Paris Photo Looks to Younger Collectors in Its Bicentenary Edition

Paris Photo will mark photography’s bicentenary at the Grand Palais from 12 to 15 November, commemorating Nicéphore Niépce’s earliest surviving photograph, made in 1826–27. For artistic director Anna Planas, the anniversary is also an opportunity to attract younger collectors. The fair’s 29th edition will bring together 246 exhibitors.

“Photography is a great medium to welcome younger audiences,” Planas tells The Art Journal. “We can see that in younger generations there’s a lot of permeability between the mediums. It’s very natural for younger collectors to be interested in photography because it’s something that is so present in our lives and that we’re constantly evolving with.”

The programme includes Revealing, which brings together around 100 works by approximately 30 artists from the Pompidou Centre’s photography collection. Combining recent acquisitions with other works from the collection, the exhibition examines how artists have tested photography’s possibilities as its technologies have changed, from analogue processes to digital and AI-generated images.

Hicham Benohoud, Série "Perchoirs" (2026) Photo: Courtesy of L'Atelier 21 and Paris Photo

The Prix Pictet, the photography and sustainability prize, will present its first exhibition at the fair through a new partnership with Pictet Group. On the Grand Palais’s Promenoir, former laureates Valérie Belin and Alfredo Jaar will show Still Life (2014) and The End (2025), respectively. Jaar’s series documents Utah’s shrinking Great Salt Lake, presenting an ecological crisis through deliberately small prints.

Among the gallery presentations, Mexico City’s Proyectos Monclova will bring together several series by Hungarian-Mexican photographer Kati Horna, while Casablanca’s L’Atelier 21 will stage a solo show by Hicham Benohoud.

Kati Horna, Untitled, from the series ''Paraísos artificiales'' (1962). Photo: Courtesy of Proyectos Monclova and Paris Photo

In the Emergence sector, Kogo Gallery, based in the Estonian city of Tartu, will make its Paris Photo debut with a solo presentation by Kristina Õllek. Oslo’s Melk gallery will present Dev Dhunsi, whose combination of photography and textiles gives a concrete example of the movement between media that Planas describes.

Almost 40 countries are represented at the fair, with many Latin American galleries becoming regular fixtures. “Our relationship with spaces in this region is a clear example of how we work. We have these long-term, year-round conversations wherever we see ecosystems to discover new artists and exchange ideas, and that makes them want to come back”, says Planas. “This is the DNA of the fair.”