Paris Photo.2022
For the 2022 version of Paris Photo, the international fair have decided to organize the show in three different entities: the main sector, the curiosa sector and the book sector.
The main sector is comprised of 134 galleries, coming from 29 countries (mostly European and American) with eighteen new galleries. The curiosa sector or the sector of curiosities is dedicated to not established photographers, and it comprises of sixteen galleries, including eleven new additions from nine different countries.
The last sector is dedicated to the publishing activities. 34 publishes coming from nine countries are showcasing their best books, editions and avant-premiere book releases and event program bringing great artist in Paris to the wider public.
Since it's creation in 1997, the fair have evolved a lot, the market and the buyers too. Thus, a new sector had to be created in 2015 titled "Curiosa" or the sector of curiosities. In this sector dedicated to emerging artists, you will be able to see a selection of 16 projects curated by Holly Roussell, the curator of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. With her experience, Roussell will highlight the use of experimental technique of photography in the contemporary settings but with a formal and classical subject such as self-portrait, landscape, identity and the question of race.
Beside the thousands of photography and the numerous boots, the shows as invited the actress and artist Rossy de Palma as guest of honor to curate a selection of 25 artworks which visitors will be able to discover throughout the galleries booths.
Lucas's favourites
The photographs of Tommy Kha, an American photographer, is a mix between surrealist inspiration and photomontage made digitally. While the artist is working between two cities, New York and Memphis, he had an education at the Yale University, where he received an MFA in Photography.
In his work, Kha examines how we construct new models for self-portraiture with an eye on absences and erasure. The price of this work is 2 700 Dollars.
The work of the Californian artist Paul Mpagi Sepuya is generally described as a connection between photography, portraiture, queer and homoerotic networks of production and collaboration.
This intimate portrait made out of a gay couple photographed in a mirror question the link between power, race, and equality in their couple.
The work of Paul Mpagi Sepuy is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOCA Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, etc.
The New York born photographer Roger Ballen spend nearly four decades outside of his home country to work in South Africa. Thus, he explored the rich culture of the African continent, and he was deeply influenced by the wooden sculpture made in the villages.
Before being a photographer, the artist was a geologist, this led him to take up his camera and explore the hidden world of small South African towns. At first he explored the small streets and houses, but as he steps into the house of the habitants (with their permission), he discovered a world inside these houses which will have a profound effect on his work: the faces, the decoration, the society, the poverty, etc.
These photographs from 2012 consist of a figure, with two gigantic hands and an enormous face looking at the visitors. You can clearly see the connection to the human figure, by the use of radio in his photograph (maybe added in photoshop or by gluing a photo onto the figure), and the link to the African continent and their wooden sculpture.
Roger Ballen will be one of the artists representing South Africa at the Venice Biennale Arte 2022 in Italy.
This installation of large photographs developed the new production of the artist, where he reconstructed those object into a formal composition, like a still life or an old masters painting. In Zamin's work, the composition of objects is deeply important, the object is never alone in the space, his always associated with shadows, plants, natural aspects that link it to his past in South America.
The objects analysed by Zanin's photographs are treated as activators of social and human relations. These new juxtapositions and mixes result from intercultural processes, they are no longer manufactured goods but new bodies, heirs of their original environment and now in a dialogue among themselves.
After this long day of looking at all of those photographs, I think there are a few things that need to be addressed. First, the three sectors should merge together, their is not reason to have one space dedicated to emerging artists when they can be put in dialogue with well-know photographs on a single booth, and by chance giving them some light.
Beside having so much event in this huge space, it's quite overwhelming and not really easy for the public to see what's going on at what time. Even more when it's so crowded and it runs for such a short time.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Grand Palais Ephémère
Date: 9-13.11.2022
Ticket: Available on the website of the Paris Photo