Look back of Paris Photo 2021, France

As the world’s largest international art fair dedicated to the photographic medium,the 24th edition of Paris Photo held from 11 – 14 November, 2021, at the Grand Palais Éphémère. Paris Photo 2021 present the best of photographic creation from vintage and modern masters to the latest contemporary trends alongside an ambitious programme of exhibitions, conversations, artist signatures sessions and curatedfair paths. With environ 60 000 visitors each year, Paris Photo is the annual event for collectors, professionals and photography enthusiasts.

Paris Photo bring modern photography to the forefront, to discover an ambitious programme in terms of the quality of the artists presented, but also in terms of the variety of works. Meetings with the artists and book signings are organised to punctuate the event and allow visitors and professionals alike to reflect on the future of photography and to share a common love of the image.

Paris Photo is the largest international art fair dedicated to the photographic medium and is held each November in the heart of Paris. Since 1997, the Fair’s mission is to promote and nurture photographic creation and the galleries, publishers and artists at its source. Paris Photo reassembles over 180 of the most prestigious galleries and specialized book dealers from across the world and offers the widest selection of historic, modern and contemporary art works. Public programming for the fair includes major exhibitions, talks, and events with many of the greatest names in photography.

For this new and 24th edition of Paris Photo, hundreds of exhibitors from 31 countries, all gathered around in the Temporary Grand Palais and sorted in 5 sectors. This is a very beautiful opportunity to meet with artists and find the photograph that liven up your living room. In other words, Talks, artists’ signatures, carte blanche given to students, exhibitions and awards was all over the place for these 4 days.

Paris Photo brings together up to 200 exhibitors from across the world, offering collectors and enthusiasts the most diverse and qualitative presentation of photography-driven projects today. Leading galleries showcase historical and contemporary artworks from modern masters to young talents. Specialized publishers and art book dealers present unique and rare editions, as well as book launches and signature sessions with many of today’s most renowned artists.

Paris Photo displays the best of photography, from the beginning in the 19th century to the current creations through exhibitions highlighting collections or artists and the presentation of the diversity of artists and works. This yearly event gathers collectors and art lovers along with galleries and editors from all over the world. For four days of meeting between the general public and professionals from the greatest French and international galleries to live their passion. Meeting with the greatest artists, sales of historic or contemporary works of art, as well as rare and limited editions, conferences and guided tours to know everything about photography.

Paris Photo also provides visitors with first-hand insights and access to the art world. Programming includes curated exhibitions with renowned public and private institutions, awards, conversation cycles with curators, artists, collectors, and critics, and special events exploring the unique history of the medium; varying visions, practices and emerging trends. In addition, the Fair’s “In Paris during Paris Photo” programme reunites a dense network of cultural institutions throughout Paris comprising some of the most historically rich photographic collections in the world.

Exhibition venue
The 24th edition of Paris Photo take place in Paris, Thursday, November 11 through Sunday, with a preview day on November 10 at the newly constructed Grand Palais Ephémère on the Champ de Mars facing the Eifffel Tower. The situated on the Champ-de-Mars, facing the Eiffel Tour, the temporary space bring together leading galleries and art book dealers, The Grand Palais Éphémère, a 10,000m2 temporary building designed by architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, was located on the Champ-de-Mars at the beginning of 2021 until the end of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Located on the Plateau Joffre on the Champ-de-Mars, the Grand Palais Ephémère intrinsically reflect the history of this site, in direct continuity with the role it fulfilled during the great World Exhibitions of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed by the firm Wilmotte & Associés who payed much attention to the aesthetics and architectural features of the temporary building, enabling it to blend harmoniously into the surroundings of the Champ-de-Mars, while ensuring its exemplarity in terms of sobriety and sustainable development.

With the Grand Palais Ephémère, the ambition of the Rmn – Grand Palais and Paris 2024 (2024 Olympic Games in Paris) is to propose a model that is exemplary in terms of simplicity and environmental responsibility, and emblematic of the cultural, environmental and sporting aspirations of our time. Its architecture and design, together with the international events it host, combine to express this ambition.

