2024 is an important year for Paris Photo, which returns to the grounds of the Grand Palais after a long period of work. The Eye of Photography met Florence Bourgeois, its director for ten years.
This edition marks the highly anticipated return of Paris Photo to the Grand Palais.
Indeed, there is great excitement linked to the fact that we are returning to this historic setting and in majesty since we will have a space of 21,000 square meters, compared to 12,000 at the Grand Palais Éphémère and 16,000 when we were at the Grand Palais. It is therefore an increase in power for Paris Photo, in terms of space, and an enriched programming. This concerns both the commercial part and the different sectors and routes.
Can you tell us about the Voices sector that you are launching this year?
What initially interested us in creating this sector was working with exhibition curators because it allows us to open our eyes. The curators selected each have immense expertise in a specific area of photography. Elena Navarro, founder of FotoMéxico, has great knowledge of the South American and Spanish scene. Azu Nwagbogu, founder of the Lagos Photo Festival and curator of the Benin pavilion at the Venice Biennale, brings a broader vision through a project around archives. Sonia Voss has a keen eye on the Eastern and Northern European scene. All three allow us to present artists and galleries who would not necessarily have come to the fair otherwise.
The new enclosure of the Grand Palais allows another great return, that of the Prismes sector, which emphasizes the monumental aspect of photography. Can you tell us more?
We wanted to highlight monumental projects as well as installations because they go beyond the classic framework of photography. We decided not to centralize this sector but to distribute these projects within the nave and the main sector. Visitors will thus be able to discover for the first time the series of 619 prints from the spectacular series People from the Twentieth Century by August Sander at the entrance to the fair (Julian Sander gallery) or 1078 shots of blue sky captured on sites of former Nazi camps with which photographer Antons Kusters addresses the themes of trauma and commemoration (In- Dependence by Ibasho). The different Prismes projects allow us to show photography from a different, more deconstructed angle, with a new visual vocabulary.
Jim Jarmusch is the guest of honor of this edition. Is this choice part of your desire to decompartmentalize photography, approaching it here through the prism of cinema?
There are two interesting things about Jim Jarmusch. It offers a tour of around thirty works at the fair which indeed allows us to offer another angle. This is important in such a dense fair because the visitor can decide to concentrate on specific routes, the look of Jarmusch for example or ELLES x Paris Photo. Moreover, the filmmaker will hold a conversation during the fair offering the possibility of hearing from a great personality from the world of cinema and photography.
The “ELLES x Paris Photo” sector, in partnership with Kering, highlights’honoring female artists for six years. What are the developments?
When we launched this sector six years ago, only 20% of the artists at the fair were women. Last year, this figure rose to 36%, and this year to 38%. This progress is the result of awareness-raising work among galleries and the public. Moreover, Kering is offering additional support this year through grants awarded to four galleries presenting only female artists: Monitor, Higher Pictures, Martini & Ronchetti and Nadja Vilenne.
How is the photography market currently evolving? ?
The context is rather anxiety-provoking, both at the international and geopolitical level as well as for the art market in general. Decisions may take a little longer to make. Besides that, this year we have works whose prices range from 1000 euros to two and a half million euros for a Gordon Matta Clark presented by the Patinoire Royale. The market does exist, money is flowing and sales continue. As for Paris Photo, we maintain our position and remain extremely strong support for the galleries by choosing not to increase prices significantly from one year to the next. This does not mean that, for our part, we are not facing very large increases from our service providers.
What are your expectations for this edition?
My expectation is twofold: first, that exhibitors will meet collectors and institutions. And that's why the American galleries come, because they know that more than 170 museums and museum groups will be present at the fair. As for the general public, I hope that visitors will come to the fair to discover photography, to share with the galleries and publishers who are there to make the medium known. We are lucky to have a gauge that has tripled this year thanks to our space saving. We are therefore waiting for as many people as possible.
Is Paris still the capital of photography in your eyes?
Undeniably. We can also see it with all the satellite projects that are being set up and of which I think that Paris Photo is the backbone: the LUX network which has just been created, Photodays, PhotoSaintGermain, the show is approaching and many others… It There are a lot of events around photography during the week of the fair and we are extremely proud of them.
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