A New Era, from the series Metamorphosis, 2024 © Claudia Fuggetti. Courtesy of Camara Oscura Galeria de Arte, on show as part of the Emergence sector.
As Paris Photo returns for its 28th edition, artistic director Anna Planas explains how the photofair is taking an expanded approach and offering alternative perspectives on landscapes
“We really try to bring to the fair photography in a very wide vision and form,” says Anna Planas, artistic director of Paris Photo. “Historical pieces stand alongside contemporary works as it’s important for us to propose a path exploring the diversity of the medium. Installations and works that explore the materiality of photography, create a strong visual dialogue within the fair.”
Planas was appointed artistic director of Paris Photo in December 2022, and joined with a reputation for embracing photography in all its forms in her work with institutions such as Magnum, Le Bal, Les Rencontres d’Arles, delpire & co, and Fotomuseum Winterthur. As Paris Photo returns for its 28th edition, its second back at the Grand Palais after the venue’s refurbishment, she is continuing to promote inclusivity. This year Paris Photo includes 223 exhibitors from 33 countries, 183 galleries and 40 publishers, 59 of whom are participating for the first time; Paris Photo is becoming more diverse, with galleries such as Tintera from Cairo, Vadehra Art from New Delhi, Ayyam from Dubai, and Don from Shanghai all making their exhibiting debut. And as Planas suggests, the fair is aiming for multiplicity in other ways too, from the kind of work on display, to the epoch in which it was made.
Paris Photo is divided into five sectors which help organise this ambition; the main fair, which includes both contemporary and historical work, and also Prismes, a sub-section devoted to photography in dialogue with other media; Voices, in the main fair and featuring galleries curated around a theme; Emergence, in which 24 galleries give solo shows to up-and- coming artists; Digital, which includes cutting-edge work around new technology; and the Book sector for publications, prints and artist books.
“Paris is one of the centres for fashion, and photography is a very natural medium for people from that creative world”
In the main fair is Hans P Kraus Jr, which represents William Henry Fox Talbot and other early pioneers, Pictorialists, and selected contemporary artists, for example; in the Digital sector is ArtVerse, a self-described “meeting point for digital art” founded by metaverse platform entrepreneurs Sebastien Borget and Arthur Madrid.
Within this, Planas has noticed some trends. Voices is returning after a successful first outing last year and it is curated by Dr Devika Singh, senior lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, and Nadine Wietlisbach, director of Fotomuseum Winterthur; they have selected work around landscapes and portraiture respectively, at first sight two very different themes which actually share wider preoccupations around nations, communities and identity. “Nadine’s contribution is visually more focused around portraiture, exploring relationships and forms of kinship as well as the critical reflection of the ambivalent dynamic between photographer and portrayed,” Planas notes. “Voices proposes a contemporary vision.” This kind of portraiture is on display in the Emergence sector too, which features work by Sibusiso Bheka, presented by Afronova, on life in the Thokoza township east of Johannesburg. Bheka’s work was on show last November in the PhotoSaintGermain festival in Paris.
Landscape can also be a way to talk about environmental issues and viewing the land beyond anthropocentrism and nation states; similarly, the Emergence sector features work by Claudia Fuggetti, who introduced her 2024 project Metamorphosis with a quote by ecological philosopher David Abram: “I think it is useful to approach the issue of the ecological crisis as a crisis of perception, a crisis in the way we experience, with our bodies, sounds, smells, the world around us,” states Abram. “It seems that we no longer perceive forests, mountains, rivers as living as we do.” Fuggetti’s work was recently on show in Paris in the Circulation(s) festival for young European artists; it is brought to the Emergence sector by the Spanish Camara Obscura Galeria de Arte.
Landscape also underpins another key display at Paris Photo, with the large entrance to the main sector devoted to work by Sophie Ristelhueber. Her practice engages with the human impact of war, but rather than focusing on current affairs, quietly depicts ravaged vistas; Ristelhueber has photographed extensively in the Balkans and SWANA region, and her best-known work, Fait (1992), illustrated the impact of the Gulf War. She was awarded the Hasselblad Award earlier this year, and her solo show at the Hasselblad Center opens in October.
In late 2024/early 2025 she showed new work titled WhattheFuck! at Galerie Poggi in Paris, pairing some of her most emblematic images with photographs of animals, with framed images simply propped up against the walls, work which will be on display in an embellished form at Paris Photo. “It’s going to be an outstanding installation displayed on a 36-metre wall,” says Planas. “An opening statement.”
Paris Photo will have a devoted auditorium this year which can seat up to 300 people. “As with the fair, we want to do something that has a broader vision, and that is transversal,” says Planas. “Taking as a starting point the content of the fair, our Conversations programme is meant to open up the current discussions about photography, allowing it to merge with other mediums,” she adds. “We will also explore different formats, such as Carmen Winant’s performative lecture or a collaboration with Sorbonne University in which Michel Poivert will be giving a masterclass at Paris Photo and invite his students to the fair.”
Poivert is a celebrated art and photography historian, and a professor at the Sorbonne; he has directed various schools at the university and between 2010–2019 was co-director of the research MA in history of photography at the school of the Louvre. Paris Photo has close ties with many museums and institutions, says Planas, and this year Devrim Bayar, senior curator at KANAL–Centre Pompidou in Brussels is designing the Elles × Paris Photo path of women artists. The institutions also come to the fair as visitors – “that’s one of our strengths,” Planas says, adding that this year more than 200 museum groups are coming, as well as curators from corporate collections.
“Paris also brings many people from the fashion world,” she continues. “Paris is one of the centres for fashion, and photography is a very natural medium for people from that creative world.” It is an interesting point, with the Grand Palais’ own refurbishment supported by Chanel, and Fondation Cartier now opening a huge new home opposite the Louvre, to name just two of the biggest recent examples.
This year, Paris Photo will also include a specific talks programme focused on photobooks, curated by the celebrated NYC book fair Printed Matter. “It will be a space for reflection, and also an opportunity to think about the relationship between artist books and photography,” says Planas.
