Cathedrals of France, temporary housing that has become permanent for refugees and migrants, abandoned churches in Italy, a doll house in every phase of its construction, a multitude of cathedrals. Northern France has been hosting in some 25 venues, both indoors and outdoors, its 22nd Photo Festival dubbed Photautumnales. This year’s show was entitled Habiter, meaning to inhabit and devoted to places that are lived in, permanently, temporarily or frequented.  Exhibition spaces ranged from small towns and the cathedral cities of Beauvais and Amiens to the seaside resort of Berck-sur-Mer and Château-Thierry in champagne country attracting thousands of visitors.  Diverse themes related to living are being explored including what constitutes a « house » is it a physical place, an identity, a neighbourhood, a region while looking at the role family ties and social and economic conditions play in living. 

French photographer Emmanuel Lardinois captured the splendour and desolation of abandoned Italian churches, places which once played a key part in daily life, but do so no longer. Meanwhile Italian photographer Emanuela Colombo took a look at an intriguing neighbourhood in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas where between the two world wars, country-like precarious wooden structures were built in a low-income neighbourhood on a steep hill by migrants to the city from the countryside.  This year’s festival also gave a nod to the 800th anniversary of Saint Peters Cathedral in Beauvais and within the context of the Cultural Year France-Brazil, a number of Brazilian artists have been invited to exhibit while five French artists have exhibitions underway in Brazil. Special to The Gourmet Gazette. https://www.photaumnales.fr/