Photography: “Something has to change”: Portraits of Growth from OpenWalls Arles 2020

In a 1960 symposium address later published as the essay “Notes for a Hypothetical Novel,” James Baldwin championed the power of the individual in driving socio-political change in America. “We made the world we’re living in,” he said. “And we have to make it over.” If the human experience amounts to anything, it is a constant cycle of building and rebuilding: personal lives and political systems; cultures and communities; relationships and ideas. It is these notions of change and adaptation that inspired the OpenWalls Arles 2020 ‘Growth’ category — a curation of 50 single images made all the more relevant by a year of drastic global upheaval.

Following an open call last year, the winners were selected by an international judging panel, including Gwen Lee, co-founder of Singapore International Photography Festival, and Julia de Bierre, director of Galerie Huit Arles. Alongside the adjacent ‘Daily Life’ category, the images are on show at Galerie Huit Arles until 05 September, bringing together work from a total of 62 artists around the world. In the absence of this year’s Les Rencontres d’Arles due to Covid-19, OpenWalls has coincided instead with Arles Contemporain: a spontaneous festival of art, photography and performance in the cultural heart of the city.

“My portrait is of a generation that doesn’t dare aspire to anything other than the next minute, but deeply believes that, one way or the other, something has to change”
Inês d’Orey, OpenWalls Arles 2020 Winner

The ‘Growth’ category sees musings on political momentum in Argus Paul Estabrook’s eerie shot of an anti-Trump demonstration in Seoul, South Korea, or Inês d’Orey’s portrait of young Portuguese protester clouded in a fog of uncertainty. “It is a portrait of a generation that doesn’t dare aspire to anything other than the next minute, but deeply believes that, one way or the other, something has to change,” explains d’Orey, referencing her native country’s anti-austerity movement.

Winning entries from Jashim Salam, Marcio Pimenta and Brice Dossin, meanwhile, explore the effects of climate change in Bangladesh, Brazil and China; the rise of urban development is mapped by Ross Duncan in Malaysia, Tony McAteer in Egypt and Wouter Vanhees in Vietnam.

“The image encapsulates the growth of love, fear, understanding, human bonding — and impending tragedy”
Jenny Lewis, OpenWalls Arles 2020 Winner

Elsewhere are journeys of personal growth: Andreas Eichelmann’s image of Tim, who lost his arm in a train accident, adjusting to his bionic prosthetic; Shira Gold’s visual articulation of her grief-induced transformation following the loss of her mother. Jenny Lewis’s entry is painfully bittersweet, capturing new mother Rosy cradling her baby as she silently battles stage-4 bowel cancer: “We were trying to capture this moment while she stood on a cliff edge of her life,” says Lewis. “Baby Herb lies oblivious to the anxiety, while Rosy takes on more than she ever thought possible. The image encapsulates the growth of love, fear, understanding, human bonding — and impending tragedy.”

Viewed in succession, the winning selection is a powerful chronicling of resilience and innovation; love and pain; beauty and repair. It paints a world in which we must constantly fight for, adapt to, and learn from change — for it is a world in which change is the only constant.

OpenWalls Arles 2020 is on show at Galerie Huit Arles until 05 September 2020. View the full list of ‘Growth’ winners here.