Exhibited works include photographs by superstar artists including, among others, Cindy Sherman, (Gagosian Gallery, Bruce Silverstein) Richard Prince, (Gagosian, Sophie Scheidecker) or Andreas Gursky (also represented by Gagosian) as well as photography’s earlier exponents, notably Man Ray, whose works are shown by as many as 12 galleries.
What is rarer to find however, are photographers under 40, with galleries preferring to exhibit more established artists that they are sure to sell. So to help you sniff them out, we’ve compiled a list of the best younger photographers to discover under the majestic glass roof of the Grand Palais between November 10 and 13.
For some younger artists “the line between ‘traditional’ photographers and artists working with several media is increasingly blurred,” says CJ Heyliger exhibiting at Gallery Luisotti. “Art education and artistic practices are becoming more interdisciplinary, whilst technology’s evolution has slowly redefined the definition of the medium. It’s a unique moment in photography’s history.”
For James Tylor of Stills Gallery, the medium’s evolution should encourage artists to produce better quality work. For Tylor, “a photo-artist that uses several medias will bring new and alternative ideas to the photography making process.”
Elsewhere, Thibault Brunet, who’s showing with Binôme Galerie, believes that the perception of photography as a distinct medium from others is perpetrated by institutions, not the artists. “If we ask young photographers, they see no differences, but art collectors can appreciate this distinction”. Mustapha Azeroual, also showing with Binôme, agrees that working around the medium brings artists to abstract from the image, and from the expectations of verisimilitude expected from photography.
Here are our picks of the most interesting work by young photographers:
13:27 - 150° - Lake Los Angeles, CA
CJ Heyliger, showing with Gallery Luisotti
“The photographs on display this year are new, and depict improvised sundials that I make out in the California desert. The sundial being a perfect manifestation of the two key elements of photography - time and light - working in unison. These pieces are part of an ongoing series titled Precious Metal is Hard to Find which, while rooted in a landscape photography practice, utilizes subject matter of a more performative or constructed origin. I like thinking of the body of work as a series of attempts to make something out of nothing.”
Hidden in the Shadows
James Tylor at Stills Gallery
Ubari, Southern Libya, 2015. Tuareg tribe militiamen playing babyfoot on Tende Mount, from the Series The Dynamics of the Dust, 2015
Philippe Dudouit, showing with East Wing Gallery
Photographer Philippe Dudouit showcases works detailing a cartography of Saharan dynamics: his images show conflict zones in Libya, marked by illegal trafficking, anti-terrorism and the movements of migrants.
Les mécaniques 1, 2016 168 x 205 cm detail of a triptych.
Noémie Goudal at Filles du Calvaire Gallery
For Paris Photo, Noémie Goudal debuts one of the latest photographs from her series Southern Light Station and reveals one of the first works from Les mécaniques: a monumental triptych created in the jungle which will be presented in the PRISMES section.
serie ELLIOS#1, 2016
Azeroual Mustapha, showing with Binôme Galerie — € 300 for editions, other works up to € 12.000
The works I am presenting give an insight into my various research into the nature and the scope of photography; it’s a working process based on observation and experimentation that brought me to bring historical shooting techniques in dialogue with the more contemporary issues of photography.
Typologie du virtuel, sans-titre #1, 2014-16
Thibault Brunet at Binôme Galerie
Brunet presents a selection from the different projects he has been working on in recent years; notably photographs depicting a virtual world, or resembling it: his works, created with hyper-contemporary tools such as 3D and google earth, are somewhere between reality and fiction.
Statuette Punu, Bintou, Guinée, Ya Kala Ben, 2011
Namsa Leuba, at in camera galerie
Photo courtesy artists and their gallerists
