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• Issue #267
• Article

By Michael Diemar

Photo London 2024. (©Graham/Finn Carlow and courtesy of Photo London)

"We sure live in challenging times" a friend commented when we met at the opening of the ninth edition of Photo London. True, and they have been challenging for some time. As I stated in my two most recent fair reports for this newsletter--Paris Photo and AIPAD's The Photography Show respectively--buyers have become increasingly cautious, especially when it comes to acquisitions of high-value works, due to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and then there's the upcoming US election and several important European elections.

Photo London has additional challenges. One is Brexit, and the complications it has caused when it comes to importing from and exporting to the EU. Number two is that Photo London hasn't been able to establish a loyal collector base since it started up in 2015, nor a distinct identity when it comes to the roster of exhibitors. Leading galleries, including Hamiltons, Howard Greenberg and Edwynn Houk, have passed through, only to bail out having failed to encounter enough buyers. This time around, Michael Hoppen, Augusta Edwards, Grob Gallery and The Photographers' Gallery gave the fair a miss.

Last year, many exhibitors complained of the lack of serious collectors, or any kind of buyers for that matter. Afterwards, a number of the London-based exhibitors told me that they had managed to just about scrape through and had covered their costs by calling existing collectors to stop by. Collectors they would have sold to anyway.

Candlestar, the promoter, and its new director Kamiar Maleki, took note of the criticisms and put in a lot of effort and a lot of traveling which yielded results, at least for some exhibitors, who reported new people and new buyers. The standing complaint has always been the venue. While Somerset House, constructed in 1776 to designs by William Chambers, is elegant and charming, it does pose distinct problems. The temporary pavilion in the courtyard gets a lot of traffic and many visitors tend to stay there. The East and West Wings and the first floor gets considerably less traffic, and without a map, it's easy to get lost in the labyrinth of rooms and corridors below ground level. There were rumors last year that a venue change was in the cards but Candlestar, which has its offices at Somerset House, has decided to stay put.

Valérie Belin, 2024 Photo London Master of Photography exhibition. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

The fair brought together some 120 exhibitors, including publishers. I felt that the quality of the booths at the fair was uneven, even more so than previous years. While there were booths showing vintage works of connoisseur caliber, there was mostly contemporary work, much of it of the decorative kind. I came across some local cynics who because of that simply dismissed the fair as a mess, but that was grossly unfair, I think. There was first-rate material here and there, worth crossing the English Channel for, and then there was the Robert Hershkowitz exhibition, "The Magic Art of French Calotype – Paper Negative Photography 1846–1860", which was worth crossing a couple of oceans for. More on the Hershkowitz show later.

It was part of the public program at the fair, alongside exhibitions of works by Valérie Belin, the 2024 Photo London Master of Photography, the Photo London X Nikon Emerging Photographer Award, the Photo London London x Hahnemühle Student Award, plus a selection of works from the Art Collection Deutsche Börse to mark its 25th anniversary.

Like most, I started off in the pavilion. Kamiar Maleki became director of Photo London last year, having previously been director of Contemporary Istanbul and Volta Art Fair. His experience and connections ensured that no less than eight Turkish galleries showed at the fair, thanks to support from TurkishBank UK.

Müge Gubukgu of Galerist, with works by Yusuf Sevinçli. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Of the Turkish galleries, I was particularly impressed by the works shown by Galerist, Istanbul. They presented three generations of Turkish artists, Nil Yalter, Şahin Kaygun and Yusuf Sevinçli. Şahin Kaygun (1951–1992) created a vocabulary of his own, by scratching, rubbing and scrubbing the surfaces of Polaroids, sometimes adding paints and chemicals, then arranging them in mosaic-like patterns. Yusuf Sevinçli (born 1980), is an admirer of the former. His black-and-white images strike me as fragments of a mosaic, each moment captured for its vibrancy. Nil Yalter (born 1938), settled in Paris in 1965 where she became a pioneer of the French feminist art movement and immersed herself in the politics of gender and Turkish migrant workers. She received The Golden Lion, the lifetime achievement award at Venice Biennale, this year.

Müge Gubukgu told me, "It has been a great opportunity for us to introduce artists that most visitors to the fair didn't know about. We have sold several works by Nil Yalter and there's a lot interest in the works by Yusuf Sevinçli and Şahin Kaygun and I expect some sales after the fair. As this is the first time we show at Photo London, we are very happy with the results."

