Our correspondent Zoé Isle de Beauchaine shares her favorite discoveries from the hundreds of works on display at the international photography fair.
Every year, Florence Bourgeois and Anna Planas travel the world, meeting gallery owners to ensure Paris Photo remains in constant dialogue with the cutting edges of the international photography scene. Their dedication and curiosity shine through the aisles of the Grand Palais, and this year’s edition is invigorated by fresh perspectives: nearly one-third of the galleries are debuting at the fair.
In the Emerging section, which spotlights young galleries, hybrid approaches to photography dominate, yet some works celebrate the poetic power of the medium in its purest form. Paris gallery Obsession showcases András Ladocsi, a Hungarian photographer and professional swimmer. His background informs a liberated approach to the human body — all bodies — observed with striking tenderness. Just steps away, Espace Jörg Brockmann (Switzerland) presents Marine Lanier’s Le Jardin d’Hannibal, an evocative fable on climate change centered on the glaciers of the Meije and the diversity of their flora, preserved by dedicated researchers. Both series are accompanied by publications in the Edition section: Void for Ladosci and Poursuite for Lanier.
In the main section, Saudi Arabia makes its debut with Hafez Gallery from Jeddah, presenting a solo show by Nora Alissa. Inspired by the country’s folk dances, her photographs use blur to weave a visual narrative of collective memory, linking past, present, and future. Also new, Swedish gallery WILLAS Contemporary presents Jeff Cowen’s Provence Work, previously unseen in France. Drawing freely on painting and collage alongside darkroom techniques, Cowen transforms Provençal landscapes into a series that unfolds like a meditation. Meanwhile, Shanghai’s DON gallery highlights Ningde Wang’s documentary series on a troupe of itinerant Chinese performers in the 1990s, capturing the social reality of marginalized communities amid China’s rapid economic transformation.
Nearby, in the Voices sector dedicated to landscape and curated by historian Devika Singh, MONOPOL presents 1970s photographs by conceptual artist Maria Michałowska. A typographic and typological exploration of natural and urban landscapes, her work also reveals the latent poetry of archival material.
The Elles x Paris Photo route, curated by Devrim Bayar, offers an especially rich selection. Bayar explores the dialogue between bodies and contexts, from the Pre-Raphaelite work of Julia Margaret Cameron (Hans P. Kraus Jr. Inc) to the politically engaged art of Syrian artist Huda Takriti (Crone), with stops at Sibylle Bergemann’s subtle interventions on power (LOOCK). Highlighted too is At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women (1983–1985) by Sally Mann, an intimate yet universal portrait of adolescence, now exhibited for the first time in print by Jackson Fine Art.
Finally, Barbara Crane’s work offers different kinds of portraits. In the 1970s, she photographed visitors at the exit of the Museum of Science and Industry, using a simple protocol to create complex portraits of her contemporaries, a testament to the enduring power of photography in its most straightforward form.
Zoé Isle de Beauchaine
