“A bit like a storybook character” is how Iris Millot, this year’s winner of the Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents, describes her great-aunt Hélène. In a series of photographs titled “Mont Lion”, Millot examines the overlap between the women’s liberation movement and farming history through an intimate glimpse into the life of Hélène, who has been nurturing the family’s remote farmland in the French Alps for forty years.

Millot’s work, while deeply personal, takes the viewer on a sweeping journey spanning across time and social class, shining light on the remnants of a life lived in the countryside through a mix of portraiture and still-life photography.

Fitting for a student of the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie D’Arles (ENSP), Iris Millot’s award-winning series will be displayed along with the work of 12 other finalists in the Grande Halle at the arts center Luma Arles. Among the finalists is Jermine Chua, a student at Central Saint Martins in London, whose video earned an honorable mention from the jury.

Among the jury is the founder and president of Luma Arles, Maja Hoffman, as well as Dior Makeup’s creative and image director Peter Philips, art historian and photographer Damarice Amao, photographer Barbara Iweins, and director of the Parisian Maison Européenne de la Photographie, all overseen by renowned Brazilian fashion photographer Rafael Pavarotti.

Along with the exhibition at Luma Arles, which will be open between July 3^rd and September 24^th 2023, the House of Dior has awarded Millot a grant and a creative commission.