The Photography Show, the oldest fair dedicated specifically to photography, opened its 42nd edition in New York on Thursday March 30. It is organized by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (Aipad) and applications are only open to member galleries, 44 of whom are taking part in this week’s fair, including nine for the first time. Here are some highlights from the presentations at Center415 in Midtown Manhattan.
Assembly
Weapons #41 by Rodrigo Valenzuela Courtesy meeting
Assembly, a Houston-based gallery, is an early participant in the Photography Show. The gallery booth is dedicated to the work of a single photographer, Rodrigo Valenzuela, a Los Angeles-based, Chilean-born artist. Valenzuela draws on her background in construction to construct sculptures of found objects. He photographs his creations and silkscreens the images onto glued canvas with repurposed time maps to explore the relationships between labor, unionization, and the consequences of automation. Prices for Valenzuela’s work on the Assembly stand range from around $5,000 to $25,000.
Contemporary Pací
Maria Leoncia (1991) by Miguel Rio Branco Courtesy of The Photography Show presented by AIPAD
Italian gallery Paci Contemporary presents the work of three international artists: Brazilian photographers Miguel Rio Branco and Mario Vravo Neto, and Michal Macku from the Czech Republic, who uses a unique photographic technique he calls “gellage”. Macku transfers gelatin emulsion from photographs onto paper which he arranges in glass to create almost three-dimensional works. Branco worked on movie sets before branching out into documentary photography which leans into dramatic color and shows the contrasts of life in Brazil, while Neto is known for producing black and white portraits of black Brazilians in using props and poses reminiscent of religious iconography. Prices at the Paci booth mostly range from $4,000 to $15,000, with a large print of Branco’s most famous photography, Maria Leoncia (1991), priced at $35,000.
The Ravestijn Gallery
While many of the fair’s booths highlight historic photography, Amsterdam’s Ravestijn Gallery focuses on contemporary photography, with many works on its stand depicting human figures in eerie contexts and posed with props. The stand features prints by Dutch fashion photographers Inez & Vinoodh, Swedish photographer Eva Strenram and American photographer Michael Bailey-Gates, starting at $5,000. The stand also features a triptych by Danish photographer Theis Wendt that creates the optical illusion of a dark void.
Robert Mann Gallery
Pillow Hydrangea, Rockport, Maine (2021) by Cig Harvey Courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery
New York-based Robert Mann Gallery set up a solo booth with prints from Cig Harvey, a British photographer now living in Maine. Harvey’s colorful images often incorporate flowers and show humans interacting with the natural world. Prints cost between $3,000 and $7,000.
Fine Art by Augusta Edwards
On the London stand of Augusta Edwards Fine Art, the 2011 series ladies by German-born American photographer Karen Knorr shows well-dressed models and actresses in sprawling spaces paired with tongue-in-cheek text about feminism, capitalism and globalism drawn from the subjects’ own responses to a questionnaire. Knorr was commissioned to create the series by British fashion magazine Popular. The series is inspired by an earlier project by Knorr which incorporated text with portraits of members of London’s elite gentlemen’s clubs. There are 22 images in the ladies series, each priced at $6,600.
- The photography fairthrough April 2, Center415, New York