Galleries
The 24th edition Paris Photo assemble the fascinating contemporary photography of established and emerging talents. The fair continues its promotion of the medium, with new programs, additional events, and the Platform section dedicated to the exchange of ideas and conversations. The fair also launches its new digital platform, creating additional accessibility to works of art for both collectors and art enthusiasts.

Around 180 galleries from 29 countries bring their selections to the cradle of photography and its burgeoning arts scene. In addition to galleries, 30 publishers also participate in Artists Talks and in nominations for the Photobook Awards.

A special section dedicated to emerging artists, Curiosa is this year curated by Shoair Mavlian. He has chosen 20 solo shows for the edition, while 4 Carte Blanche student laureates, Mina Boromand, Emile Gostelie, Francesca Hummler, and Emil Lombardo, was honored with large-format presentations in a Paris train station.

The public program of Paris Photo includes a selection of works from the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, the exhibit of Almudena Romero, a BMW’s artist-in-residence, and the works on conviviality by Oliver Cullman. The fair also continues its promotion and support of women in photography; EllesxParisPhoto.com, launched last year, give a voice to women artists from around the world.

Curiosa
This year, Curiosa highlights new trends in contemporary photographic practice, including new documentary practice, experimental approaches to photography, diaristic practice and contemporary conceptual practice. This year the Curiosa sector, dedicated to emerging art, present a selection of 15 projects curated by Shoair Mavlian. During the fair, the curator present a series of conversations on emerging practises and take an in-depth look at the work of the selected artists.

Shoair Mavlian is the director of Photoworks, an international platform that champions early career photographers and innovative ways to share and exhibit photography. Assistant Curator of Photography at Tate Modern from 2011 to 2018, Shoair Mavlian has curated several major exhibitions, including “Don McCullin” (2019), “Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art” (2018), “The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection” (2016). Shoair Mavlian’s work focuses on the Twentieth Century, conflict and memory, Central and South American photography and emerging contemporary practices.

The Curiosa sector, inaugurated in 2018 and dedicated to emerging artists, presents a selection of 20 projects curated by Shoair Mavlian, director of Photoworks and former assistant curator of photography at the Tate Modern. Mavlian’s selection features solo presentations by twenty artists from eleven different countries, some of whom exhibit in France for the first time, such as Maisie Cousins and Jošt Dolinšek.

Elles x Paris photo
Paris Photo also continues its commitment to women in photography with Elles x Paris Photo, a program initiated in 2019 in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture to promote the visibility of women artists and their contribution to the history of photography. For this edition, Nathalie Herschdorfer, art historian specializing in the history of photography, spotlight a selection of works online and at the fair by women artists and the galleries that support them. Selected artists benefit from a one-year exhibition on the website ellesxparisphoto.com, a dedicated website and resource space continuously updated with interviews, articles and statistical data on the representation of women photographers.

Nathalie Herschdorfer is the director of the Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle, Switzerland, where she shows a wide range of artists, with a special focus on photography. Very active in contemporary photography and closely following its current developments, she is regularly invited at the international level as a curator and lecturer. She teaches the history of photography at the Swiss art school ECAL in Lausanne, and is the author of several books including The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Photography, published in 2015.

Highlights
Highlights include, a selection of works by preeminent German photographer, Herbert List, presented by Karsten Greve (Paris); Braverman (Tel Aviv) celebrates Ilit Azoulay’s work on photography and hysteria; São Paulo gallery LUME, Claudio Edinger’s series on Brazilian identity, and Magnin-a (Paris) introduce “Allegoria”, the latest, politically charged series, by Senegalese artist, Omar Victor Diop.

The diverse array of group shows incorporate a host of new and rare works, from unpublished dye transfer prints by American photographer, Tod Papageorge, exhibited for the first time by Thomas Zander (Cologne), to rare prints by Magnum’s, Bruce Davidson, courtesy of Howard Greenberg (New York). A selection of images by newly represented artist, Carrie Mae Weems, was presented by Fraenkel (San Francisco).

