The coastal town of Deauville has established itself as a premier destination for contemporary photography, hosting its 16th annual Planches Contact festival from October 18, 2025, to January 4, 2026. This year's edition focuses on the theme of intimacy, challenging photographers to explore the invisible connections between the spaces we inhabit and our personal narratives.
Deauville has cultivated an intimate and privileged relationship with visual storytellers who capture, frame, and narrate through books, film, and photography. This photographic dialogue owes its existence to Philippe Augier, mayor of Deauville, who sought to establish a lasting relationship of trust and creativity with visual artists. For sixteen years, the Planches Contact festival has become an essential gathering for photography enthusiasts, recognized for its bold artistic choices and commitment to the residency spirit.
The festival embodies a philosophy where photography doesn't merely document reality but invents new ways of seeing. As Susan Sontag described, images are "pieces of the world, miniatures of reality." In Deauville, photographers collect, cut, and compose pieces of Normandy to open windows onto the territory. Since its inception, more than 170 artists have explored the region's landscapes, from the iconic boardwalks to the interior countryside, from intimate interiors to windswept coastlines.
This year's edition opened under the tempestuous autumn winds with intimacy as its central theme. The challenge posed to the twenty selected artists was to capture the invisible and reveal what lies behind appearances. The question driving their work: How do the spaces we inhabit shape our perspectives, personal stories, and memories?
The featured photographers include international talents such as Lin Zhipeng, Myriam Boulos, Carline Bourdelas, Renato D'Agostin, Julien Magre, Anna Malarida, Amna Rafael Minkkinen, Henrike Stahl, and Frédéric Stucin. Competing for the Young Photographic Creation Prize are Jérémy Appert, Simon Bouillère, Naïma Lecomte, and Anaïs Ondet. Additionally, artists supported by the photo4food foundation grant include Daniel Blaufuks, Adrien Boyer, Amélie Chassary, and Marilia Destot. Their works and perspectives will be unveiled from October 22, 2025, to January 5, 2026.
Several significant changes distinguish this 16th edition. The festival features new artistic direction from Jonas Tebibet, representing the art market sector, and Lionel Charrier from the press, bringing fresh interpretation to the festival. The visitor experience has been completely reimagined, utilizing various emblematic locations throughout the city including Les Franciscaines, Le Point de Vue, and outdoor spaces such as the beach and Quai de l'Impératrice Eugénie. However, this outdoor approach carries risks, as demonstrated when violent winds forced the removal of Frédéric Stucin's installation on the day of the press visit.
The festival has expanded its international reach with an off-site residency focused on the same intimacy theme, conducted in Beirut by Myriam Boulos from Magnum Photos agency. There's also a strengthened commitment to emerging talent through the redesigned Young Photographic Creation Prize, featuring an expanded jury and new leadership under Rima Abdul-Malak. On October 26, Naïma Lecomte won this prize and will benefit from an exhibition at the InCadaqués festival, while the Jury Prize winner will receive a residency at Villa Pérochon, the Contemporary Photographic Art Center in Niort.
Samuel Becker serves as guest of honor, proposing a curated selection of books exploring intimacy. His contribution adds a literary dimension to the festival's exploration of personal and intimate spaces.
Planches Contact also demonstrates concrete social engagement through its collaboration with the photo4food foundation since 2020, which finances meals for the underprivileged. This partnership enables the expansion of photographic residencies and enriches the programming. This year, four artists received support to create works exhibited at the festival, which are then sold to benefit the Red Cross.
During the opening weekend, an auction featured 24 prints from the residencies, and a Solidarity Shop offers fixed-price works from previous editions. The festival's founder describes it as offering "a moment of respite in a world saturated with images and videos that chain together, distract us, but ultimately deprive us of time to observe, understand, and feel."
The festival represents a dense and vibrant celebration of contemporary photography, inviting visitors to Deauville to breathe in the scent of sea spray and the precious essence of rediscovered time. More information is available at planchescontact.fr.
