This weekend photography fans from all over the world will be converging on the massive annual fair at Bièvres, south west of Paris. I’ve been attending for the past few years and, again, will be travelling with the team from Red Dot Cameras and David Wood of MW Classic. I regard the fair as much of a social event as anything — and a good opportunity to meet up with like-minded friends from around the world. This year I have nothing in particular I want to buy (unlike my dealer friends) but I’ll keep an open mind. Part of the fun of this event is not knowing what you might find and what might tickle your fancy.
Below I am attaching the press release from the fair organisers which contains all the details you need if you are planning a visit.
Communiqué de presse
The 54th International Photo Fair takes over Bièvres on June 3 and 4, 2017
Photography is many things: a technique, an art form; it takes many shapes. It adapts, adjusts, evolves in time, always responding to the present without renouncing its past. The Bièvres International Photo Fair showcases photography at its most dynamic.
Over more than 50 years the Fair has become an institution for photography buffs and collectors looking for that rare find. It is one of the largest second-hand and antique photography markets in Europe.
But it is more than just a market. Exhibitions, discussions, workshops, book-signings, artists’ markets and other events make it a true festival of photography.
In recent years the Fair has innovated, venturing into the fields of new technologies and young creators. It continues to attract amateurs and professionals alike to its verdant setting in the town of Bièvres.
Finding that rare nugget
Imagine a 5-acre site devoted entirely to photography! This year again over 200 exhibitors will participate in this international event. At the second-hand and antique market camera bodies, filters, lenses, and tripods will be offered for sale along with more esoteric finds such as photo sphere viewers and magic lanterns, view cameras and stereoscopes. And of course movie cameras and posters, rare books, antique photos, advertising merchandise and more.
All of these articles have given the Photo Fair its reputation and constitute a rich historic and artistic legacy. Both amateur and professional photographers will be interested in the film cameras, films, photography paper and other accessories offered for sale. Second hand digital cameras will also be on sale.
Isabel Muñoz retrospective (with examples of her best-known series)
Isabel Muñoz is a Spanish photgrapher who received the 2016 National Photography Award from the Spanish Ministry of Culture. She began her studies at the Foto Centro in Madrid before continuing in the United States where she mastered different photographic techniques, in particular the early techniques of which she is a specialist.
Her platinum prints on albumin paper are particularly sensitive and delicate, although she also works in colour. Her subjects range from tango and flamenco dancers to the warrior tribes of Ethiopia, to members of the Mara gangs in El Salvador or of a religious sect in Iraq. In all cases her interest lies in the human being, between sensuality and appearance, intimacy and community.
In her photography Isabel Muñoz captures the body, its shapes, its postures, but also its language, its signs, its movements and community rites. She explores the human body in action, in movement, through dance, wrestling, martial arts and bull-fighting. She also studies bodies that are staged, sublimated, painted, bejewelled, scarred, tattooed, the social body.
A Day in Dapelogo, an exhibition of photographs by Christian Izorce. Subtitled Pogbi or the education of young girls in Burkina Faso, this is a humanist documentary project which shows how much we can learn from the lives of others.
The 10th Annual Bièvres Encounters
Lectures, debates and demonstrations of photography will be given by prestigious guest speakers such as Jean-Christophe Béchet (the photo album, that obscure object of desire) or Roland and Sabrina Michaud, the “inventors” of travel photography, both avid travellers themselves, whose enthusiasm is contagious.
New and emerging processes, equipment, digital photography, graphic arts and the history of photography will also be on the agenda.
Fine Art Photography will have its day on Sunday. Over 100 fine art photographers will be present at the artists’ market, showing their work either individually or collectively. They will provide a multi-faceted view of contemporary fine art photography, showing different styles and themes.
A jury presided by Martine Ravache (Graduate of the Ecole du Louvre, art historian and art critic specialising in photography) will be awarding prizes including the Jean and André Fage Award.
Second annual Alternative Processes Area
Ever innovating, the Fair has created an alternative processes area where equipment and chemicals for these new processes can be purchased as well as equipment for pinhole camera and Polaroid photography. There will be representatives of training courses in these techniques as well as demonstrations of cyanotype printing, bleaching and Polaroid transfer.
Events for the general public
Fairgoers will be able to have their picture taken (free of charge) at the pop-up studio on Sunday, or using cut-out panels or picture frames. There will also be book-signings and portfolio reviews (free, by reservation). The town of Bièvres will be organising a photography competition open to all residents and members of photo clubs in Bièvres. Award-winning photographs will be displayed in the streets of Bièvres throughout the month of June.
Access and opening hours:
- Saturday June 3 from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday June 4 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (artists’ market from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) No admission charge - Address: Place de la Mairie de Bièvres (Town Hall), Department of Essonne, France
- Access: Bièvres is 12 km south of Paris by the N118 or RER C line “Bièvres” station
- Website and Facebook
- Press contact: Anne Quémy
- © G.Schneck (Foire 2016), I.Muñoz (La femme à la robe blanche : série Danza cubana, 1995), I.Morison (Rencontres 2016).
The Fair is organised by the Paris Val-de-Bièvre Photoclub with the support of the Bièvres municipal authorities. The Fair and the Museum of French Photography were created in 1964 by Jean and André Fage, founders of the Paris Val-de- Bievre Photoclub.
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Ivor Cooper in the picture examines a Leica M2, not a Leica M3
Thanks Niels… I should have noticed that myself when rushing out the captions. Of course you are right and I’ve changed it