Photography, with its inherent tension between fact and fiction, reality and imagination, can polarize even its greatest champions. These tensions date back to the medium’s very beginning. Did French entrepreneur Daguerre invent the medium or British nobleman William Fox Talbot? Even the answer to that seemingly straightforward question depends on whom you ask.

Enter the great debates between black-and-white and color, digital and film, straight photography and formalism, and you’ll have opened up the proverbial Pandora’s box. Whether you’re a photography die-hard or your curiosity is just slightly piqued, we’ve got you covered with seven photography galleries across Europe that showcase the best of what the medium has to offer.

Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne

Isabelle Armand, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer (2015). Galerie Julian Sander,

This preeminent photography gallery is led by Julian Sander, the son of esteemed gallery owner Gerd Sander and the fourth-generation descendant of August Sander, the iconic early 20th-century portraitist of everyday people. The 10-year-old gallery brings that generational acuity to its programming, which includes a mix of emerging and established artists such as Sean Hemmerle, Walker Evans, Alfredo Srur, and, of course, the August Sander estate. The current exhibition, “Isabelle Armand: With the Mississippi Innocence Project,” exemplifies its strength in social portraiture. To create the series, Armand followed two Americans, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, as they reintegrated into their town after a being released, in 2008, from a decades-long imprisonment after the wrongful conviction for the murder and rape of two young girls in 1990.

“Isabelle Armand: With the Mississippi Innocence Project” is on view through November 30, 2019, at Galerie Julian Sander, Cäcilienstraße 48, Cologne

Huxley-Parlour, London 

Zhang Kechun, Buddha Statues (2019). Courtesy of Huxley-Parlour

In a former life, Huxley-Parlour was Beetles+Huxley Gallery, one of the premier photography galleries in the UK. Since its 2018 expansion, Huxley-Parlour has opened itself up to a variety of mediums, but its lifeblood remains photography. Here you’ll find works by leading photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Harry Callahan, Cig Harvey. Alec Soth, and Joel Sternfeld. The current exhibition of pale, almost ghostly color photographs of China by Zhang Kechun offers a meditative and refreshing depiction of the nation’s urban landscape.

“Zhang Kechun” is on view through November 15, 2019, at Huxley-Parlour, 3-5 Swallow Street, London

Camera Work, Berlin

Eugenio Recuenco, 25 Diciembre (2018). Courtesy of Camera Work.

One of the world’s leading photography galleries, Camera Work has built its reputation on showcasing the classic photography of artists by ultra-famous photographers including Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Man Ray, and Herb Ritts, and Albert Watson. But Camera Work keeps itself on the cutting edge with a roster of young contemporary photographers including Nick Brandt, Robert Polidori, and Eugenio Recuenco.

“Albert Watson” is on view from November 23, 2019, through January 18, 2020, at Camera Work, Kantstraße 149, Berlin

Priska Pasquer, Cologne

Pieter Hugo, The Sex Worker, Oaxaca de Juárez (2018). Courtesy of Priska Pasquer.

Priska Pasquer is a decidedly cool photography gallery, and one with a very particular focus: times of change and upheaval. In the gallery’s narrative, those eras whittle down to the 1920s, the ’70s, and the years after 2000. Among the historic works, you’ll find a preeminent selection of Constructivism, including El Lissitzky and Rodchenko, and Japanese photography by the likes of Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama. The more recent works primarily respond to the dawn of the digital age, including the color-saturated, often jarring, large-scale portraits by Pieter Hugo currently on view.

“Pieter Hugo: La Cucarracha” in on view through November 23, 2019, at Priska Pasquer, Cologne.

Galerija Fotografija, Ljubljana

Nataša Segulin, Lumen 9B. Courtesy of Galerija Fotografija.

The first photography gallery in Slovenia devoted solely to photography, Galerija Fotografija takes as its mission the popularizing of established Slovene photographers and developing the local appetite for international photography. The imagery on view here ranges from conceptual to more traditional portraiture from a roster of artists you’re unlikely to encounter anywhere else.

“Natasa Segulin: Lumen” is on view through January 10, 2020, at Galerija Fotografija, Levstikov trg 7, Ljubljana,  Slovenia 

Galerie Springer Berlin, Berlin 

Aitor Ortiz, Espacio Latente 008 (2018). Courtesy of Galerie Springer Berlin.

Founded in 1991, Galerie Springer Berlin has been under the direction of founder Rudolf Springer’s son, Robert Springer, and his wife, Heide, since 2012. Though not strictly a photography gallery, the curatorial center is there, with recent exhibitions of Ed Burtynsky, Evelyn Hofer, and Ute and Werner Mahler. Currently on view is a series by Bilbao-based photographer Aitor Ortiz, which through oblique and conceptual arrangements, investigates the demise of industrial manufacturing in the northern region of Spain. 

“Aitor Ortiz: Expanded Photography 2002–2018” is on view through January 11, 2020, at Galerie Springer Berlin, Fasanenstraße 13, Berlin

Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zurich 

Romeo Vendrame, M Castle (2014). Courtesy of Fabian und Claude Walter Galerie Zurich.

A stalwart of the photography scene, Fabian & Claude Walter has been in the business since 1986, and from the get-go, cultivated conceptually rigorous photographers and new media artists. The recent show titled “Romeo Vendrame: Choreography” included colorful, moody cityscapes that bleed between abstraction and documentary photography.

Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie is located at Rämistraße 18, Zurich