aixcentric

This Sunday (26th) sees the monthly fete in La Canebiere during which this famous street is closed to traffic and open to all manner of animations.

There are market stalls plus food trucks, and games for the little ones.  This attempt to tempt people back into centre ville has been growing in popularity. We have really enjoyed it.  And of course this month there is the Christmas market down at the Vieux Port to add temptation.

A wander along to La Joliette brings you to the newly christened MJ1, the shipping jetty which was so popular during 2013.  It has re-opened with a large selection of photography from the summer show, Les Rencontres d’Arles.  Having missed this, I was happy to go and catch up, but found the selection to be unremittingly dark.

The show begins with photography from the backstreets of Columbia focusing on slums, drug-dealers and prostitutes.  It then moves on to the work of seven photographers, all male, and largely showing distressing subject matter: militants in deserts, the effect of Agent Orange, the experience of one woman refugee in a Libyan camp…. One photographer has made floods his theme, photographing people standing up to their waists in water in areas as diverse as Brazil, Kashmir and the Thames Valley.  All due to climate change – but did he fly round photographing these people?  The quality of the work is amazing, just much of the subject matter depressing.

It’s a great building, good to see it in  use again………..but I would have liked the show to be balanced with some photography which is affectionate or quirky or beautiful.  If you do go to see what you think, it is open weekends so could be combined with the event in La Canebiere. https://mj1.fr/