• 25.06.2025
• 7 min
• Events

From May 24 to 31, 2025, Uzès transformed into a theater of images and stories, hosting the 10th edition of the Biennale de la Photographie. Orchestrated by the Les Azimutés association, this edition marks a turning point: now a biennial event, it establishes itself as an anticipated fixture of the Southern cultural scene. Far from the hustle and bustle of daily news, it invites a step aside, a lucid and sensitive pause in our relationship with the world.

The theme, “Witness of its time, passer of memory”, set the tone. A discreet yet persistent common thread ran through the exhibitions: that of traces, heritage, and what images can still transmit when words are no longer enough. In an era where the instantaneous prevails, these photographs reintroduce a form of slowness, gravity, and sometimes even tenderness. They reveal the intimate, the invisible, the marginal. They speak of love, anger, loss, and hope.

The entire city served as a setting for these works. From the courtyard of the Town Hall to the discreet spaces of the historic center, including the Deleuze-Rochetin estate in Arpaillargues, the exhibitions nestled within the ancient stones, opening like chapters of a great visual novel. Walking from one place to another was like leafing through a collective travel diary, nourished by perspectives from here and elsewhere.

Among the works that marked this edition, that of Eric Androa Mindre Kolo moves with its quiet strength. The Congolese artist, deeply touched by the violence against women in his country, chose to translate this indignation through a poetic and impactful body language. His approach finds an echo in the series Targets, created by photographer Paola Guigou, which delicately and modestly documents the condition of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Together, they remind us that art can be a cry, but also a gesture of love, an act of silent repair.

At the other end of the emotional spectrum, yet equally poignant, the work of Breton photographer Jean-Louis Mercier offers a luminous immersion into the life of a Traveller community in his region. His series Des amis manouches is the result of an encounter, followed by a deep attachment. He found there a family of the heart, an intense humanity that is often ignored and sometimes despised. His perspective on these familiar faces is loaded with respect and emotion — a tribute to a nomadic and misunderstood culture, but also a declaration of friendship and admiration.

And then there is the almost suspended narrative by Solange Tabary, Market day with the Uyghurs in Kashgar, a rare testimony of a fading world. What began simply as the travelogue of a curious traveler has inadvertently become a precious archive. Her snapshots chronicle the daily life of a people now in peril, in a China where this gentle art of living no longer exists. These are images laden with silence and melancholy, as if contemplating a memory that does not belong to us, but one we would cherish nonetheless.

It would be reductive to view this biennial as a mere succession of exhibitions. It is much more: a place for dialogue, sharing, and transmission. Each image becomes a bridge between one perspective and another, a past and a future, an emotion and an awakening. As Dominique Nouzille, the festival's communications manager, rightly points out, this edition gambles that photography can still touch, make people reflect, and awaken.

By taking the time—that of encounters, reflection, and a biennial organization—Les Azimutés patiently weaves a sensitive web in the local cultural landscape. An artistic breath of fresh air, certainly, but also a gesture of trust toward the public: believing that by taking the time to look, we can still feel.

And perhaps this is the true power of this biennial: reminding us that an image is sometimes worth a thousand words—because it doesn't just tell, it makes you feel. It doesn't show to convince, but to connect. It keeps alive what might otherwise have disappeared. And in the silence of a glance met in Uzès, between the warm stones of a town hall or the calm of a shaded courtyard, one finds oneself remembering what one has never experienced.

Cover photo: Les Azimuts d'Uzès