Paris Photo which is the first international fair dedicated only to photography is known around the world as the best photography fair in the world. This year, for the 22nd edition around 200 artists from all over the world are exposed under the lights of the amazing Grand Palais of Paris.
150 galleries and publishers exposed in 5 different sectors (Main Gallery, Book Sector, PRISMES, Curiosa and Film Sector) most of them are already well affirmed in the world of art while others are gaining more and more importance with time.
The main highlight of this year was the celebration of female photographers and associated with female rights in different countries and their position in society.
IRK Magazine saw a lot of different styles, subjects, colors and messages transmitted through the photos, but which photos took our attention the most?
Richard Mosse
You have probably already seen Irish photographer Richard Mosse’s large scale infrared photographs of war torn Congo. Richard Mosse has photographed postwar ruins and devastation in Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Haiti, and the Congolese jungle, and more. Mosse uses camera techniques developed for warfare such as infrared and heat maps mixed with his passion for investigative photojournalist as his artistic expression while at the same time communicating about human struggle to cause positive change through awareness.
Richard Mosse,"Suspicious Minds", 2012 digital c-print, 122,5 x 152,8 cm
Courtesy of the artist, carlier | gebauer Gallery, Berlin and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Viviane Sassen
Viviane Sassen is a Dutch artist living in Amsterdam. She is a photographer who works in both the fashion and fine art world. She is known for her use of geometric shapes, often abstractions of bodies. She has been widely published and exhibited. Sassen created campaigns for Stella McCartney, and Louis Viutton, Miu Miu and many more. She has photographed extensively in Africa where she grew up as a child. She is conscious of the stereotypical images of famine and poverty in africa and in contrast has chosen to show a contemporary side of Africa.
Viviane Sassen, "White Socks" #2, 2010, c-print 80 x 65cm.
Courtesy of Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Andrea Torres Balaguer
Contemporary spanish photographer Andrea Torres Balaguer was born 1990 in Barcelona. She got her Fine Arts degree at the University of Barcelona. She has already won multiple awards as a photographer and this year she was selected for Elles x Paris Photo, a tribute to women photographers by the curator Fannie Escoulen. Her work is inspired by dreams, surrealism and mystery. Her aesthetic images require the spectator to interpretat and search for what is reality vs. fiction.
Andrea Torres Balaguer, "Persimmon, The Unknown", 2018, fine art print
1,20 x 0,90. Courtesy of in camera galerie
Erik Madigan Heck
American fashion photographer and artist Erik Madigan Heck was born in 1983. Heck is known for his abstract and graphic treatment of fashion photography with bold colors. In 2013, Heck was awarded the Infinity Award for Applied/Fashion/Advertising by the International Center of Photography. Photo District News magazine named Heck one of the 30 “new and emerging photographers to watch in 2011. Heck was also awarded with the renowned "30 Under 30" award by Forbes Magazine. Heck is also the founding editor of art and fashion publication Nomenus Quarterly.
©Erik Madigan Heck ,Junya Watanabe, 2018, dye transfer print 3,048 x 1,829 m. Courtesy Christophe Guye Galerie
Daidō Moriyama
Japanese photographer, Daidō Moriyama is noted for his images depicting the breakdown of traditional values in post-war Japan. Moriyama received the Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement from the International Center of Photography in New York.
