Australia’s photographic talent is taking centre stage with On Country: Photography from Australia coming into sharp focus at the prestigious French photo festival the Rencontres d’Arles.

Co-produced by PHOTO Australia Melbourne and the Rencontres d’Arles, the exhibition marks the first-ever major presentation of Australian photography at what is the world’s longest-running photo festival until 5 October 2025.

One image Warakurna Superheroes #1 has been selected as the hero image to represent the entire Arles 2025 festival across all branding, catalogues, signage and merchandise. The image comes from a series by Tony Albert, David Charles Collins and Kieran Lawson, created in collaboration with children from the remote Northern Territory community of Warakurna.

Maree Clarke’s Ritual and Ceremony, an immersive installation including a three-metre portrait of the late Elder Uncle Jack Charles makes for an unmissable tribute at the heart of the exhibition.

This is the first time the Rencontres d’Arles has dedicated a regional focus to Australian photography, celebrating the richness and diversity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian artists on one of the most prestigious stages in the world.

Curated by Elias Redstone (Founder and Artistic Director, PHOTO Australia), Yorta Yorta woman Kimberley Moulton, Pippa Milne, and Brendan McCleary, the exhibition brings together more than 200 works by 17 Australian artists including Tony Albert (Kuku Yalanji), Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung), Brenda L Croft (Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra) and Michael Cook.

On Country Guest Curator, Kimberley Moulton, is also Adjunct Curator Indigenous Art at the Tate, Senior Curator of the RISING Festival and Curator Emeritus at Museums Victoria. She said the exhibition explores the deep connections First Peoples hold to being ‘On Country’ and celebrates contemporary Australian photography in all its complexity.

“The land we know as Australia is made of hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, with complex relationships to waterways, the cosmos, land, the subterranean and embodied knowledge that sits in a relational space of past, present and future, this is what we call Country,” she said.

“Today we share Country with many guests that also make it their home and through this exhibition we profile the multiplicity of connections and relationships within this, from our ancestral pasts to our political and social present. This exhibition is an important moment in positioning significant photography from Australia to a global audience emphasising the local and the transnational pertinence of their work.”

More than 160,000 festival-goers are expected to experience the Rencontres d’Arles this summer. The exhibition will also include a choir performance held in the Saint Anne Church exhibition space by Djinama Yilaga, an intergenerational Australian First Nations choir comprising Menero-Ngarigo and Dhurga-Yuin performers/singers. Djinama Yilaga actively revitalises languages in order to connect with ancestors, community, and Country, with many appearing in the powerful portraits by Brenda L Croft featured in the exhibition.