Booth by Booth Highlights from Paris Photo 2014, Part 1 of 5

As I sat roughly shoehorned into my redeye flight from New York in advance of yesterday’s elegant Paris Photo opening, I found myself pondering the impenetrable question of what I was really trying to accomplish at this year’s fair. Paris Photo has clearly secured its place as the premier event on the art calendar for photography collectors; it’s bigger, broader, and better presented than any other photography fair out there. An undeniable smorsgasbord of photographic delights awaited me inside the dazzling glass atrium of the Grand Palais, almost certainly too many to absorb in any one visit, so unless the idea was simply to have a leisurely photographic stroll, taking in the sights as they say, I had to develop an attack strategy or the elemental process of looking would quickly become disorienting and overwhelming.

So far this year, I’ve already attended five art fairs (ADAA, Armory, Independent, AIPAD, and Frieze New York), I’m in Paris this week, and I’m scheduled to go to Miami for Art Basel Miami Beach in early December. In each case, I have systematically visited every single booth in search of meaningful photography, gathering highlights like shells on a beach (some to be pocketed for further inspection later, others to be flung back into the water after a fleeting moment of thoughtful recognition and enjoyment, to be found again by the next searcher). With my own personal collector’s hat on, I have of course looked for specific works that would fit into our collection, either images that had stubbornly eluded us for years or perhaps new discoveries that would add to the visual dialogue that we already have going. But in a broader way, I have also fed an insatiable (some might say obsessive) desire to see and be surprised.

I have long ago given up on the idea that an art fair can be thoughtfully “reviewed”; such a volume and diversity of imagery, even when intelligently curated on an individual level, yields few identifiable patterns or insights beyond bland generalities. My approach has therefore evolved toward trying to break down the tendency toward aggregation and to look at each booth as a stand alone entity, scouring the back corners and side walls for the elusive lightning strike of recognition – that one picture that sizzles with something different, from the fresh and new to the unexpected and unknown. It is these undeniably subjective moments of excitement that I have tallied here, with the hopes that my enthusiasm will flow through, giving readers unable to wander the hallways a feeling for what was hiding here. If we’re honest, as usual, there is a wealth of forgettable photography on view, but it’s those transcendent moments of smiling, head shaking discovery that make all the searching worthwhile.

Like last year, this summary report is divided into five slideshows of image highlights, roughly organized by physical location in the Grand Palais; this first segment chronicles the booths found at the far left of the fair (from the perspective of standing at the entrance) and each subsequent report (over the next few days) will tackle an adjacent chunk of territory. Gallery names/links are followed by notes and comments on the work featured, including the artist/photographer name and the price of the work (typically in euros or dollars) where available.

So let’s begin:

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Galleri Bo Bjerggaard (here): This booth was a solo show of the landscapes of the Danish photographer Per Bak Jensen. Light snow covers the ground like a frozen wave of ice, with thick white smoke blanketing the background. Priced at €10000.

Part 2 of our summary can be found here. Parts 3, 4, and 5 are here, here, and here.

Booth by Booth Highlights from Paris Photo 2014, Part 1 of 5

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