More Shows, more walking – Paris: For some time every two years I went to Paris in November for Paris Photo and the many other photographic events taking place there at the same time. Paris Photo is the world’s largest photo dealers trade fair, with stalls from galleries and dealers from around the world, but more important to me were the many photo shows taking place in the city at the same time.
In 2008 I was in Paris with my wife who studied the language in England and France in the 1960s and has since kept it up while my own ‘O’ level has more or less totally rusted. We visited many of the events outside Paris Photo together while she found plenty of other things to do while I was at Paris Photo.
We spent a very enjoyable week in Paris, enjoying the photography, the city and the food, though a couple of days at Paris Photo was more than enough for me. So many of the galleries where showing much the same work as they had in 2006, and others were filled with work of little or no interest to me. I did meet a few old friends, some from London but others from around the world, most of whom I had got to know when writing the photography web site for About.com, but now I was just another photographer rather than the person behind the best photography website online.
On My London Diary you can read in some detail how we spent the week in Paris in a PARIS SUPPLEMENT which actually begins on the day we arrived at PS: Tourist Montmartre at Night. Here on >Re:PHOTO I posted a string of articles too. In one of these, I think my last on the 20008 show, Paris Photo and Japan this is how I began:
"There is much more I could say about Paris Photo, but much was the same as ever, or perhaps more so. At many gallery spaces it was very much a case of deja vu, and there were some images I welcomed as old friends, in particular a very nice Steichen gum platinum print and some fine dye transfers of artists studios by Evelyn Hofer. If one can’t own such beautiful objects it is at least nice to see them on a regular basis.
However there were other works I would be happy never to see again, and indeed some I would happily add to a bonfire or put back in the photographers rubbish bin from which some ‘vintage works’ do appear to have been ‘rescued.’ I think the gallery scene lacks any mechanism for dealers to admit to making mistakes – they just have to keep on putting out the work and hope that suckers will take the bait."
Japan was the theme of the 2008 edition of the show and the post goes on to discuss some of the Japanese work on show, among the most interesting aspects of that year.
On 12th November 2008 we had breakfast at our hotel and then went out at 9.30am for a long walk around Paris. You can read a little about the galleries we did manage to visit later in the morning on My London Diary (some links no longer work) and it was only well after lunch that we parted our ways. As I wrote:
"Finally I reached Paris Photo in the bowels of the earth below the Louvre, and was able to begin my first session there - and I'll write more about that on >Re:PHOTO also."
More on My London Diary at PS: More Shows, more walking.
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