Beyond Paris Photo – a wealth of photo shows

Feeling all shopped out? Take refuge in a photo show – though many are being hosted by private galleries in Paris next week, meaning you can still buy prints if you want to.

Photo Saint-Germain is a huge umbrella under which 36 exhibitions and events are taking place, including the Polycopies and Shakespeare & Co book events and several cultural institutes, but also smaller, commercial galleries. Amsterdam’s FOAM is bringing an exhibition of works from its collection to the Atelier Néerlandais, for example, including work by Peter Puklus, Lorenzo Vitturi, Pieter Hugo, Viviane Sassen, and Lieko Shiga. But Puklus also has a solo show at Galerie Folia titled One and a half meter, in which the rising Hungarian photographer gathers portraits around him “to perform a kind of mapping, a report on these characters who, in one way or another, are close to me”.

The Centre Cultural Irlandais is hosting a show on mass surveillance, featuring work by 16 photographers including Magnum Photos’ Donovan Wylie; le centre tchéque is hosting a solo show by Magnum photographer Josef Sudek, titled Josef Sudek: Topographie des ruines. Prague 1945. The Institut culturel italien is also weighing in with an archival show, Gianni Berengo Gardin; Fétes.

Tracing, 2018 © Takeshi Mita, on show in Lumix Meets Beyond 2020 By Japanese Photographers #6, organised by IMA at Galerie Nicolas Deman, part of Photo Saint-Germain

Respected Japanese photography magazine IMA is organising an exhibition of contemporary Japanese work at Galerie Nicolas Demain, while the Espace des Femmes is hosting young French photographer Lola Hikimian. Based just a couple of blocks south of the Seine, the Espace des Femmes has been going since 1981, specialising in showing contemporary women artists working in every medium. UK photographer Alan Eglinton also has a show, with Galerie Madé showing his series Only the fires say – which was also published as a book by Poursuite Editions in March. www.photosaintgermain.com

Beyond Photo Saint-Germain, are a host of interesting exhibitions in Paris’ many art institutions. The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson opens its new home on 79 rue des Archives on 06 November with an exhibition devoted to Cartier-Bresson’s equally talented wife, Magnum photographer Martine Franck; over at the Centre Pompidou Photographie, arme de classe, a show investigating the radical origins of documentary photography in France (and beyond), opens on 07 November. This exhibition includes iconic images by Willy Ronis; for those inspired to see more of his work, Willy Ronis par Willy Ronis is a large, free exhibition of his work at Pavillon Carré de Baudoin, 121 rue de Ménilmontant over in the 20e arrondissement.

Dave Heath, Elevated in Brooklyn, New York City, 1963 © Dave Heath / Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto. On show in Dave Heath at Le Bal

Le Bal is currently hosting a solo show by underrated American photographer David Heath, whose work lingers somewhere between the documentary and the experimental. The Maison Européenne de la photographie – which is now headed up by Simon Baker, former photography curator at Tate Modern – opens a new exhibition on 07 November devoted to French photographer JR, an artist who specialises in putting his work on the streets. The Jeu de Paume, meanwhile, is currently showing exhibitions by Dorothea Lange, Ana Mendieta, and Alejandro Cesarco.

This list is far from comprehensive, with many other institutions and galleries taking the opportunity to show photography in Paris – including Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir van Lohuizen’s work on the Arctic for the Prix Carmignac du photojournalisme, which opens at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie on 07 November. There’s more photography than any one person could absorb, and it’s not even the Mois de la Photo – that usually happens in April but is taking a break before returning in 2020.

www.photosaintgermain.com 
https://www.henricartierbresson.org
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr
https://www.mairie20.paris.fr/actualites/willy-ronis-par-willy-ronis-l-expo-photo-evenement-pour-les-10-ans-du-pavillon-carre-de-baudouin-462
https://www.le-bal.fr/en
https://www.mep-fr.org
https://www.jeudepaume.org

Untitled, Arles, France, 2006, from the series Only the fires say, 2018 © Alan Eglinton. On show in Alan Eglinton – Only the fires say at Galerie Madé, part of Photo Saint-Germain
Gubbio, Festa dei Ceri, 1976 © Gianni Berengo Gardin, from the show Gianni Berengo Gardin – In festa at Institut Culturel Italien
Old Town Hall burnt during the Prague Uprising – View from the North, 1945 © Josef Sudek, heirs. From the show Josef Sudek – Topographie des ruines, Prague 1945 at the Centre Tchèque de Paris, part of Photo Saint-Germain
Rose Zehner, a union representative, during the Citroën-Javel Strike, 1938 © Willy Ronis, courtesy Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris
Salvation Army, New York, 1979 © Martine Franck / Magnum Photos
Diane Smyth

Diane Smyth is the editor of BJP, returning for a second stint on staff in 2023, after 15 years on the team until 2019. She also edits the Photoworks Annual, and has written for The Guardian, FT Weekend Magazine, Aperture, FOAM, and Apollo, plus catalogues and monographs. Diane lectures in photography history and theory at the London College of Communications, and has curated exhibitions for The Photographers Gallery and Lianzhou Foto Festival. Follow her on instagram @dismy