Paris Photo 2010
Your taste of life in Paris and France
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For several days I, along with thousands of others, wallowed in the world of photography. Gallery owners, their staff, the photographers (some of the world's most renowned), publishers, press, lookie-loos and collectors all gathered at the Carrousel du Louvre for the annual Paris Photo from Wednesday afternoon through Sunday night at 7 p.m.
It seems to expand each year, however the expense of having a booth and transporting important works of art does prohibit many galleries to send a representative, but not to exhibit themselves. I visited the show both at the opening and at the closing. The attendance was high, but that doesn't mean successful in terms of sales for the galleries.
The report from a few gallery owners about this year's show was that it was productive and worth their presence. Of course, if it weren't, would they have admitted to it? I'm not so sure!
This year's show spotlighted Central European photographers, from such countries as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland. There was an abundance of work by Czechoslovakian artist Josef Sudek represented by galleries Howard Greenberg, Johannes Faber, Priska Pasquer, Robert Koch Gallery, SAGE Paris and the Stephen Daiter Gallery, but none by my favorite Czech photographer, Jan Saudek. (How disappointing.) All in all, I found the show more 'non-risk' work than photos that break the mold, but in today's economic times, that would be par for the course.
There were 106 exhibitors from all over the world -- 26 of which were from France -- 21 galleries and 5 publishers. I can remember when there were only a handful of important French galleries representing photography, so the heightened interest in the art form has certainly blossomed in Paris and elsewhere in France. The U.S. was the second most well-represented country with 16 galleries and two publishers.
Favorite New York resource and 'grande dame' of the New York photo scene, Bonni Benrubi, was there as she is every year, with a collection of very respectful and beautiful work from artists such as Andreas Feininger, Josef Hoflehner, Louis Stettner and Massimo Vitali. Along the route I had the pleasure of meeting other U.S. photo 'mavens' such as Tom Gitterman, Yossi Milo and Bruce Silverman whose stands were equally as impressive.
Old friend and colleague, Theresa Luisotti of Gallery Luisotti/Ram Publications at Bergamot Station in Los Angeles, opted out of having a stand this year, but canvassed the show daily to work her magic with industry colleagues. She arrived with a box of works by artist Lewis Baltz, a Californian native and part-time resident of Paris who signed his latest books during the show.
With such a rigorous schedule, participants of the fair found themselves exhausted. One such evening, photo fair friends along with Lynda Sydney, the Adrian Leeds Group Marketing Director (who resides in Toronto, but is here for one month working and playing "Parisienne"), decided to play hookie and peruse the results online of the Richard Avedon Christie's auction that day.
"Dovima with elephants, Evening dress by Dior, Cirque d'Hiver, Paris, August 1955" set a record €841,000 ($1,151,976) including the buyer's premium. "The Beatles Portfolio, London, England, 8-11-67" fetched a whopping €445,000 ($609,547) and in total, the auction brought in €5,467,250 ($7,488,871). Figures like these clearly indicate a rising value of collecting photographic art.
While being awestruck at the results of the Avedon auction, we went online to order sushi from "Planet Sushi" to be delivered in so as not to venture out once again in the cold and rain. The Google Chrome Web browser has the habit of translating the text from French to English automatically, so at the end of a long and exhausting photography-filled day, we got a particularly big laugh out of some items on the menu: "Temaki Lawyer Shrimp" (Temaki avocat crevette), "Temaki lawyer cooked tuna" (Temaki avocat thon cuit) and "Flake lawyer" (Le Flocon avocat)...and we wondered if instead of avocado in our maki and temaki we would end up with a few lawyers on our doorstep.
Luckily, we didn't, and it was all very photogenic.
Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris
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