Paris Photo, the world’s leading photography fair, took place last week, November 9-12th at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris. It featured a wide range of modern and contemporary photography from 150 galleries. Offprint Paris and Festival d’Automne also took place at the same time.
Paris Photo was founded in 1997 and is organized by Reed Expositions France. It is the premier international art fair dedicated to photography and shows the full breadth of the medium, from its creation to current trends.
If you couldn’t attend this year, here are a few articles to catch up.
A Bridge Between Classic and Digital
Architectural Digest has a comprehensive image overview of this year’s fair in their article, ‘The Editorial Staff’s 34 Favorites at Paris Photo 2023.’
Favorites range from Ana Teresa Barboza’s ‘Chorrillos’ which has tapestry embroidered on photography at Robert Mann Gallery, to Joel Meyerowitz’s street photograph, ‘Indy 500, Car With Small Figures Above, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, 1965,’ at Louise Alexander Gallery.
For Hero Magazine, Ella Joyce highlights another exhibitor also showing work by Meyerowitz, Fellowship, a beloved photography collective in the web3 space.
Joyce’s article, ‘Joel Meyerowitz is delving into his archive for Paris Photo Fair,’ details Meyerowitz’s project with the collective, ‘Sequels: One Image, Every Day, for a Decade.’ It’s a 10-year-long NFT project showcasing one new image from his 250,000 negatives daily. It is the first long-form photographic NFT project and unites photography, blockchain technology, and the everyday.
In Office magazine, Chidozie Obasi dives deeper into the projects Fellowship brought to the city ‘In Paris, an Exodus of Art Evades the Present to Revise the Future.’
Their lineup of artists included:
- Alkan Avcıoğlu uses AI post-photography to comment on the contemporary human experience.
- Elman Mansimov offers a glimpse into a crucial moment in AI art’s history with the first-ever text-to-image AI artworks.
- Laurie Simmons challenges preconceptions with her AI-driven image generation.
- Yatreda will showcase African culture’s richness and resilience through the art of hair.
- Roope Rainisto is renowned for reshaping cultural perspectives through AI-generated imagery.
- Simon Raion is known for his thought-provoking scenes that defy conventional roles and perceptions.
The New Digital Sector in Paris Photo
For the first time, Paris Photo added a Digital Sector. Digital art specialist Nina Roehrs curated the nine galleries and platforms.
Florence Bourgeois, the Director of the fair, explained the motive to Radio France in ‘Paris Photo: Artificial Intelligence is Making its Mark in the World of Photography,’
“It is important to us to show the emergence, to show the way in which artists will take advantage of these technologies to evolve the works and the photographic medium.
To see that certain artists who previously also worked with a camera will now move into new territories. It’s broadening the field of possibilities. But definitely, it’s a new market, still young and therefore to be tested.”
Nagel Draxler, a German gallery, showcased AI works by Kevin Abosch. The gallery is promoting AI works to push the boundaries of photography, present a new form of photography, and offer an artistic perspective on AI as it becomes more integrated into our daily lives. Abosch’s series uses his personal photographic library of Los Angeles and Paris to create a new perspective of the cities.
Paris Art Travel
If you missed Paris Photo this year, don’t worry. The fair will be back in November 2024.
If you are traveling to Paris soon, you are in luck. Many of the museum and institutional exhibitions that debuted for Paris+ par Art Basel and Paris Photo will be on display until January or April 2024. Also, The Festival d’Automne à Paris runs until next month. So, there is still plenty of time to see them.
In my article, ‘Steal My Google Map for Paris Photo,’ I cover the top four solo shows to see, including Kehinde Wiley, Mike Kelley, Henry Taylor, and Issy Wood. Kelley’s exhibition features a selection of his iconic sculptures, paintings, and installations, while
‘Kehinde Wiley: A Maze of Power’ at Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac focuses on his work from the last decade. Meanwhile, Mike Kelly’s ‘Ghost and Spirit’ at Bourse de Commerce Pinault Collection is a comprehensive overview of his career.
Paris Art Gallery Map
The ‘Find Contemporary Art’ Google Map is marked with yellow pins for Paris Photo and Offprint under the Art Fairs layer, a green pin for Tadashi Kawamata’s installation, and numbered blue pins for museums and galleries in the France layer.
To install the ‘Find Contemporary Art’ map on your phone or desktop, please write your email below, and I will send you the directions.
