Paris Photo, Day 1: The Experience

For photography lovers, this is a candy mall

This is my fourth visit to Paris Photo, an autumn extravaganza now celebrating its 26th year — and its third year in this temporary space. Traditionally (and again in the years to come), this international exposition is held in the Grand Palais, on the banks of the Seine.

As the Grand Palais undergoes the last year of its massive renovation, Paris Photo (and similar fairs, such as Art Paris in the spring) take the stage, or the tent, in the Grand Palais Éphémère, on the Champs de Mars — arguably just as stunningly scenic a venue.

The exposition is arranged largely by galleries (191), with some featuring several artists and some featuring just one. Usually there is a theme, though galleries showing ‘classic’ photos will offer small collections of famous photographers’ work.

Here I just want to offer a few highlights, to entice people to consider slipping this into their schedules in autumns to come. I’ll write with a bit more focus in the days to come.

Paris Photo embraces four days, from Thursday, November 9, through Sunday, November 12. There was a vernissage (an opening) yesterday, Wednesday, for gallerists, critics, investors, and photographers — in addition, there are extra hours every day for those ‘VIPs.’

This year I decided to snag one of these ‘professional’ tickets, for which you pay, but which comes with some substantial benefits in addition to the extra day and hours — like a cloakroom and a much breezier security routine. I got a letter of introduction from my stock agency and that did the trick.

I’ve written previously about my venture into professional photography, but I’ll just add here that if I were to have lived off my earnings over the last decade, I would have been cooking about three grains of rice a day. It reminds me of the joke in my other avocation: “You can make tens of dollars as a professional musician.” Still, a status is a status, and I add this here to encourage my fellow photographers to explore this route into the show.

It is pretty much impossible not to be gobsmacked by the wealth of beauty, humor, pathos, and ‘what the hell is that all about?’ throughout this vast temporary structure. Above, viewers immerse themselves in the public toilets of Tokyo, photographed over years by Moriyama. Yes, those are toilet paper rolls attached to the photo wall. There is a short video in front of the booth, explaining the project, in which Moriyama (who shoots much more than toilets) says that he can’t imagine anybody has visited more public toilets around the world than he has.

The next exhibit, and the first to make me breathe out the F word in a reverential moment, was a celebration of Fred W. McDarrah’s “Pride and Protest” photography, largely for the Village Voice, and featuring gay pride parades and New York celebrities of the movement.

The exhibit, sponsored by the MUUS Collection (a New Jersey archive) features a generous display of McDarrah’s photos and a newsprint supplement containing the entire collection, which one was invited to walk off with. I have to admit I practically swooned. This is the stuff.

Moving into the main exhibit hall:

My taste runs to ‘classic’ black and white and street, so I was delighted to find Frank Horvat represented among many peers — an example:

Here is an even older print: Louis Bonnard, 1885. He photographs a studio packed with white guys in clothing, all of whom were presumably drawing the one Black guy, not in clothing. One doesn’t know what Bonnard thought he was representing, and maybe partly for that reason, it’s a hell of a photograph.

But there are also many delightful surprises and poignant moments. This shot by Joel Sternfeld blew me away. It’s not just the boy’s expression, but also the truck bed full of life detritus, that tells the viewer this isn’t a normal camping trip.

Florence Bourgeois, the director of Paris Photo, points out that one new feature of the exposition, earning its own section, is an examination of new digital technologies, including AI and NFTs. In addition (and frankly to me more interesting, but never mind — I’m old fashioned) is a focus on including women photographers and featuring their themes and ideas. Three hundred of the 800 photographers represented in the show are women. To me, that means we’ve got a way to go, but hey — it’s a good several steps past the start.

Elle x Paris Photo is the umbrella under which women photographers are featured. The special displays and awards are curated by Fiona Rogers from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Paris Photo is thrilling and exhausting. One reason I’m happy to have the all-days ticket is that after two hours I’m overstimulated and undernourished, and of course, all the tables by the numerous snack stands are occupied.

Did somebody say First World problem? You bet.

More to come. Thanks for reading.