I am back in dark and rainy Norway, and it’s time to sort out all the impressions from the worlds leading event for photography, Paris Photo. 89 galleries and 13 publishers from 23 countries exhibited work by 500 fine art photographers from all over the world. Guest of Honour this year was Arab and Iranian photography. We met lots of good, old friends, and made some new ones. This is a personal notebook I would love to share with you, presenting the a few of most interesting photographic discoveries and rediscoveries we made in Paris. 3 of the exhibitons I mention are still on if you are planning on going to Paris yourself..
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At Eric Franck Fine Art Photography we found “Who are we today?” by the only Norwegian artist represented at the fair, Ina Otzko (1972). On her web page she states that: “the project explores the concept of female roles and values in a world dominated by men and medias superficial construction of reality. It also questions how this affects women at any age sense of belonging, and further their self-perception and identity. What are the consequences that will arise by such active manipulation through various mediums? How do – and will women relate to each other, and what values do mothers pass on to their daughters? Who do – and will women relate to each other, and what values do mothers pass on to their daughters? Who do you believe you are, or should be?”
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]Eric Franck also represents Rimaldas Viksraitis (1954), a Lithuan photographer who was Discovery Award winner at Arles. His “Grimaces of the Weary village” from 1998 will stick to my mind for a while. He has photographed his local community – the life on the farm. They inhabitants seem to consume quite an amount of home-brew alcohol, they get naked and there are all kinds of animals involved. There is a certain amount of tenderness and intimacy between Viksraitis and his subjects. As Martin Parr said in his nominating statement “Viksraitis’s images offer us a “ringside seat, with all the emotion, the drink and the ensuing madness.”
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From this brutal reality, we paused at Purdy Hicks. The London based gallery represents Susan Derges (1954). According Wikipedia “Susan Derges expressed an early interest in abstraction because ”it offered the promise of being able to speak of the invisible rather than to record the visible”. She turned to camera less photography after experiencing frustration at the way ”the camera always separates the subject from the viewer”. Much of her subsequent work has dealt with this relationship – of separation and connectedness with the natural world. Her images are often beautiful, conjuring metaphysical and metaphorical layers of meaning.”
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Antoine D’Agata (1961) is a controversial photographer who became a full member of Magnum in 2008. A quote on the Magnum website: “It’s not how a photographer looks at the world that is important. It’s their intimate relationship with it.” The collage titled “Huis clos” from 2000 is simply a masterpiece – the image will be included here as soon as we receive it from Magnum.
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The Helsinki based Galerie Andhava focused on Jorma Puranen (born 1951) conceptually intriguing work addressing the questions of history and representation through innovative visual methods. From Gallery Andhavas web-page we learn that: “In his series of works entitled “Icy Prospects”, Jorma Puranen paints a piece of wooden board with black, glossy alkyd paint, takes it outdoors and photographs the fragmentary reflection of nature on the surface of the board. The result is a series of extremely painting-like, works, in which the brushstrokes and the uneven features of the board are mixed with the reflected subject. These works are also images studying the picturesque, the sublime and the mysterious – the way of looking at the landscape.
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At Paris Photo Galerie Anhava also presented the artist’s most recent body of work from his ongoing series “Shadows, Reflections and All That Sort of Thing” where flashing reflections of daylight on the surface of historical portrait paintings blur them sometimes completely unidentifiable and always intriguing to look at.”
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Jorma Puranen’s new instalation made for Paris Photo 2009 consisted of both old photographs taken during the expedition in Lapland in 1884 led by Roland Bonaparte and portraits by Puranen from 1984. The photographs from 1884 follow typical Anthropological method. The portrayed Sami people are pictured either frontal or showing their profile. Puranen’s project in the 1980’s was based on his interest in the archival material and in the means of photographic portraiture used by Anthropologists. ” link to Galerie Andhava.
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The DNA Galerie of Berlin represents the Japanese photographer Tatsumi Orimoto (1946). Orimoto received honourable mention from the BMW price, and, according to the gallery’s web-page, “Orimotos central subjects are communication and interaction. He presents not only the strange, but also the familiar within the strange: The photographs of his mother remind us of a look into our own, at least imaginary, family album. Orimoto’s subjects are old age, illness and the bodily and mental decline of his mother, by now aged 86. In our youth-oriented society this phenomenon is often disregarded. His own, slower ageing process is also subject of his long term study. The likeness of mother and son becomes more clear as the years pass by, but the visualization is not melancholic, but has a cheerful distance.
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Besides the “Bread Men-Performances”, Tatsumi Orimoto primarily concentrates on the project “Art Mama” with great steadiness and ever new and surprising ideas for his images, as for instance with an intimate photo-diary with small, black and white snapshots as well as medium and large sized colour prints, deliberately composed with the camera. In the new series Orimoto himself comes into the picture – as a son: we sense an emotional closeness, although communication with words is no longer possible.” Text by Matthias Harder, Helmut Newton Foundation Berlin.
