion and beyond.
The artistic director for photography is Raphaëlle Stopin, and this year she’s presenting exhibitions such as a solo show by Craig McDean plus a 25-year retrospective of Self-Service magazine. As usual, the festival also features work by 10 up-and-coming photographers, plus exhibitions by the two prize winners from 2018 – Eva O’Leary (who won the Grand Prix for photography last year) and Sarah Mei Herman (who won the American Vintage-sponsored prize).
The finalists for the 2019 competition are: Federico Berardi (Switzerland – Italy); Hubert Crabieres (France); Kerry J Dean (United Kingdom); Tommy Kha (China – USA); Hilla Kurki (Finland); Vincent Levrat (Switzerland); Alice Mann (South Africa); Andrew Nuding (Ireland); Jean-Vincent Simonet (France); and Elsa & Johanna (France). Their work will be on show until 28 May, and as well as competing for main prize, they will be commissioned to shoot new images for a Still Life Prize, and for the American Vintage Photography Prize.
This year 700 photographers entered the prize, with the final ten picked out by a jury composed of: Craig McDean (photographer, president of the jury); Marc Ascoli (creative director, AnOther Paris); Thomas Bonnouvrier (manager, Art + Commerce Paris); Patrice Haddad (producer, Première Heure Paris); Paris Lees (journalist, London); Patrick Li (creative director, founder, Li Inc. New York); Guinevere Van Seenus (model, New York); Masha Vasyukova (filmmaker, Paris); and Eva O’Leary.
Alongside these shows, there will also be exhibitions and presentations of work by fashion and accessory designers. The festival is held in the Villa Noailles, a Modernist villa built by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles in the 1920s in Provence.
Diane Smyth is a freelance journalist who contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, The FT Weekend Magazine, Creative Review, The Calvert Journal, Aperture, FOAM, IMA, Aesthetica and Apollo Magazine. Prior to going freelance, she wrote and edited at BJP for 15 years. She has also curated exhibitions for institutions such as The Photographers Gallery and Lianzhou Foto Festival. You can follow her on instagram @dismy
