The ninth edition of Photo London captivated audiences with an array of exhibitions, talks, and new sections highlighting the innovative and evolving nature of contemporary photography. The fair features a diverse range of works from established and emerging photographers, offering a rich tapestry of visual storytelling. The 2024 Master of Photography, Valérie Belin (b.1964, France), introduced her exhibition “Silent Stories”, setting the tone for the event. Artvisor looks closer at some of the standout sections of this year’s fair, as one explores the halls of Somerset House.
Valérie Belin’s Silent Stories
Valérie Belin’s “Silent Stories” at Embankment East Gallery. This exhibition showcases her intricate work that often blends portraiture, still life, and occasionally nude studies. Belin’s work is known for its exploration of artificiality, often morphing into portrayals that mimic Westernised beauty standards. Her current approach involves digital layering, creating complex images with superimposed comic strips and projections of the figure’s inner self.
In the final room of the exhibition Belin presents “Lady Starburst,” shown in London for the first time. This series portrays a violent and virulent urban environment, with names and themes that evoke the duality of female power and vulnerability. When we asked about her focus on the female form, Belin explained that women embody changeability, being both victims and powerful entities, a reflection of her own experiences as a woman.
Valerie Belin, Galatée (série Lady Stardust), 2023, Copyright Valérie Belin, Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia Paris/Bruxelles
Robert Hershkowitz’s The Magic Art of French Calotypes: Paper Negative Photography 1846 – 1860
Robert Hershkowitz introduced “The Magic Art of French Calotypes,” emphasising the historical beauty and technical nuances of calotype photography. The title references Francis Wey’s pronouncement in 1851 that ‘Photography has attained a magic feeling that neither painting nor drawing could have reached’. In the 1800s, calotype negatives were revered for their artistic quality and Photo London provided access to a body of work that has been notably absent in British institutions today.
Charles Nègre, Street Vendor, c.1852. Courtesy of Robert Hershkowitz Ltd
See/Change: Art Collection Deutsche Börse @25
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary with “See/Change,” a collection co-curated by the Director of the foundation, Anne-Marie Beckmann and independent curator Renée Mussai. This exhibition features ten artistic global perspectives exploring pivotal themes like environment, climate change, identity, and migration. Works included Sabelo Mlangeni’s (b. 1980, South Africa) intimate portrayal of rural and urban queer communities in South Africa, and Daniel Jack Lyons’ (b. 1981, US) LIKE A RIVER series, an exploration of teenagers in the Brazilian Amazon, with a particular focus on members of the trans and queer community.
Daniel Jack Lyons, Wendell in Drag (2019) Courtesy of Daniel Jack Lyons, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation
The Discovery Section and Emerging Artists
This year’s discovery section was curated by critic and author Charlotte Jansen, the first female curator in this category. With the support of Photo London’s Associate Director Sophie Parker, the section brings together 25 galleries, and approaches the concept of ‘discovery’ as a weighted term. Jansen notes that our digital zeitgeist in which mass image transactions occur, it is easy to misattribute something as being valuable, simply because it has a high circulation rate.
Following this thought-process one might have the impression that an artist who has less of a digital platform may be regarded as ‘emergent’ or ‘discovered’, when in fact they have been in practice for a long time. Thus Jansen ponders the semantic weight of these words and approaches this section with a view to finding talent that are unrepresented, the Positions section being an example of this, focusing on five young women artists whose work challenges the traditional notions of beauty. Or artists who have less exhibition history, perhaps artists who have not received global acclaim yet but hold value within their country of origin.
Belmond Shifting Horizons
Coco Capitan, Coffee O’Clock (2022) Courtesy of the artist
Belmond hotels group occupied the Portico Rooms as Photo London’s leading sponsor. This initiative explores the intersection of hospitality and art, with artists Coco Capitán (b. 1992, Spain), Rosie Marks (b. 1993, UK) and Letizia Le Fur (b. 1973, France). Shot in three different locations, Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town; the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express in Europe and the hotel Caruso on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, these large scale photographic installations are an immersive insight into intimate rituals of hotel staff and the everyday operation of hospitality in these locations.
Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage Captured by Gilbert McCarragher
Gilbert McCarragher (b. 1970, UK) is given the final access to iconic filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, where the late artist and his partner Keith Collins resided, before its transferred ownership. The shingle planes of Dungeness provided the backdrop for Jarman’s surrealist film ‘The Garden’ and has now been given a new lease of creative life through the lens of McCarragher, who captures the landscape through windows and other openings of Prospect Cottage, as well as focussing on ornaments within the home that hark back to Jarman’s life in practice.
Gilbert McCarragher, Writing Desk at Sunrise, 2024, Prospect Cottage: Derek Jarman’s House, 70 x 61 cm, Digital C-type Print, Courtesy of the artist
Cyrus Mahboubian
Cyrus Mahboubian (b. 1989, UK) a longstanding collaborator with Artvisor, displayed his work in a solo booth this year. The body of work features his nostalgic odes to the British countryside captured on analogue materials including polaroids. These personal reflections offer a meditative opportunity to immerse in the accounts of the solitary travels of Mahboubian as he lyrically captures the timeless allure of the natural landscape.
Cyrus Mahboubian, untitled I, 2020, from the series ‘Murmur’, 8.5 by 10.8 cm, unique composite made from polaroid photographs
England & Co
England & Co, renowned for their close work with artists and their archives, presented a curated selection of artworks from the recent acclaimed exhibition at Tate Britain, Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990. Among them were Anne Bean (b. 1950), Susan Hiller (1940-2019) and Hannah O’Shea (b. 1939). Anne Bean’s photo-collage diptych, Shouting Mortality as I Drown (1977) was one of her two works exhibited at the Tate exhibition, emerging from the artist’s risk-taking performances.
Anne Bean, Mortality (Shouting Mortality as I Drown), 1977/2021, edition of 20 (plus A/P), paper size 45 x 61, image size 40 x 50 cm, archival pigment print, © Anne Bean, England & Co