Photo London 2024: Details Revealed

We are delighted to announce Photo London’s ninth edition with French photographer Valérie Belin named our Master of Photography 2024, alongside two further major exhibitions as part of our Public Programme, and an exciting line-up of exhibitors.

With Photo London Fair Director, Kamiar Maleki taking the helm, the Fair is building a strong international list featuring many new and returning galleries, including:

Sundaram Tagore Gallery (New York/London), Rolf Art (Buenos Aires), Persons Projects (Berlin), Robert Morat Galerie (Berlin), Ira Stehmann Fine Art (Munich), Galerie Peter Sillem (Frankfurt); an exciting group of first-time exhibitors, including Persiehl & Heine (Hamburg), Leila Heller Gallery (New York), and Martch Art Project (Istanbul); as well as a group of outstanding galleries from Paris, including Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris) and Galerie Sophie Scheidecker (Paris), and local regulars including Flowers Gallery (London), Robert Hershkowitz Ltd. (Lindfield), Roland Belgrave Vintage Photography Ltd. (Brighton) and Purdy Hicks Gallery (London). 

The Fair’s Discovery section dedicated to emerging photographers and galleries once again promises to be a highlight. Curated by the critic and author Charlotte Jansen, Discovery is featuring exciting newcomers such as Palm* Studios (London) and Deák Erika Galéria (Budapest).

 

Master of Photography

Valérie Belin, Still Life with mirror, 2014. Copyright: Valérie Belin. Courtesy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia Paris/Brussels. 

 

Leading the 2024 Public Programme, is a solo exhibition by Valérie Belin, the ninth recipient of our Master of Photography Award which is presented each year to a living artist who has made an exceptional contribution to photography. 

One of France’s most popular and acclaimed photographers, Valérie Belin (b. 1964) investigates the tension between the superficial appearance of things and their true nature, between reality and artificiality. Often using the human body as a vessel for abstraction and projected meaning, she has photographed live models and mannequins, masks and card sharks, dancers and bodybuilders, questioning the construction and fetishization of mainstream beauty ideals and enduring gender constructs.  Read Valérie Belin’s reaction to the announcement here. 

 

Photo London 2024 Exhibitions

Charles Nègre, Street Vendor, c.1852. Courtesy of Robert Hershkowitz Ltd. 

 

The Fair extends its celebration of French photography with ‘The Magic Art of French Calotype. Paper Negative Photography 1846–1860’, curated by Robert Hershkowitz. Its title references Francis Wey’s pronouncement in 1851 that “Photography has attained a magic feeling that neither painting nor drawing could have reached.”

Hershkowitz explains the appeal of these early images: “When the pursuit and acquisition of fine photographs became the common passion of a very mixed group of art savvy individuals and American and Canadian museums in the late 1970s, early French paper negative photography was considered the most desirable, the images the most intriguing intellectually, the prints the most delectable. This exhibition introduces this body of photographic work to a British audience; it is almost non-existent in British institutions with perhaps a few dozen examples buried among hundreds of thousands of British ones, and these never exhibited.”

 

Sim Chi Yin, Shifting Sands #25, 2017 © Sim Chi Yin.

 

A third exhibition will be presented by the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation marking the 25th anniversary of its collection — one of the most renowned international collections of contemporary photography, which comprises more than 2,300 works by 160 artists from 35 countries.

Curated by Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, and Renée Mussai, London-based independent curator and scholar, and member of the Foundation’s Advisory Board, ‘See/Change — Art Collection Deutsche Börse @25’ showcases current artistic positions and recent acquisitions centred around the theme of human condition.

Photo London’s Presenting Partner Belmond returns to the Fair after its 2023 debut with Fotografia Maroma — an exhibition of contemporary Mexican photography co-curated by Fariba Farshad. Their 2024 presentation will evolve their ‘Belmond Legends’ series, which featured artists such as Durimel, Coco Capitán, Jack Davison, Jeano Edwards, Letizia Le Fur, François Halard, Rosie Marks, Chris Rhodes and Thomas Rousset.

 

Photo London Awards

In its fifth edition, the Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer of the Year Award continues to highlight works of outstanding young photographers at the Fair, and presents a special display dedicated to the winner of the 2023 award, French visual artist Léa Habourdin, and her fellow shortlisted photographers in the Nikon Gallery.

The Photo London x Hahnemühle Student Award returns to the fair after a hugely successful inaugural edition. Working with UK universities offering photography degrees, the award highlights the most exciting early-career talent within the industry, bringing their portfolios to international attention. The shortlisted students will be granted the opportunity to print 5-10 artworks on their preferred Hahnemühle papers and present them in a dedicated exhibition at Photo London 2024. The winner is further awarded a trip to the Hahnemühle mill in Germany to produce a new body of photographic work. Read more here.

 

Looking ahead to the 2024 edition, Photo London’s Founders Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad say: “We are thrilled to see the Fair developing under Kamiar’s leadership and are looking forward to a really strong ninth edition featuring a truly international group of leading galleries and an outstanding public programme that showcases the past, present and future of photography in all its glory. We are also delighted to be continuing our partnerships with Belmond, Nikon and Hahnemühle, each of whom is enriching the artistic content of the Fair.”