Eve Dorefice of Echo Fine Arts, with works by Jan C. Schlegel. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Close by, Echo Fine Arts, Cannes, showed works by Jan Schlegel, Albert Watson, Tim Flach, Marc Lagrange and others. Eve Dorefice told me, "This is the fourth time we exhibit at Photo London and the fair seems to get better every year for us. We have collectors who come back to see us. We are very pleased with our sales this year. Jan Schlegel's work has been very popular and we have nearly sold out the edition of his new series. In addition, Tim Flach's work has also sold really well."

The atmosphere was way more subdued at Zander Galerie, Cologne/Paris. The gallery had taken a large booth in the pavilion to present a solo exhibition of color work by Helen Levitt. It was very impressive and well attended. Marina Salvador de la Puente told me, "We wanted to make a strong statement and decided to show a solo booth that included both Helen Levitt's well-known images and images that haven't been shown much. We have had much traffic, had very good response, but sales have been very disappointing. It's our impression that the fair hasn't really managed to attract the top level of collectors that buy this kind of work."

Qerndo Gallery. Photographer Ragnar Axelsson left, with Einar Geir Ingvarsson. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Qerndu Gallery, Reykjavik, has a particular focus, Arctic photography, and showed works by Ragnar Axelsson. Einar Geir Ingvarsson told me, "It's not just the first time we show at Photo London. It's our first photo fair ever. We started up as a book publishing company in 2017 and the gallery part came a few years later. The reception has been absolutely wonderful, and Ragnar has been here to talk about it. Every photograph has a story attached to it and the Arctic as a subject really engages people because of the problem of climate change. It's not cheap to do the fair. We didn't come with huge expectations as far sales are concerned though we have achieved some. Our objective was to show the images, to meet collectors and other galleries. All in all, coming here has been worthwhile for us."

The booth of Camera Eye Ltd, London, was packed every time I stopped by. The company was set up in 1987 by David Bailey as the main representative for his work. In addition to his now classic images from the 1960s, there were also rarely seen images from Papua Guinea and London's East End, an outtake from The Rolling Stones shoot for the cover of their 1973 album Goat's Head Soup, plus there was a Perspex container filled with carefully sealed envelopes, each containing a Polaroid by Bailey, priced at £1000. Interested parties could go through an image list, and then take their chances.

Camera Eye Ltd. Barbara Seymour left, with Malak Kabbani. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Barbara Seymour, office manager/PA told me, "We don't have a physical space but we do pop-up exhibitions from time to time and work with galleries and museums around the world. This is the first time we've exhibited at Photo London so it's difficult to comment on this year's edition. Sales have been good for us, the Polaroids proved very popular, and Photo London has also given us the opportunity to show Bailey's lesser-known work, so we are very happy."

Brighton photo dealer Roland Belgrave focused on images related to environmental issues last year, which proved less than satisfactory for sales. This year he had moved from the West Wing and taken a smaller booth in the pavilion. He showed large C-prints of flowers by Baud Postma, gelatin silver prints by Barry Kurnbluh, and portraits of children in 1900-1920s prints from 1860s glass negatives by Braun & Cie. Reportedly the change in focus and the diversity paid off this year.

Roland Belgrave. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Belgrave told me, "This is the first time I've shown in the pavilion. It's more expensive than the West Wing but there's much more traffic, and I'm glad I made the move. It has been absolutely packed every day. It's quite evident that the new director has been working hard. There has been something of a cultural shift in the crowd, with far more people from Turkey and the Middle East. Before this, I had one Turkish client so it has worked.

Sales had been good for Belgrave this time around, "I have sold a lot of Baud Postma's work and the Braun & Cie images are on hold for an institution. We have sold one of the nudes by Barry Kurnbluh, which has surprised me, but people don't seem to be into nudes this year. Still, I'm happy with my sales this year so I'll definitely be back next year, in fact, I have already signed on for the same spot next year."

Atlas gallery, London, had taken the booth next to Belgrave. Though small, it was very impressive, with works by George Hoyningen-Huene, Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky Terence Donovan, Bastiaan Woudt and Joseph McKenzie.

