Paris Photo Op

SPECIAL NOTE: The photos published here are copyrighted and not for reproduction in anyway.

Those of us who love and adore photography wait with baited breath every year for the annual photo fair, Paris Photo, to open its doors, usually under the iron and glass roof at the Grand Palais. It’s always in November, always opening its “vernissage” (a French word translated as “varnishing,” but really meaning “preview”) on a Wednesday early to mid month — so you guessed it — it opens this coming November 8th. The official dates are November 9-12, 2017, so if you don’t have a special pass for the vernissage, you have now through the weekend to take advantage of the offerings…some 149 galleries and 31 publishers will be on display.

Galleries represented come from countries all over the world including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Solo shows presented by the main sector galleries include the works of photographers Vanessa Beecroft, Ilse Bing, Marcelo Brodsky, Paul Graham, Rinko Kawauchi, Dana Lixenberg, Edgar Martins, Susan Meiselas, Boris Mikhailov, Arnold Odermatt, Shigeru Onishi, Sigmar Polke, Denis Rouvre, Lise Sarfati, Karl Hugo Schmölz, Ed van der Elsken, Tom Wood, Masao Yamamoto and Tobias Zielony.

Karl Lagerfeld is this year’s Guest of Honor for this 21st edition of the fair. He has created a “journey” of his personal favorites including his own photo works to be published in a special edition book. Lagerfeld, as a fashion designer, publisher and book dealer, began working as a photographer in 1987 and has since received the Cultural Prize from the German Photographic Society and the ICP Trustee Award from the International Centre of Photography.

Paris Photo is a time for me personally when I can visit with old friends “in the biz” — the gallerists and artists whom I’ve come to know over the years. Before Theresa Luisotti opened her own gallery in Los Angeles, she and I ran a couple of art shows in my L.A. home — we took down all my own works and installed the works of the artists she was representing at the time as an independent dealer. Today, she’s one of the primary gallerists to participate in the fair. You can find her at Booth A24 presenting works by Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joachim Brohm, John Divola, Christina Fernandez, Frank Gohlke, CJ Heyliger, Simone Nieweg, Mark Ruwedel, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, and Catherine Wagner.

Once, when visiting with Theresa as the fair was closing, she looked past me and said, “Oh, there goes Karl.” It was Karl Lagerfeld himself with an entourage in tow, looking just like Karl does in his all black skinny jeans and white hair pulled back in a pony tail, wearing sunglasses, while going through the fair after hours, like the VIP that he is…of course. We just had a chuckle and went back to our catching up on old times.

Vee Speers, an Australian photographer living in Paris who caught my attention years ago at Paris Photo with a body of work titled “The Birthday Party,” will be represented at the fair by The School Gallery here in Paris which will be showing her most recent collection, “Dystopia.” Thanks to the fair, and a mutual friend who is a collector, I came to know Vee. Now I have one from an early body of works, “Les Parisiens.” It was one that I “just couldn’t live without” when she showed me photographic works in her box of archived prints. Her images are arresting — you’ll find that you won’t be able to take your eyes off any one of them and they steal the show from anything else you might have on your wall. If you miss the fair, you can attend a special opening of her works at the gallery on November 16th (see schoolgallery.fr/exhibitions/ for more information.)

You won’t get a full report of the fair until next Monday, but don’t count on my experience. if you can manage it, go and have your own eye-opening and inspiring time for yourself. You won’t regret it and you may get hooked on photography like I did.

A la prochaine…

Adrian Leeds
Adrian Leeds Group

(at the Grand Palais)

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P.S. Thursday, Nov. 9, our brand new House Hunters International episode “Life and Love Parisian Style” airs. See the notice at the top of this newsletter or on our HHI page. Set your DVRs now!