ART FAIRS:Paris Photo 2016
Paris Photo is the premier international art fair for works in the photographic medium, held annually since 1997 in the Grand Palais. The 2016 Fair hosts 153 Galleries and 30 Publishers, from 35 different countries, presenting both historical and contemporary works. Renowned for its innovative and high-level programming, Paris Photo is a key event for collectors and art world professionals, as well as photography enthusiasts.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Paris Photo 2016 Archive
Except from the Booths of Galleries that present photos from the greatest and most important photographers worldwide, the extensive programming of Paris Photo 2016 includes special exhibitions. Following its successful debut in 2015, the large-scale exhibition project PRISMES returns, emphasizing the versatility of the medium by bringing together exceptional large format, serial works and installations in the l Salon d’Honneur. This year, the PRISMES showcases new works by Douglas Gordon and Noémie Goudal, and projects by Zofia Kulik, Edward Burtynsky, Penelope Umbrico, Gonzalo Lebrija, Dinh Q. Le, and William Klein. For the first time, Leica presents during Paris Photo the Leica Oscar Barnack and the Leica Newcomer Awards, both given to two French photographers. The Leica Oscar Barnack 2016 Award is awarded to Scarlett Coten for her series “Mectoub”. Started in 2012, the series of portraits was taken in North Africa and Middle East, focusing on the identity of an emancipated generation of men. The Leica Newcomer Award goes to Clémentine Schneidermann who documented the life of children in socials housing in a mining aera in Wales, in September 2015. The Platform is an experimental forum proposing, over the course of 4 days, a series of conversations according to several axes. The exhibition “Steidl presents Tomasz Gudzowaty” on the upper level in the Gallery Jean Perrin, presents more than two decades of work by Tomasz Gudzowaty, dexterously exploring a wide range of genres from social documentary and photojournalism, to portraiture, wildlife and sports photography. Including the framed books “Photography as a New Kind of Love Poem” and “Closer” alongside original prints from these series, the exhibition shows the photobook as an important medium in his practice. With an emphasis on both the general patterns and minute details of his subjects, Gudzowaty eschews chronological or thematic order for sequences shaped by mood and visual relationships. The result is a consistent and engaging investigation of the world and human condition. The Photobook will have a prominent place at the fair, as in the past few years. In partnership with the Aperture Foundation, Paris Photo presents the 2016 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards. From over 1,000 titles, the Awards’ committee has chosen a shortlist of 35 books [There will ultimately be three winners in the following categories: “First PhotoBook,” “PhotoBook of the Year,” and “Photography Catalogue of the Year”. For the 20th edition of Paris Photo, Center Pompidou presents “The Pencil of Nature”, a selection of a hundred works illustrating the most remarkable moments of the last 10 years of its photographic acquisitions. Borrowing its title from the first book on the history of photography, by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1844, this presentation shows, with more than 40 artists, that the photographic image is not just a reproduction of nature, but a marker of culture.
Info: Paris Photo 2016, Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, Paris, Duration: 10-13/11/16, Hours: Thu-Sat 12:00-20:00, Sun 12:00-19:00, www.parisphoto.com
