The breathtaking view from the Grand Palais Éphémère directly overlooking the Champs de Mars, as the location for Paris Photo 2023, has changed this year. In fact, for the 27th edition of the kermesse, it will return to the Grand Palais, restored in all its splendor.  The location of the Grand Palais is no coincidence; it is the ideal place to combine the Art Nouveau elegance of the architecture of the great Parisian palace with the beauty of the photos that will be exhibited there. Having an overall view of the various exhibitors from one of the side staircases of the Palais immediately gives the viewer a glimpse of the teeming art and a partial and bird’s eye view of the works on display. The change of location has also allowed the exhibition space to be enlarged and other sections to be included, as Paris Photo’s historical director, Florence Bourgeois, states, allowing a contamination of styles and trends that are always innovative.

The 2024 session of Paris Photo will be enlivened by a series of novelties that are always worthy of the world’s most important photography event.

One of the most eagerly awaited will be the presence of Jim Jarmusch, an American filmmaker who will present his latest book ‘Some Collages’ (2021), closely related to the figure of Man Ray. Leafing through the pages of the book, in which small black-and-white collages interspersed with others in muted colors occupy the central part of the page, against a rough background, it is impossible not to perceive the surrealist influences that have animated Jarmush’s work, with some references that are also clearly reminiscent of Francis Bacon’s work. Jarmusch confesses that he was inspired in his youth both by Surrealist culture and by literary works of the same period, such as Breton’s Nadja, and his intense involvement with photography is formally revealed in this Paris Photo session. Indeed, in it the American director participated in the restoration of Le Retour à la raison, a series of four surrealist films produced by Man Ray between 1923 and 1929, composing a soundtrack with his musical group Sqürl, of which Carter Logan was also a member.

It is accompanied by an unprecedented work aimed at highlighting, thanks to the collaboration between Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Centre Pompidou, and Paris Photo, contemporary Lithuanian photography, which, with the exhibition ‘The forms of things’, ‘The forms of Skulls’, ‘Forms of love’ explores the theme of resilience, inviting the public to confront the changes in Baltic society.

These appointments specifically designed for this edition are counterbalanced by the thematic sections of the exhibition divided as follows:

The Main Section – in which the most representative works of the photographers presented at Paris Photo converge, including a specific focus on the work of Robert Frank, the unforgettable progenitor of documentary photography, represented by various international galleries, which recall his relevant role and technique, sometimes out of focus or in some cases blurred, as a distinctive element of his work. Also presented in this section is the exhibition ‘Tokyo Love’ by the Taka Ishii gallery, which includes works by Araki, Moriyama, and Narahara. The photographer Lisetta Carmi is also present in this section, whose work rose to prominence last year with a comprehensive and iconographic retrospective, which opened at the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin.

The Emergence Section – Curated by Anna Planas and dedicated to the contemporary scene, it presents 23 monographic exhibitions that give space to new talents and emerging photographers. This space serves as an incubator for the new languages and styles that are redefining photography in the 21st century. In it, emerging artists use a variety of different subjects and types of images ranging from analog to digital to package an innovative and unusual look at reality.

Prismes Sector and Special Exhibitions – The ‘Prismes ’ sector showcases large-scale photographic installations and monumental works. Highlights include the series ‘People from the Twentieth Century ’ by August Sander and an installation by Anton Kusters dedicated to the memory of the concentration camps, which invites us to reflect on history and collective memory. ‘People from the Twentieth Century ’ is a monumental series of portraits by the German photographer August Sander (1876-1964), mainly made between the 1920s and 1930s, which offers a representation of German society before the Second World War. This project is one of the most ambitious and complex works of 20th-century documentary photography and reflects Sander’s desire to capture the full range of social classes, professions, and personalities in Germany. Through a rigorous method and an essential style, Sander produced a systematic and scientific view of his era, organizing his portraits by social classes and professions.

Voices Section – Another new feature this year is the ‘Voices’ section, curated by Elena Navarro, Azu Nwagbogu and Sonia Voss, which introduces artistic perspectives from the Latin American scene and lesser represented regions, such as post-Cold War Europe. This section explores identity, political dissidence and the nature of photography as a tool for subjective narrative.