Group presentations celebrating women in photography include the work of, among others, modernists, Berenice Abbott, Ilse Bing, Germaine Krull, and Helen Levitt, exhibited by Bruce Silverstein (New York), and new imagery by Zanele Muholi, presented by Stevenson (cape town), whilst Gregory Leroy (paris) and Charles Isaacs (New York) extol the work of Mexican photographer, Yolanda Andrade, who documented the 1980s LGBT movement in her homeland.

Drummies, 2017. The school has one sports court, which is used by all the sports teams. The drummies have to be supervised when using this court, there are active gangs present around the periphery of the schools property Alice Mann courtesy Afronova Gallery.

Solo exhibition:

Ilit Azoulay, Mousework
On display at Paris Photo, Ilit’s Mousework is described as ‘an uncanny and softly disturbing series of works that closely observes the crucial role photography played in the invention of “hysteria” and its perception in the medical and psychoanalytical fields.’ Dismantling cultural myths of femininity, Ilit’s thirty-five photographic triptychs constitute digital ‘cabinets of curiosity’ which ‘reconstruct histories outside of their dominant context and mainstream discourse,’ configuring them anew by showcasing forgotten or undermined objects.

Joana Choumali – Albahian
Based on her practice of daily observation, Albahian (from ‘Alba’hian’ which means ‘day rises, dawn’ in the Agni language of Ivory Coast) explores changes in Joana’s thoughts and perception of reality. Superimposing photographs of silhouettes and dawn landscapes upon layers of fabric, Joana gradually creates a new psychological landscape which the viewer, equally, can inhabit. The works are not immediately visible in full, but reveal themselves gradually, in much the same way that environmental awareness develops during physical journeys.

Group exhibition

Sean McFarland | Suné Woods (Bountiful Darkness)
In this group show, San Francisco gallery Casemore Kirkeby presents two bodies of work featuring Sean McFarland and Suné Woods. In Bountiful Darkness (2010), Suné Woods explores race and gender in relation to landscape. For her series of rich monochromatic images, Suné ‘attempts to reclaim landscapes where resistance and violence were plentiful’ by situating women of colour, in repose, in rural space. The work questions whether dominant cultural discourse, dictated by white and patriarchal paradigms, indelibly alters depictions of women, particularly women of colour, in these contexts.

Carte Blanche – Students 2021
Paris Photo, Picto Foundation, and SNCF Gares & Connexions partner to organize a platform in promotion of the discovery and exposure of outstanding young talent within masters or bachelor programs in European schools for photography and the visual arts. The platform which amplifies the exposure of outstanding young talent within MA or BA programs in European visual arts schools. Four student projects, selected by a jury, was presented in a large format exhibition in one of Paris’ train stations and in a dedicated space at Paris Photo.

This year, four student projects by Carte Blanche open call winners Mina Boromand, Emile Gostelie, Francesca Hummler, and Emil Lombardo was presented in a large format exhibition at Paris Gare du Nord train station, as well as in a dedicated space at Paris Photo. The exhibition provides an exciting opportunity to engage with the work of emerging photographic artists.

Online viewing room
Paris Photo Online Viewing Room open to the public from November 11-17th. Powered by Artlogic (the industry leader in digital solutions for the art world) it provides a platform for galleries and book dealers, allowing them to expand on their physical offerings, and, an opportunity for those collectors and photography enthusiasts who are unable to attend in person, to peruse and purchase artworks, discover new talent, and connect with galleries and art book dealers from around the world.

Photobook awards 2021
Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation are pleased to announce the 2021 edition of The Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, celebrating the book’s contribution to the evolving narrative of photography, with three major categories: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalogue of the Year.

First photobook prize
A $10,000 prize was awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s) whose first finished, publicly available photobook is judged to be the best of the year. Twenty books from this category was selected for the shortlist, presented to the Jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.

The photobook of the year prize
This prize was awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s), and publisher responsible, for the photobook judged to be the best of the year. Ten books from this category was selected for the shortlist, presented to the Jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.

The photography catalogue of the year prize
Awarded to the publication, publisher, and/or organizing institution responsible for the exhibition catalogue or museum publication judged to be the best of the year. Five books from this category was selected for the shortlist, presented to the Jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.