Saturday 12/09/15 -Sunday 13/09/15
Worrying of image-fatigue after two days, I dragged myself out of bed and decided to try the “luxury” wing of the photo fair. Entering the VIP West Wing, I found myself confronted with two young talented women photographers’ shows: first was what Gagosian brought to Shanghai, Taryn Simon’s “Birds of the West Indies”, a museum grade exhibition of 156 30x40cm small prints in black mats and frames, a premiere in Asia. The group of small prints typical of Taryn Simon’s scenography displayed a sort of taxonomy catalogue pages of women, weapons and fast cars that are recurring components in James Bond films, the original James Bond name happened to belong to an American ornithologist (1900-1989) a well-known bird watcher. This constitutes the most intellectually challenging exhibition of Photo Shanghai. Then a big white wall with two big logos in black letters “Chen Man X Hublot” announced the separation line between small frames and large frames: the talented Beijing woman artist Chen Man who is often celebrated as “the highest paid fashion photographer in China” made a strong case of her sophisticated treatment of Dior or Hublot fashion shots, alongside four giant heavenly goddesses posing as sexy Manga vixens representing the four seasons. After Gagosian and Hublot, De Beers showroom presented women portraits by Paul (of the Beatles)’s daughter Mary McCartney in a rather disappointingly bland scenography. Then I walked into Swarovski booth to salute Eric Valli whom I met fourteen years ago when he was hanging his big size “Himalaya” outdoor prints at the Jardin de Luxembourg. Here he was, dutifully signing his big book “Living Yangtze” from the exhibition he displayed at the Jing’an Park in Shanghai, like a true French author, he took time talking to the buyer and writing down a sentence before his autograph. Eric told me he was amazed by the rapid changes in China, especially by the photography scene. It is amazing that he came from so far to be here, like coming down from the pure air of Himalaya to this materialistic finance obsessed traffic-jammed megacity. Another friendly figure that I ran into was Yann Layma who has photographed China since the 80’s. Yann was beaming and looking really happy, for three reasons, (1) he just won an award at a photo festival in Datong, (2) at the fair Photo Shanghai, one of his prints was sold to a collector, and (3) the satellite television of Zhejiang is making a documentary on his life.
The space occupied by Photo Shanghai inside this former Sino-Soviet Friendship Palace has something theatrical in its setting, there is the “balcony seats” on the upper floor and the “orchestra seats” on the ground floor. On the last day of Photo Shanghai, a Sunday, the aisle in the balcony was crowded, mainland and international galleries were busy with curious browsers and onlookers, 99% of them Chinese, undeterred by the 100 Yuan entry fees (double of last year’s). I noticed the Chinese public loved to physically handle the prints that were displayed inside protective sheets, laid out in display boxes on rows of tables, totally ignoring the white gloves provided. There was an atmosphere of market place on a Sunday. Red dots were filling up on the cartels and most gallerists seemed happy, when I asked “any fish?” One replied: “big fish small fish, lots of fish.” Except a few who told me no fish at all. Some had been here last year, some came for the first time. One Shanghai gallery was displaying the works of 21 photographers! One international gallery showcased beautiful prints of a Korean artist, alas, unknown in China, a gallery from Taipei did a solo show for a Taiwanese photographer (not well-known in China) in three large prints, powerful dark and somber moody pictures that did not convince the crowd. I believe there is still a psychological barrier for Chinese photo collectors to give priority to big names first, foreign artists second, well-known local Chinese artists third. They would not venture into Taiwan, Hong Kong or Singapore artists, some of the Chinese photography lovers told me.
Lost in the busy aisle I was rescued by Alexander Montague who guided me to the Magnum booth, at last I was relieved to see familiar faces and the ever popular dogs by Elliott Erwitt. Some Chinese photographers even brought out tripods and big DSLR cameras to shoot close range the print of Elliott’s famous dog legs, while Werner Bischof’s vintage prints of Hong Kong 1952 stood in neglect. Although Magnum made an effort in displaying two large color prints, one of Harry Gruyaert, one of Martin Parr, Chinese photographers the die-hard fans of Magnum were disappointed, compared to the excitement and sensational crowding of last year.
Photo Shanghai 2015 looked markedly oriented towards more contemporary, more decorative, conceptual, sophisticate large size prints. In the competitive pricing area, among the 100,000 EURO and above threshold, one Chinese gallery proposed a Yellow Mountain black and white silver print (vintage, unique edition) at half a million US dollar, which created quite a fuss among Chinese collectors and photographers, who would compare it to Helmut Newton’s “Arielle after hair cut” with a price tag of (only?) 300,000 EURO.
Photo Shanghai is a success in that it has opened the eye of Chinese amateurs and collectors on the concept of vintage, limited edition, platinum and palladium print techniques (the most beautiful prints are found on Amanasalto booth and Taka Ishii – even Araki came with platinum print!), and that alone is an investment for the future edition of Photo Shanghai. One Western buyer long resident in Shanghai marveled even at those techniques after attending a workshop on wet plate given by a Chinese photographer.
If there is a learning curve for galleries it is first about what art works to bring to Shanghai, deciding whether to do a solo show or group show, then about the art of hanging, the appropriate scenography and signage. I feel sorry for Roger Ballen, like last year, his prints attracted lots of curiosity but no decisive takes yet.
How far are the Chinese photo collectors compared to the Paris Photo collectors? We can wonder. Timeless Gallery from Beijing has done a consistent presentation of “Weston, Three Generations”, with the still life and landscape works of Edward Weston, his son Cole Weston and Grandson Kim Weston, selling best were Kim’s prints at a more affordable price range yet still bearing a prestigious name. It is really about understanding the psychology of Chinese buyers. One international gallery learned a lesson from last year and opted this year for a no-red dot policy, which did not mean they had no sale. One of the most expensive work last year was a Herb Ritts print of Versace Dress (back view), a Chinese buyer has reserved the print, the gallery put up a red dot, then the Chinese media spread the news that the work was sold, the buyer read the news and believed the gallery sold it to someone else so he canceled the reservation, the Versace Dress finally left Shanghai without a buyer.
Last but not least, I personally regret the absence of a photo book section, which I always enjoy at Paris Photo. Perhaps as long as China keeps a tight grip and censorship on photography books, aficionados will have to continue browsing them on Amazon via VPN for some time.
Jean Loh
En marge de Photo Shanghai: A solo exhibition of Erwin Olaf at Galerie Magda Danysz, for the opening party a shuttle was organized to take guests from the Fair to the quasi suburb of Shanghai. The celebrated advertising and fashion photographer is showing thirty prints in a more classic, more subdued, Dutch school style of portraits.
In the former French Concession I was invited by Imagine China to the opening of Magnum master class that took place in a new photo center, set up by Shanghai photographer Chen Haiwen on Anfu Lu, which includes a museum of old cameras. Like most Chinese fans of Magnum, I was so excited to meet in person and “chat” with Chien-Chi Chang, Thomas Dworzak, and especially Jacob Aue Sobol, seeing him for me was like seeing Anders Petersen. What a beautiful curtain call for Photo Shanghai!
Which made me realize all this could only happen in Shanghai.
FAIR
Photo Shanghai
11-13 September 2015
Shanghai
