Established when the festival was founded, the Rencontres d’Arles Book Awards annually celebrate the extraordinary creativity of the photography book industry and strive to be a key player in promoting it. Each award is endowed with 6,000 euros and reward a photography book published between May 13, 2025, and May 13, 2026. 

THE AUTHOR BOOK AWARD rewards the best author project for a contemporary photography work.

THE HISTORICAL BOOK AWARD rewards the best documented book on photography or about a photographer. It can either be a thematic or monographic book. 

THE PHOTO-TEXT AWARD rewards the best book in which photographs and words contribute equally to the work.

The final jury consisted of Meghann Riepenhoff (photographer), Thato Toeba (photographer), Clément Cheroux (photography historian, director of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation), Sara Giuliattini (co-founder of Polycopies and artistic programmer at La Chambre), and Marisol Rodriguez (curatorial director of the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery). They presented the three awards and special mentions to the winners during an evening event on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at the Théâtre Antique.

The preliminary jury composed this year of Basile Le Cleac’h (Director of the Atelier du Palais), Ana Gallart de Mora (Head of BAL Books), and Emilie Pautus (Founder of the independent bookstore Les Grandes Largeurs), has selected 128 books across all categories(that you can see here). The shortlisted books will be on display throughout the festival at La Mécanique Générale.

Author book award

Winner
Passports
Keisha Scarville
MACK
Londres, Royaume-Uni, 2026
Design : Keisha Scarville, Morgan Crowcroft Brown

Special mention
BRRRXL
Mathieu Van Assche
éditions Le Mulet
Bruxelles, Belgique, 2025
Design : Studio DIRK

Historical book award

Winner
Spirals 
Juliette Pavy
Four Eyes éditions 
Paris, France, 2025
Design : William Keo

Special mention
Chambre noire, archive blanche
Eugène Trutat
Lia Pradal
Editions Païen
Massat, France, 2025
Design : Lia Pradal 

Photo-text book award

Winner
Not a Cookbook
Robby Reis
Lee-Anne Millaire Lafleur, Ralph Alerte
TBW Books
Oakland (Californie), États-Unis, 2025
Design : Robby Reis, Paul Schiek

Special mention
Menú de Gaza
Ayestaran Mikel, Hammad Family 
5W
Barcelone, Espagne, 2025
Design : Justicia, Juanjo (Underbau)