The world's most prestigious international photography fair, Paris Photo 2025, returns to the Grand Palais for its 28th edition from November 13-16, bringing together 179 galleries from 33 countries. This year's fair presents an ambitious program that spans photography's entire history, from 19th-century silver gelatin prints to cutting-edge blockchain technology. Artistic director Anna Planas emphasizes the fair's comprehensive vision, stating, "We want to embrace the entire history of photography, from the 19th century to the most contemporary works, and to show the diversity of the medium."
The fair showcases an impressive roster of both legendary and emerging photographers, featuring works by masters such as Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, Lee Friedlander, Irving Penn, Seydou Keïta, William Klein, Weegee, Sally Mann, Sebastião Salgado, and Hiroshi Sugimoto. Alongside these established names, visitors will discover rising talents like Marine Lanier, featured in the fair's Emergence sector and winner of the Prix Maison Ruinart for her enchanting series "Alchimia," photographed in the fields and skies of France's Champagne region.
Beyond the extensive gallery presentations, Paris Photo 2025 offers a rich cultural program including artist conversations, live performances, and book signings by renowned photographers such as Todd Hido and Wolfgang Tillmans. A special exhibition titled "The Last Photo" showcases works from the collection of Estrellita B. Brodsky, recognized as one of the most significant private collections of Latin American photography. Notably, all of this edition's curators are women, and the fair has dramatically increased female artist representation from 20 percent in 2018 to nearly 40 percent this year.
Upon entering the fair, visitors encounter a powerful 40-meter-long wall installation by Sophie Ristelhueber at the Poggi gallery. The French photographer, who won the prestigious Hasselblad Award in 2025, presents works spanning her career that reveal the scars left by war and disasters on landscapes, cities, and human bodies. Nearby, at Klemm's Berlin, Adrian Sauer's "Truth Table" project explores digital manipulation through images composed of millions of colored pixels in various combinations, featuring subjects ranging from smiley faces to the Eiffel Tower.
Several galleries present innovative approaches to traditional photography. Thierry Bigaignon has constructed an actual darkroom on his stand, complete with photographer Renato D'Agostin, who reprints silver gelatin works on demand to demonstrate the development process to collectors. Brazilian gallery Vermelho presents Claudia Andujar's reworked 1975 archives, including a photograph of the Volkswagen she drove to the Venezuelan border for her documentation of the Yanomami people, now enhanced with yellow acrylic panels.
Major photography institutions are well-represented at the fair. Magnum Gallery features vintage prints by Philippe Halsman, including his iconic 1948 portrait of Salvador Dalí floating with three cats, while Galerie Nathalie displays Luc Delahaye's "Un feu," depicting migrants around a fire, which is also part of his current solo exhibition at the Jeu de Paume museum. Fraenkel Gallery presents new work by artist and sound composer Christian Marclay, featuring grids of vinyl record sleeves and covers, while Martin Parr's 1996 photograph of French-fry-eating seagulls graces the stand of Clémentine de la Feronnière.
The fair's thematic sectors explore diverse curatorial perspectives. In the Voices sector, guest curator Devika Singh presents varied approaches to landscape photography, from documentary work to speculative and personal interpretations. Featured works include French painter-photographer Bernard Guillot's atmospheric images of Cairo's City of the Dead and Indian photographer Gauri Gill's "The Village on the Highway," a quietly political statement set against plastic tarpaulins. Galerie Binome showcases Laurence Aëgerter's ethereal cathedral and church photographs, screen-printed with thermo-chronic ink that reveals hidden images when exposed to sunlight.
For the third consecutive year, Paris Photo includes a dedicated Digital sector curated by Nina Roehrs, highlighting photography's technological evolution. Irish artist Kevin Abosch, presented by digital platform TAEX, trains artificial intelligence systems with his own images before sculpting them into synthetic photography, creating sometimes unsettling results like white cockatoos emerging from high-tech apparatus. The sector also features conceptual artist Cole Sternberg's "A Garden" installation for Giga, a partnership between UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union addressing digital inequalities among children worldwide.
As photography continues to evolve two centuries after French inventor Nicéphore Niépce created the first permanent photograph, Paris Photo 2025 demonstrates the medium's enduring vitality and constant reinvention. The fair serves as both a celebration of photography's rich history and a glimpse into its technological future, confirming its position as the essential gathering place for collectors, artists, and enthusiasts seeking to understand photography's past, present, and future possibilities.