Ben Burdett of Atlas Gallery. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

A few days after the fair, I caught up with Ben Burdett of Atlas who told me, "We took the biggest stand at the previous five editions of Photo London but decided on a more modest presentation this time. I didn't have time to see enough of the rest of the fair to give an informed opinion. Some key galleries dropped out this year and were replaced with eight Turkish galleries and they brought along some of their clients. I don't know how much they bought, but they were there."

Burdett had had good sales, "Photo London has never been particularly known for classic black and white photography. The focus has been on contemporary. Still, we wanted to show a good range of works. We have worked closely with the George Hoyningen-Huene Estate the last few years. Thames & Hudson recently published a big monograph on him and we agreed with the estate to show some great works, and we sold them very successfully. Surprisingly, we also sold a lot of works by the Russian photographers we brought, Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky. I don't think Photo London is a fair for photography collectors anymore, I would characterize them as "buyers" and it's not the same thing. But I could be wrong, most of the works we brought were aimed at collectors, and they sold."

The West Wing was for the first editions devoted to exhibitors of vintage photography. Since then, Johannes Faber, Steward & Skeels and several others have departed from the fair. England & Co, London, absent last year, decided to come back. The gallery specializes in photography related to performance art and conceptual art from 60s, 70s and 80s. I have always enjoyed their presentations but this was the best yet.

Jane England of England & Co. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Jane England said, "We were a late entry to the fair and decided to take two rooms in the West Wing to show a large group of artists we have been working with over the years, including Anna Bean, Sue Arrowsmith, David Thorp, Susan Hiller, Sue Barnes and Hannah O'Shea. It's mainly women artists this time, as we had some involvement in the exhibition "Women in Revolt–Art and Activism in the UK 1970–1990" at Tate Britain. It's a way to celebrate these women artists, and leading institutions have begun to take this work seriously."

The Hannah O'Shea image got a lot of attention. It was also used for the cover of the June 1977 issue of the magazine Spare Rib. "Many have asked me if the image is something to do with the Neo Naturist movement, which we're also showing, but no, it's about Hannah, a gay Feminist. She wanted to turn woman into a terrifying, rather animalistic presence, stressing that it's about the female gaze and female power. She painted the performer, filmed her and took some stills as well. Many think it's Hannah herself, and though she looks a lot like her, it's not."

Sales had been good, "We have sold vintage works as well as editions printed later by Anne Bean and Hanna O'Shea, plus works by David Thorp and Gérald Ducimetière. But the fair has been good, not just for sales, but also for the conversations. There has been a really great crowd this year. The new director has managed to attract some very interesting people to the fair. People who are seriously interested in art and photography."

Sophie Scheidecker with portrait of Francis Bacon by Peter Beard. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Galerie Sophie Scheidecker, Paris, showed an impressive group of works, by Justine Tjallinks, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, Peter Beard, Man Ray and others.

Scheidecker told me, "I like the architecture of Somerset House, and I like the space I have here with its high ceiling. There are some collectors at the fair, from London and abroad, but not as many as usual. I have done this fair since 2019 and I always feel that they don't succeed in attracting enough collectors from abroad. I mean, how many true connoisseur photography collectors are in London? 20? 30? It comes down to numbers. There are over 100 booths here. The quality of the booths is very uneven this time. There are good booths and very mediocre ones. I have had a very good reception to my booth, but that's not enough for me to want to come back. Photo London wants us and other good galleries to be at the fair. I have had some sales, but you have to sell a lot to cover all the costs. The thing is, I'm not here to break even; it's too much work to do a fair for just that. I haven't sold any of the expensive works, like the wonderful flower picture by Mapplethorpe. I haven't even had any questions about it. Perhaps I will have some sales after the fair, hopefully."

“Impressive trees”. Paula Hershkowitz, with Tree in Snow, Russia, circa 1860, by Schnerer and Nabholz. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

The booth of Robert Hershkowitz was as impressive as always, with works by the 19th-century masters, including Gustave Le Gray and Charles Marville. The selection and the hanging were the work of his wife Paula Hershkowitz, while he manned the exhibition of French calotypes.

Paula Hershkowitz told me, "The booth can be seen as a compliment to Robert's exhibition, although the works are not necessarily calotypes and there's a lot of British photography here, by Roger Fenton, Fox Talbot, Linnaeus Tripe and others.

