Festival Contact Sheets #17 – Time Capsule: The Bicentenary Trunk

What will today’s photography look like when viewed thirteen years from now? To mark the bicentenary of the first permanent photograph taken by Nicéphore Niépce, La Malle des bicentenaires is creating a time capsule entirely dedicated to French-speaking photography.

Throughout 2026, the project aims to bring together 10,000 photographs by 10,000 photographers, both professional and amateur: one image per photographer, which must be taken in 2026. A vast collective snapshot of our era, designed to preserve a record of the perspectives, practices and subjects that characterise photography today.

As part of its journey through several major photography events, La Malle will stop off at the Planches Contact Festival. Anyone will be able to submit a photograph taken in 2026 and thus contribute to this unique time capsule. Once the collection is complete, La Malle will be sealed at the Nicéphore Niépce Museum in Chalon-sur-Saône, where it will be kept until its reopening in 2039 to mark the bicentenary of François Arago’s speech.