Paris Photo has positioned itself as the singular standout event on the art calendar for photography collectors and enthusiasts. Held in the expansive vaulted space of the Grand Palais, this new edition has brought together 35 countries, 143 galleries and 26 art book dealers/publishers. Each person is drawn and moved by different works, but you can be sure to find your âme soeur here. Here are a few highlights from our first day there.
Paris Photo has positioned itself as the singular standout event on the art calendar for photography collectors and enthusiasts. Held in the expansive vaulted space of the Grand Palais, this new edition has brought together 35 countries, 143 galleries and 26 art book dealers/publishers. Each person is drawn and moved by different works, but you can be sure to find your âme soeur here. Here are a few highlights from our first day there.
Joel Meyerowitz presented his new photo book Between the Dog and the Wolf, an interesting visual documentary which offers insight to the work and life of the photographer and both a photographic and cultural comparison between Europe and the U.S.A. Photo: book Between the Dog and the Wolf.
“The best way is to look at the ‘old guys’ like Brassaï and Atget. The street teaches you to act quickly when you see something. If you don’t, you miss it!”. Any enthusiast of street photography surely knows Joel Meyoriwitz, the New-Yorker who roamed the streets of the Big Apple and the City of Lights with his 35mm camera, looking for the “decisive moment”. His signing booth was certainly popular.
Frau 4, Leipzig 1985, © Erasmus Schröters. Gallery Kunsthandel Jörg Maaß
Erasmus Schröter belongs to those photo artists who employ the tools of conventional chemical photography to explore the boundaries of their medium, and the same raw material on which photography has been founded since its inception: light. One can recall the series where he placed average women at the centre of attention, presenting them both glamorous and strangely alien,with a combination of melancholy and pride. New works now feature movie extras shot at their home, expressing the same ambivalence between glamour and mediocrity.
Photographer Vik Muniz and artist/researcher Marcelo Coelho have created these magnificent castles etched onto microscopic grains of sand. A complete and innovative reversal of building a sand castle. © Vik Muniz.
“Working with materials sometimes means working with the very essence of what a material has to offer. … The work defines the material and the material defines the work. … My work process has always been about this paradigmatic bind between the materiality and the concept in a work of art.” says Vik Muniz. His technique is so brilliant you can only see the material when you’re close enough to the piece.
Other contemporary photographers on show include Edward Burtynsky and there was also room for legends like Elliott Erwitt, who was there signing autographs.
Elliott Erwitt signing autographs. Photo: Riccardo Wolfgang
In Glass,1991, © Elliott Erwitt
The Art of Travel, for British Vogue, 1951. © Norman Parkinson
And classics like Diane Arbus and Norman Parkinson.
Epic Western, 2010. Danzinger Gallery. © Jim Krantz.
We loved seeing Jim Krantz’s original cowboy piece, which Richard Prince copied and made famous.
Aniversario, La Habana, 2009. Miguel Rothschild. Impresion jetset, confetti.
One thing we noticed at this edition was the increased quantity of new and original formats compared to past editions. Like Miguel Rothschild, who made holes in his panoramic pictures, or this innovative way of presenting pieces at galleries, though holes.
Paris Photo 2014. Photo: Riccardo Wolfgang
The Gatekeeper, Zanana, Samode Palace, 2010, by Karen Knorr, exhibited by Tasveer
Another example is Karen Knorr’s surrealistic images of animals in Indian interiors. Since 2008 her work has taken a new turn and focused its gaze on the upper caste culture of the Rajput in India. Interiors are photographed with a large format Sinar P3 analogue camera and scanned to very high resolution, and live animals are then inserted into the sacred and secular sites, fusing high resolution digital with analogue photography.
Biblioteca dei Girolamini Napoli I, 2009 © Candida Höfer
You could say she is filling up Candida Hoffer’s spaces.
There was a lot of notable work from Diane Arbus and her square-format photographs of marginalised people in society.
© Diane Arbus
Flor Garduño, one of the most representative artists of Latin American photography, was also there as part of the Etherton Gallery
Photo: Riccardo Wolfgang
If you’re planning to visit Paris Photo 2014, don’t forget to check out it’s program.