"I like to have themes on each individual wall, so there's one wall with trees, one that I call monumental, with large prints, a wall with rural scenes, one with portraits, and we have photographs of Rome on the outside wall. We have sold quite well but it has been out of the racks, so mostly small things. That's not going to make a major contribution to our costs. It has always been quite difficult for us to sell the more expensive works at Photo London. Still, we have had a great reception to our room. A young chap came in and said it was the best in the fair. Young people are particularly enthusiastic because most of them haven't seen serious 19th-century photography before."

Peter Fetterman. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica, was further down the West Wing. "It's great to be here and I love this room. I decided to take a smaller space this year and the selection is very good: Sarah Moon, Jeffrey Conley and Michael Kenna. I think there's a good vibe to this year's edition. The visitors are enthusiastic, and we have had a lot of traffic."

I asked Fetterman if that had translated into sales, "I think sales are challenging at this point in time, everywhere, be it at fairs or in galleries. As exhibitors, we have to lower our expectations. The good thing this time is that I have met people I haven't met before. There were serious collectors here on the opening day and I had great conversations so I am hoping for some sales after the fair."

There was a fair amount of rock photography at the fair. Mostly of the famous bands and artists from the golden age and printed later. Upstairs at Somerset House, The Music Photo Gallery NY, New York stood out from the others. It has been my impression over the years that the market for rock photography has consisted of buyers, more concerned with great images, than whether the prints were rare, vintage, printed later or posthumous. Sebastian Alderete caters to the more discerning end of the market and it's growing he tells me, "Vintage photography has been our focus since we started in 2016, be it Cibachromes, Polaroids, or gelatin silver prints. At Photo London in 2018, we had works by Bob Gruen, and we noted that there was considerable interest in vintage prints. In addition to photographs, we also look for documentation and ephemera, to help tell the stories. And on the whole, we focus on the music scene in New York during the 70s and 80s."

Sebastian Alderete of The Music Photo Gallery NY. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Having met quite a few rock photographers who were active during the 60s and 70s, many have told me that while they hung on to their negatives, they have no vintage prints at all. Alderete told me, "Some artists from that time, Bob Gruen, Daniel Kramer and Mick Rock, had the vision to make prints that weren't for press use, of a good size, 11 x 14, 16 x 20, and of good quality. We represent the estate of Mick Rock, and when we went through his archive, we found extraordinary material. Never before seen images of David Bowie, Syd Barrett and Freddie Mercury. We work with serious collectors who understood the value of vintage."

The presentation included a famous series of Johnny Thunders by Marcia Resnick, taken in 1979. Alderete told me, "Each print is unique. Marcia has shown at the Whitney and MoMA. We are trying to sell the series to an institution to preserve her legacy, as we do with all our artists. I think there's a growing interest now in rock music at institutions, recognizing the importance of music in popular culture."

Alderete had mixed opinions about this year's edition, "I thought the fair was better this year but slower when it came to sales. We have sold some work in editions but most of those sales were outside the fair to collectors and institutions here in London."

I met quite a few visitors who gave the lower levels of Somerset House a miss altogether. It was their loss, because there were some extraordinary presentations to be seen.

Rolf Art, artist Roberto Huarcaya with Florencia Giordana Braun. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

At Paris Photo last year, Rolf Art, Buenos Aires, presented a solo exhibition of large photograms by Peruvian artist Roberto Huarcaya, from his series Andegramas, portraits of native people in the Peruvian Andes, performing sacred dances in traditional attire, captured in motion by the moonlight and with the aid of a hand-flash.

Florencia Giordana Braun told me, "Here at Photo London, we are focusing on his photograms of the Amazonas rain forest, Amazongramas. We are also showing a solo exhibition of Roberto's work at the Venice Biennale. We have had great response to the work, perhaps because it's so very different from everything else at the fair. We are very pleased with the sales we have achieved. If all goes according to plan, we will be showing more works from the series at Paris Photo this year."

Christian Dominguez Dietzel with artist Ulf Saupe. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

Next door, artist Ulf Saupe , Berlin, showed a solo exhibition, supported by Kuenzler Collection. These were fascinating, very complex works, such as "Nach dem Sturm I V2" from the series "Invernaderos". From a digital image, Saupe had made a large negative and from it, a 150 x 130 cm gum bichromate contact print, adding earth and water color. In the works from the series Golden Forest, Saupe had added pulverized coal, 245-karat gold leaf and watercolor to the large gum prints.

