Here Are the 5 Must-See Booths at Paris Photo This Year

The interior of the Grand Palais in France. Courtesy of Paris Photo 2018.

Paris Photo, the world’s largest international fair dedicated to photography, is getting ready to kick off again under the majestic beaux-arts dome of the Grand Palais this week. For this year’s edition—the 22nd—the fair will welcome some 200 exhibitors and a wide array of artists, photo enthusiasts, collectors, and galleries to the city of lights.

To help you steer a path through the massive fair, we’ve highlighted five booths from artnet’s member galleries that you won’t want to miss.

Etherton Gallery

Emmet Gowin, Ruth and Edith, Danville, Virginia (1966). Courtesy of the artist and Etherton Gallery.

Etherton Gallery has been a champion of post-World War II American photography since its founding almost four decades ago in Tucson, Arizona. For its presentation at Paris Photo, the gallery is showing a trifecta of artists who represent the parallel practices of European modernism and straight documentary in “Teachers and Mentors: Harry Callahan, Frederick Sommer, and Emmet Gowin.” Gowin was a pupil of Harry Callahan and Frederick Sommer, and his work illustrates their two distinct perspectives.

Etherton Gallery: Booth B39

JHB Gallery

Selections from Ellen Carey, Crush & Pull (2018). Courtesy of JHB Gallery.

Contemporary artist Ellen Carey‘s new experimental works fuse instant film and photogram, using Polaroid negatives to create new abstractions based on the physically crushed material. Her “Crush & Pull” series is included in this year’s Galleries of Elles curated sector, highlighting the contributions of women to the photography field.

JHB Gallery: Booth SP10, Section PRISMES SECTOR

Priska Pasquer

Ulrike Rosenbach, Art Is a Criminal Action (1970). © Ulrike Rosenbach, courtesy Priska Pasquer, Cologne.

Cologne-based gallery Priska Pasquer was established in 2000 and focuses specifically on art created as a response to political and social change. In its Paris Photo booth, the work of pioneering feminist video and photography artist Ulrike Rosenbach is a prime example. Rosenbach’s Art Is a Criminal Action riffs on Andy Warhol’s famous Double Elvis [Ferus Type] from 1963, but replaces the King of Rock ‘n Roll with her self portrait.

Priska Pasquer: Booth B13

SAGE

John Gossage, The last days of Fontainebleau 2 (2017). Courtesy of SAGE, Paris.

Paris-based SAGE gallery is on its home turf for this show, and is showing a lineup of four stellar artists: John Gossage, Guido Guidi, Daido Moriyama, and Shoji Ueda. The gallery’s commitment to showing contemporary photographs spanning from the 1960s through today is clear in this wide array of offerings—Shoji Ueda’s cherry compositions rival any Dutch painting, while John Gossage’s most recent series, “The Last Days of Fontainebleauis,” is a keen example of his subdued and picturesque landscapes.

SAGE: Booth C31

Steven Kasher Gallery

Joan Lyons, Bedspread (1969). © Joan Lyons, courtesy of Steven Kasher Gallery.

Steven Kasher’s booth at Paris Photo is an ode to the little-known but well-respected feminist artist Joan Lyons—an artist who defied the conventions of 1950s art movements, which prized masculine energy over personal (and especially female) experience. Lyons employed all aspects of photo-making materials, evoking the realm of domesticity and using her own body as a medium for exploration.

Steven Kasher: Booth D15