First look: Photo London announces details of 2023 edition

Whitchurch Country Show, Dorset, England, 2022. @ Martin Parr / Magnum Photos.

The photo fair has today announced details of its 2023 programme, including naming Martin Parr this year’s Photo London Master of Photography

Photo London has today announced the first details of its eighth edition, including naming Martin Parr as Photo London Master of Photography 2023. The fair, which will take place at Somerset House from 11-14 May 2023, will host a major exhibition of new and recent work by Parr, focusing on images taken in the UK.

The British theme will continue throughout the fair, which will also present the exhibition From Welfare to Wellbeing: Women Photographers from the Hyman Collection. Curated by the Centre for British Photography, which opens its doors in the new year, the exhibition will provide an overview of British photography, featuring work by Jo Spence, Sonia Boyce, Laura Pannack and more.

Commenting on their plans for the 2023 edition, Photo London Founders Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad said: “Looking at the amazing global response to Photo London, and on the back of the announcement of our partnership with Creo to establish a new fair in New York, we thought this was the right moment to turn the spotlight on Britain. And where better to start than with Martin Parr — the godfather of British photography.”

Alongside exhibitions, the fair expects to welcome exhibitors from as far afield as China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Finland and Iran, with several major galleries from Canada, Taiwan and the USA taking part for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Publishers’ Section will also be a bigger and more international affair than in previous years, with publishers coming from France, Germany, China, Poland and the Netherlands.

Continuing the international focus, several galleries will support photographers from Iran, including first-time exhibitor O Gallery (Tehran). The gallery will present rare prints by Kaveh Kazemi, whose photographs of the 1979 revolution and its aftermath represent one of the most important archives of this period. There will also be a special exhibition on Mexican photography, Fotografia Maroma: a living gallery of Mexican photography, which will present works by four prominent Mexican photographers: Patricia Lagarde, Javier Hinojosa, Ilán Rabchinskey and Margot Kalach.

2023’s instalment of the fair’s Discovery section will see works selected by Discovery Ambassador Tim Clark, who will also sit on the judging panel of a new award: the Photo London X Hahnemühle Student Award. Available to students enrolled in photography degrees at UK universities, a valuable residency will be awarded to each year’s winner. The Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer Award will also take place again, highlighting the work of outstanding young photographers, with a special display dedicated to those shortlisted in the previous edition.

Looking ahead to the eighth edition, Benson and Farshad said: “The exhibitors’ list is already strong and we are thrilled to be able to add new partnerships with Aperture, Belmond and Hahnemühle to our long term associations with Nikon and FT Weekend…These partnerships underline the considerable strength that Photo London has achieved since the difficult years of the pandemic and point to a truly exciting future for the Fair.”

Photo London will take place at Somerset House, London, from 11 – 14 May 2023. Applications for the fair are now open.