Christian Dominguez Dietzel, acting as Saupe's representative, told me, "I am pleased with the reception to the works. There's a good audience here. We have made good contacts so I'm happy. I like Somerset House. It's not the usual fair architecture and Candlestar made sure that we had good neighbors, close to galleries showing experimental works. I'm pleased with the sales we have achieved but as always, I would have liked more. Having said that, I have met great people here, not just from London, but from other places--Europe and China, gallerists that want to collaborate, and that has also made it worthwhile."

Still further down in Somerset House, I visited Galerie Echo 119, Paris, several times to see the works by Chieko Shiraishi. She uses a technique that was popular among Japanese Pictorialists in the 1920s, zogin-gake or "mopping', applying washes of ink, mopping off between each wash, on gelatin silver prints, resulting in dreamlike, hazy images, as if the images emerge from memory.

In addition, the gallery showed works by Sakiko Nomura, Tokyo Rumando and Chloé Jafé. Kinuko Asano told me, "The first day was really good for us, after that it got a little quiet. Still, we have had great response to the works. As for sales, people seem to be thinking more carefully before committing this time, but I expect some sales after the fair. That's what happened last year."

“His favorite photograph”. Robert Hershkowitz with V. Dijon. Farmyard, albumen print, 1854. (Photo by Michael Diemar)

The highlight of the fair was the exhibition "The Magic Art of French Calotype–Paper Negative Photography 1846–1860", curated by Robert Hershkowitz. The title was a homage to the André Jammes and Eugenia Parry Janis groundbreaking book, published by Princeton University Press in 1983. The exhibition was nothing less than a triumph. Not just because of the quality of the works but also the captions, which were very different from the captions that one usually finds at museums shows, with Hershkowitz giving his personal perspective on the images, inviting and prompting the viewer to look closer, spend time and reflect. One such caption on a picture by V. Dijon, "Farmyard", albumen print, 1854, said, "The two underlying themes are agrarian and constructivist. The photographer is delighting in the repetition of a sculptural motif seen in the bird cage, four wheels, ladders and fencing. My favorite photograph."

Auguste Mestral. Sculpture of Virgin and Child at Notre Dame’, salt print, 1853.

Hershkowitz told me, "I have participated in Photo London's public program before. In 2019 I curated a show on Roger Fenton, "The Essential Fenton", and I dedicated it to Sam Wagstaff, who was a true inspiration to me. In the years that followed, it struck me that early French photography hadn't been exhibited to any real extent in the UK. There's very little of it in British institutions so I wanted to introduce it to the British audience. If you had to pick a single body of work in the history of photography, early French photography is probably the most important. Apart from a few loans, the material is mine."

Altogether there were nine positive-negative pairs and 65 individual works. And they were first-rate, such as Charles Nègre, "Licorice-Water Vendor at 21 Quai Bourdon, Paris", salt print and waxed-paper negative, c. 1852; Baron Louis Adolphe Humbert de Molard, "Two Men Seated under a Trellis", calotype negative, c.1848; Louis Alphonse de Brébisson. Tower at Bayeux, salt print, 1848; plus treasures by Gustave Le Gray, Baldus, Henri Le Secq, Disdéri and many others.

Hershkowitz continued, "During the early part of the curating process, I was told by someone that I was including too many pictures, but I remembered the words of William Blake, 'The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.'"

Hershkowitz was at hand every day to answer questions from the visitors. "I had very good reactions to the exhibition, but I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't reviewed by the UK newspapers. It's a shame that it was only up for five days. It would be great if an institution picked it up and gave it a longer showing. Still, I'm very glad I did it. I really liked the overall look of the show and my daughter Kate helped me with the sequencing of the images. I'm also very pleased that she has such passion for 19th-century photography, and that she will be taking over the business."

Michael Diemar is a London-based collector and consultant. He is also editor-in-chief of The Classic, a new free magazine about classic photography. He is a long-time writer about the photography scene, writing extensively for several Scandinavian photography publications, as well as for the E-Photo Newsletter and I Photo Central.