Paris Photo November 2014
“If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it!” a passer-by muttered to his friend.
Showcasing one thousand, two hundred and thirty-one artists’ work, and catering to thousands of visitors, Paris Photo has just celebrated its 18th year of berets and finger pointing at the Grand Palais, Paris
With the November weather in Paris living up to expectations, soggy umbrellas smack us in the face while grunts of “Il pleut comme vache qui pisse!” (It’s raining like the pissing cow) are regularly overheard.
The queue, which lasted over an hour-and-a-half, didn’t seem worth it as we entered the Grand Palais and were greeted with crowds (some 60,000 visitors over the course of three days), a lingering smell of espressos and overpriced wasabi sandwiches.
Out of 143 galleries and 26 photo-book publishers fighting for our eager eye (and money), a distractingly good stall stood out from the rest.
Among the photographs of Garry Winogrand and Hiroshi Sugimoto the ‘Fraenkel Gallery’, for the first time, showed Nicholas Nixon’s entire work The Brown Sisters.
His photography documented his wife and her three sisters, annually, over the course of forty years. Individually the photographs are just of four women, but displayed in the grid like fashion, it had become a portrait of time.
Being surrounded by thousands of people that share the same passion as you is incredible. Even if you have to wait in line for a few hours to purchase a refreshing beverage, this weekend is still something you should not miss.
With photography changing every day, it is hoped that next year’s Paris Photo will only surpass this year’s expectations, with an even greater variety of work and exhibitors.
Photography by Pieteke Marsden