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The Berlin based TaiK Gallery represents artists who are synonymously known as the Helsinki School. The artists use the photographic prosess as a conceptual tool to document their ideas. TaiK represents many influential Finnish photographers, but at Paris Photo they exhibited the young fresh talents. I would like to introduce you to 3 of the female photographers:
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Susanna Majuri (1976) writes in her statement at the Helsinki School; “The water is the most remarkable. It carries bodies. Water is colour. The shimmer and the deep green. My challenge is to see the reality in a non-traditional light. When I am shooting pictures, I have a premonition that something strange is about to happen. I follow the logic of colours, when I combine places, people and objects. To me the most important quality of photography is it´s capability to convey emotions. I suggest: imagine the details a bit further. Who is drawing trees in to the pond. When you touch the surface of the house it turns out to be your companion.”
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The Swedish photographer Pernilla Zetterman (1970) represented by TaiK did a book signing at Hatje Canz – of the beautiful book “BEHAVE” where Zetterman explores behavioural patterns, structures, obsessions and the origins and contours of identity. As a study of three generations, Zetterman photographed part of the series in her grandmother´s home, her mother´s and her own, examining the things each woman collects and holds dear or leaves to decay. More information on the book here: Hatje Cantz Verlag.
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Nelli Palomäki (1981) has published a book, “Elsa and Viola” with beautiful black and white portraits. Some of them were shown at the TaiK Gallery – like the one presented to you here. The book is limited edition, but might still be available, cheque her web page.
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The Galerie VU in Paris represents some of my favorite artists. At last years Paris Photo the image by Silverthorp; ”Woman dying in her sleep” was ranged as the best single image of the fair most of the people I discussed it with. (note from last years Paris Photo here). This year we noticed more work by mr Silverthorne. According to the Galerie VU website, “Jeffrey Silverthorne explores the question of sex and death, as well as the notions of boundary and transgression. Active since the end of the 60’s, he has been accumulating series on extreme subjects: a slaughter house, a morgue, brothels or a community of transvestites and transexuals. But not out of voyeurism. Rather, Silverthorne seeks a way to further expose himself, to become more vulnerable so as to dive deeper into his own psychology: « I make images to remember, not the purpose, but my own feelings and reactions». Hence his lack of interest for an objective photography that would translate nothing of the intensity of the experience and, on the contrary, his liking for subjective documentaries and structured images shaped as plastic experiments and stage productions.
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The Tex-Mex series reveals the artist’s taste for the atmospheres that convey « the texture, the smell, the temperature of the places». Associating black and white and color photographies as well as video, Tex-Mex deals at once with the Mexicans who venture across the American border and with the prostitutes of Nuevo Laredo.
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In a Rhode Island morgue, Jeffrey Silverthorne focuses on the bodies. The plunging views and close-ups stress the horror of the details. But the photographer also manages to give a softer image, even sensuous, of the bodies that appear to be just sleeping. In doing so, he resumes the ambiguity of the post-mortem portraits of the 19th century.”
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The french collector, publisher and filmmaker Freddy Denaës has an exhibition in Paris right now at Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz; “Ex nugis seria” with a carefully selected selection from his collection. On the book cover it says: “So what is a collection? a heap.. a secret.. art of living.. a desire.. a sweet craziness.. a passion… A whole made of little nothings… What is a collector? The one who accumulates year by year on his journeys in space and time.” ”I do with photographs what others would do with butterflies, stones or paintings.”
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Denaës states that his collection is made of little things, these little things which put together makes something beautiful. Behind his modesty, he is hiding a deeper truth. Mr Denaës is a traveler.His collection offers an opportunity to rediscover icons of African photography, and to discover new ones. There is also a more intimate group of photographs – which he titles ”Icônes Idoles”. These are images that we attach to, either we are collectors or not, because they feed our imagination and give us the sense the world around us. As Danäes also is a filmmaker it is not surprising that he has included series, sequences and movement in his collection. The collection can be seen as a self portrait. Denaës has collected work by photographer as; D’Agata, Ackerman, Batho, Ballen, Dumas, Faucon, Giacomeli, Goldblatt, Klein, Kuhn, Petersen, Riboud, our own Monsieur Ropp, Saudek, Strømholm, Tenneson and Tillim – to mention just a few. . The exhibition lasts till 20th of December.Link to the gallery.
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At the the Russian Pobeda Gallery, we discovered Evgenyiy Mokhorevs (1967) and his image of Mika. There is no information on this artist at their website, or link to the image, but it turns out that he has a soloshow “Confused Age” in Paris – at the Russiantearoom till the 6th of December.
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[SinglePic not found]The South-African based artist Roger Ballen, who was the main exhibitor at Risør Fotofestival this year, was invited to give a talk about his latest body of work, the Boarding House, in the Project Room at Paris Photo. We enjoyed his talk, despite the fact that he constantly manages to surprise and confuse us. I think his images are breathtaking, however, both terrifying and filled with humor at the same time. And always with a strong composition. No element just happen to be in Roger Ballens images. Every single element has a purpose. Excactly as his talks.
We are looking forward to his next body of work, which will be all about birds…
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This note only consists of a fraction of what was on show at Paris Photo. If you would like to see more, please visit Paris Photo’s partner LENSCULTURE, who has a preview of the fair – with 167 images on their web site.
Lens Culture is an online magazine celebrating international contemporary photography, art, media, and world cultures. You can discover photography from all continents and various points of view: documentary, fine art, photojournalism, poetic, personal, abstract, human, and street photography, it’s a wonderful resource for anyone into photography!
