Photographer Edward Steichen Exhibition Opens at Luxembourg's Merl Park

On Monday 13 July 2026, the City of Luxembourg (VdL) and the Lët'z Arles association officially opened a reproduction of the exhibition "The Nature of Edward Steichen" at Merl Park in Luxembourg-Merl.

The opening ceremony was led by Maurice Bauer, First Alderman of the City of Luxembourg, Ruud Priem, curator of the exhibition, and Cécilia Zunt-Radot, Director of Lët'z Arles, and attended by French Ambassador to Luxembourg Christophe Bouchard and more than 40 invited guests.

In his opening speech, Maurice Bauer described Edward Steichen as "an exceptional artist" and "a pioneer" of photography, stressing the importance of showcasing his work. "We want to bring art and culture to where people are," he said, explaining that displaying the exhibition in Merl Park allows visitors to discover photography in an open public space rather than inside a museum. "Here, we can further democratise art, and especially photography," he added. Maurice Bauer also praised the longstanding partnership between the VdL and Lët'z Arles, describing it as one of the city's strongest cultural collaborations and expressing his commitment to continuing it in the years ahead.

The open-air exhibition features seventeen reproductions selected from a larger collection of 65 photographs currently on display in Arles as part of the Rencontres de la Photographie. The images highlight Edward Steichen's lifelong fascination with nature, exploring the influence of flowers, botany and landscapes on the work of one of the twentieth century's most influential photographers. It will remain on display until Sunday 25 October 2026.

Speaking at the opening, Cécilia Zunt-Radot, Director of Lët'z Arles, said the exhibition in Arles had received an "extraordinary" response from both photography professionals and the public, revealing previously unknown aspects of Edward Steichen's work. She stressed that bringing part of the exhibition to Luxembourg was an opportunity to share this knowledge beyond traditional museum spaces. "It's very important for us to present exhibitions in places outside museums," she said, adding that the park setting creates "a beautiful and poetic correspondence" between the photographs and the surrounding natural environment.

Exhibition curator Ruud Priem explained that selecting the works for Merl Park from the much larger exhibition in Arles had been a challenging task. He added that the natural surroundings provide an ideal setting for the photographs: "It's wonderful to see the subjects of the photographs presented in this natural environment, where you can compare the trunk of a tree in a photograph with the trunk of a real tree." He also noted that Steichen's fascination with nature "is infused throughout all of his photographs", helping visitors discover that the Luxembourg-born photographer "was as much a gardener and flower grower as he was an artist."

Following the official ceremony, curator Ruud Priem led guests on a guided tour of the exhibition, highlighting several of Edward Steichen's best-known works. Among them were Moonlight: The Pond, which sold for $2.9 million at a Sotheby's auction in 2006, and The Flatiron, which fetched $11.8 million at Christie's in 2022.

During the tour, Ruud Priem explained that many of Edward Steichen's nature photographs were deeply personal projects. He pointed to a series documenting a single tree growing in the artist's own garden in West Redding, Connecticut, photographed over five or six years in different seasons. "He was following the life of a tree in the theatre of nature," Ruud Priem said, noting that the series reflects Edward Steichen's lifelong fascination with the natural world.

Speaking to Chronicle.lu, Cécilia Zunt-Radot described Edward Steichen as one of the defining photographers of the twentieth century, noting that his career spanned six decades of continuous experimentation and innovation. She added that displaying the exhibition in Merl Park offers visitors a unique way to experience Edward Steichen's work. "The connection between his work and nature resonates with everyone walking through the park. It's like taking a stroll through nature while discovering extraordinary photography," she said, adding that "sometimes it's good to reconnect with beauty.”

The Merl Park exhibition is a reproduction of The Nature of Edward Steichen, which is currently on display at the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival in France until 4 October 2026. The exhibition was co-produced by Lët'z Arles and Luxembourg's National Museum of Archaeology, History and Art (MNAHA) in collaboration with the Estate of Edward Steichen.