There have been so many surprises and discoveries during preparations for this event. 'European' photography has shown itself to be even more dynamic than we had imagined, with its new idioms adapted to new preoccupations and its great creative complexity. Thanks to the unstinting work of the participating museums and institutions as well as cultural centres and galleries abroad, the exhibition schedule offers a diverse and eclectic overview and showcases many young photographers and artists from countries that seldom share the cultural spotlight. In order to gain a better understanding of the diverse realities involved and facilitate exchanges between them, we have organized a series of conferences, film sessions and discussions on the history of photography and the new art scene. These will take place at various venues in the autumn, and for the first time there will also be opportunities to present portfolios. As we began to think about the direction the exhibition schedule would take and the way the chosen theme should be interpreted, many question arose such as whether the departure point should be Europe or the photographers themselves, how to define the limits of the word "European", and which admission criteria to adopt. We found the answers to these questions as we went along. The definition of European photography seemed necessarily to involve referring to non-European photography. The frontiers of creation are always less rigid than those between States, and the experiences of a young discipline such as photography have often been the result of exchanges between East and West, Europe and the Americas. A series of exhibitions illustrates the interplay of influences thanks to which photography has evolved over time. Examples are the exhibition at the jeu de Paume devoted to the eclectic and cosmopolitan photographer Lee Miller, "Seventies, American photographs from the BnF collection", illustrating the way photography broke away from classic documentary work in the 1970s; parallel visions of America provided by Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans at the Fondation Cartier-Bresson, showing similarities and differences in the way two major figures with closely related preoccupations approach the depiction of reality; the influence of Surrealism in the work of Erwin Blumenfeld; and "Shadows and rainbows in the work of three Latin American photographers" at the Maison de l'Amérique Latine. Getting back to European photography, an important show based on the collections of the Pompidou Centre provides a potted history of experimental photography and the avant-garde in Europe over almost a century. "Recollections" reveals the early reportage work of the young Philip Jones Griffiths before he became a celebrated Vietnam War correspondent. His pictures of England in the 60s and 70s (the daily lives of miners, the drab misery of inner city poverty and the birth of the British Beat) are a lesson in politically engaged photography and form a profoundly human testimony. Philip Jones Griffiths was eager to present this exhibition in Paris, but was unable to see his wish fulfilled before he died. The Ecole supérieure d'architecture Paris Val de Seine, where the show is being held, pays tribute to him. The exhibition on the Dusseldorf School at the Paris Museum of Modern Art is in a sense a synthesis of evolving photographic idioms, from black and white to colour and from small to large formats, opening the way to a renewed interest in the environment and the cityscape. The city with its unprecedented density is a paradigm of the profound changes that took place in the 20th century, and stands as an object of investigation or fascination. Here it takes centre stage, with Gabriele Basilico's work on Moscow in black and white and colour (seen here for the first time), Jordi Colomer's video installations, Patrick Zachmann's night photos, the work of Martine Voyeux on legendary Southern cities, and Olivier Corsan's ribbon-like concrete and neon ringroads making the architecture of our cities part of our daily experience. Whether a place for artistic creativity or a land of asylum, Europe remains a refuge and a mirage defined by real or symbolic social and religious frontiers that fixed and moving images continue to document and reinterpret, often with imperceptible differences and using means that are now difficult to codify. Exhibitions far from conventional images include "Europe échelle 27", a multi-facetted account of New Europe by ten photographers from the Signature agency; the lonely wanderings of Klavidj Sluban along the shores of the Baltic; territories at the edge of Europe marked by old emigrations photographed by Stéphane Duroy; and Mimmo Jodice's journey into the past, seeking out mythical places from Antiquity in the Mediterranean. The break with the great humanist tradition and the long-standing predominance of 30X40 format and black and white, which took place later in Europe than in the US, makes greater freedom possible. Reinventing photography and the way it is used has become not only possible, but also necessary. Among the pioneers present at the Month of Photography are Harry Gruyaert with a sound and vision installation reflecting his approach to reality via TV screens, and Sarah Moon with an invented magical world that is at once personal and poetic. Thierry Cohen's 'projections', Clark & Pougnaud's fictional pieces and experiments by various artists blending fixed images, video and technology, also push back the frontiers of photography and embrace new forms of imagery and imagination.