The work of Azu Nwagbogu, curator of the Republic of Benin pavilion for the Art Biennale 2024 with the exhibition Everything Precious Is Fragile, focuses his curatorial choices for Paris Photo on the study of archives and the section ‘Corps Libérés.’ Conceived as a shift in focus from the mere documentary function of archives to their intrinsic value in human history, Azu Nwagbogu highlights how structures of power and social oppression can be observed in the past in order to find the foundations of contemporary culture.

‘Quatre murs’ by Sonia Voss focuses on the analysis of the repressive power that dominated many Eastern and Northern European countries between the end of World War II and the fall of the USSR, when artists, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, developed original strategies of resistance. Using the body as a means of expression, together with imagination and often humor, they confronted restrictions on freedom, censorship, and pressure to conform to conventional images. Galleries today explore this historical period, making connections with the present. The juxtaposition of the works, united by a common spirit of resistance, invites cross-reflections that highlight their topicality and relevance.

The works presented in the ‘Paradis imparfaits’ section, curated by Elena Navarro, come from Latin American artists of different generations and reflect the complexity of contemporary art in the region. Through their creations, these artists address a variety of themes, ranging from experimental series to reflections on identity and the body, also exploring political and sexual dissidence, as well as the very nature of photography as a medium of expression.

Digital Sector – This year’s Digital Sector will feature five thematic group or duo exhibitions and ten individual artist presentations by fifteen international exhibitors. The exhibitions span artificial intelligence, moving video, virtual reality, networked image-based collages, and digital painting, offering diverse artistic perspectives. With increasing digitization, the boundaries between physical and digital are becoming increasingly blurred, leading to the emergence of hybrid forms that unite the two worlds. The curatorial approach emphasizes artists’ engagement with technology, showing how digital tools and processes expand creative possibilities, transforming even traditional art genres such as painting, sculpture, and photography.

Elles x Paris Photo 2024 – In the Elles x Paris Photo 2024 exhibition, Raphaëlle Stopin followed two guidelines in her choice of works and galleries: on the one hand, she wanted to give space to history and the ‘silent ones’ that have been excluded from it, as emphasized by historian Michelle Perrot. Stopin, therefore, focused on post-war photographers and previous generations, who are often forgotten. On the other hand, she wanted to highlight the variety of approaches of women artists, who used photography to challenge norms and go beyond gender roles, exploring new avenues of expression. This section also includes works by Letizia Battaglia, an iconographic Italian photographer specializing in particularly fierce and blatant black-and-white reportage of life in southern Italy, and Mari Katayama, also exhibited at Les Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles 2024 in the series of photographs dedicated to the 26 most important Japanese women photographers from 1950 to the present day.

The Prix du livre Paris Photo-Aperture – established in November 2012 by Paris Photo and the Aperture Foundation, celebrates the contribution of the photographic book to the development of photography. This annual award recognizes the enduring importance of photo books through three categories: First Book, Photo Book of the Year, and Photo Catalog of the Year. For the 2024 edition, 940 books were received from 59 countries. The selection committee evaluated the books to identify the finalists, rewarding editorial excellence and originality in photo publishing. It is very clear how the institution of awards of this type represents a fundamental purpose for the dissemination of photography, beyond the exhibition as an end in itself, which is often its most striking element, emphasizing the preservation and enhancement of photographic works and introducing an alternative concept to the mere catalog of the exhibition itself, aimed in any case at the dissemination of the work through other channels.

Paris Photo 2024 presents itself as an event that not only celebrates the history of photography, but also paves the way for new artistic languages and formats. By mixing tradition and innovation, this edition consolidates Paris Photo’s role as a reference point for the world of photography, offering a global platform for emerging talents and exploring new artistic and technological dimensions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Silvia Ionna is the Art Director for the independent art and travel publisher Dinamica Immobile. She writes about photography, art, and books for various online magazines.

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