At a moment when the front edge of contemporary photography seems to be stalled a bit, searching for a new wave of ideas, energy, and relevance, particularly in the face of emerging AI image-making tools, the annual Frieze New York Art Fair last week provided an intriguing check-in point on what top galleries from around the world are thinking about (and showing) photographically. And in a fair typically dominated by other mediums, there was a surprising amount of photography to be uncovered in the three floors of booths at the Shed.
What the photography available at Frieze seemed to be communicating is that most galleries haven’t found a new photographic formula to pursue just yet, and are still very much riding the identity-driven themes that have dominated contemporary photography for the past handful of years, with black and female photographers (or both) generally taking center stage. In mostly one-each-from-the-stable group booths, the usual suspects poked up here and there, but to avoid duplication with works I have featured recently in gallery shows, museum exhibitions, and in other art fair reports, I have left out single works by the likes of Stan Douglas, Isaac Julien, Anne Collier, Eileen Quinlan, Todd Gray, Francesca Woodman, Gordon Parks, Farah Al Qasimi, and Zanele Muholi (among others), in favor of other choices that seemed less repetitive, but still very much within this consistent race and gender framework. All but one of the images in the slideshow below (and all of the artists listed above) check one or both of the identity boxes.
The stream of images below gathers together a small selection of the photographic highlights I found worthy of some additional thinking, organized generally as a progression down the aisles and up the various floors. As is the case with all of our art fair reports, the images below are supported by linked gallery names, artist names, dates, prices (as available), and a short discussion or commentary.
