As we emerge from our Covid chrysalis, normal life is gradually returning. Some of my favourite events are back on the scene, rather tentatively in several cases, but they’re a good portent. I’ve even discovered a new fad, truck fests, which I’ll be reporting on next week. For the first time since 2019, though, we are now seeing the return of photography exhibitions to give us an injection of enthusiasm. GAS juices are flowing again.
Over the past couple of weeks, the Bièvres Photo Fair near Paris has returned after a two-year sabbatical. Ivor Cooper of Red Dot Cameras drove over from London in his electric car (proving along the way that the Tesla Supercharger network really does work) and found it a worthwhile trip.
He reports that the number of exhibitors was understandably lower than normal and that visitors were well down on previous years. In a sense, this was good for the dealer visitors since the scramble for the best purchases was less frenetic than usual.
Over the last weekend, the Photography Show returned to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham and I drove up with three friends to see what was afoot.
Again, as with Bièvres, I would say that the exhibitor count was down and my subjective view is that visitor attendance was lower than on previous years. Our visit was on Saturday, usually the busiest day, but in previous year’s I’ve deliberately chosen a Friday to avoid crowds. This year the Saturday was more than comfortable, despite my misgivings.
Enthusiasm is all that matters… 
Pole position
From a visitor point of view, though, the smaller crowd makes for a less frustrating experience. However, with both Leica and Panasonic absent, there wasn’t much to attract the L-mount user. Sigma, the sole representative of the LMA, fielded a large stand to show off their staggering number of lenses.
I spent some time with Sigma’s UK General Manager, Paul Reynolds, and he gave me the opportunity to inspect the new 24mm f/2 and 90mm f/2.8 Contemporary primes. Both are the same price, £550 including tax, and offer a lot for the money, particularly in comparison with Leica’s expensive primes. I’m looking forward to trying both of them when they arrive in stock.
The big chain retailers, London Camera Exchange, Wex and Park, all had well-stocked retail stands and appeared to be doing a good trade. I suspect many amateur photographers have had a fairly fallow period during the succession of lockdowns and the market will take time to recover.
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On our PCCGB Zoom last Sunday we had Tim Goldsmith ‘on live’ from the NEC show, from the Disabled Photographers Society stand, where everything being sold (many items had been donated) went to aid the charity. On the stand, a guide dog, belonging to a member of the society, was fast asleep as the crowds milled around. They were doing a roaring trade and had sold about 300 camera bags by midday, so some good had come of it.
Trade shows seem to have had origins in the Great Exhibitions of the 19th Century which were often subject to royal patronage. Only just this last weekend I was looking at a listing of photographic items which were on display at the Dublin International Exhibition of 1853. This included items for the daguerreotypist, the calotypist and, that newly invented daredevil, the collodionist.
I think that, from what I hear, Photokina suffered from expensive displays of corporate gigantism. However, such shows are not just about ‘the trade’, but they have a role just as a destination or, to put it simply, just a place for people to go on a nice day out and maybe spend some money. Photokina might arise again as a totally different type of entity, more for the public than for the trade.
William
Thanks John for mentioning us in our apparently endless lockdown. Just going to a restaurant, cafe or bar would be wonderful and as for visiting a trade show -well that’s the stuff of dreams as far as we are concerned.
I think we are just hoping that the coming winter doesn’t bring more lockdowns. Unfortunately, once the lockdown idea became seen as a solution, it is likely to be an ever-present threat in any future emergency. Here in the UK we are trying to live with the virus, despaired daily figures than put Australia into the shade, even taking into account the population difference. We can but hope.
As a matter of interest, admission to last weekend’s photography show was based on a mandatory double-jab passport. I did hear that there were pre-show testing arrangements for those who didn’t qualify, but my experience was that everyone in line ahead of me had the passport on their phone.
The Fact that we now now need two passports and different covid rules for every country (or state if you are in the U.S.A.) is incredibly depressing to me.
My father took me to Photokina back in the day.The Leica R3 was launched that year. I was too young to even think about affording it but I remember picking up all the free brochures for the cameras and the Leica one was my favorite. Every time I look at the SL series cameras I am reminded of that time.What memories! Kodak was alive and well and Fuji was far off in the future.
And let’s spare a thought for Macfilos friends in Australia who are still in severe lock-down.
Thank you very much, Mike,
for this article. I wonder if this is a window into the future or into the past. The exhibition business is heavily under pressure, and I hope it will survive. The end of the Photokina is a bad writing on a wall for sure. Manufacturers launch new products whenever they want, they think they can create their own audience, and they are happy to deal not with ever-critical journalist, but with ever-compliant influencers. Sounds cool, but it isn’t.
I do not want to live in a world where manufacturers and dealers on the one side and customers on the other side are only connected by electronic means. So it is doubly commendable that you are reporting on the Photography Show: it is a document and a statement in one. Let’s hope for a counter-movement to the (otherwise inevitable and often to be welcomed) digitalisation – with face-to-face contacts in shops and at exhibition stands, for example.
JP
“Shops”..? What are those? Not the average online box-shifters?
..Wait ..it’s actually coming back to me: I did actually work – or shirk – in camera shops! ..I’d forgotten! In Kingston-on-Thames, and in Surbiton, and in Trafalgar Square, and in Queensway, and on Oxford Street! ..I actually explained to people about how cameras worked, and which ones might suit them ..and actually sold a few ..as well as film, filters, flashguns, photo paper, enlargers and chemicals!
Oh, and I actually went to the Leica factory (in Wetzlar, before it moved to Solms) and went out drinking (shandy?) with the engineers, and went bowling with them in the evening! ..I’ve even got some glass here, somewhere, from the glass lab ..and very heavy it is, too!
But exhibitions? ..No, I don’t think I’ve been to a photo exhibition, ever ..except once in Paris, around 1979. Boat shows ..yes! Computer shows ..yes! Camera shows? ..no. I s’pose when you’re working with photography and cameras all day long, then you – or I, anyway! – want a break from it now and again! And at ‘Practical Photography’ we had all the latest gear sent to us anyway.
I’ve been to lots of Turner (the painter) shows! And many photography exhibitions – exhibitions of photos – but not camera *hardware* shows. I want to be *inspired*, not ‘enticed’!
I agree that we are in danger of losing the personal contact that comes with exhibitions. It’s one of the reasons I make a point of visiting photo fairs and shows even though I know there isn’t going to be a lot there of particular interest for me. I enjoy talking to people and feeling part of an event. It’s all too easy to sit at home watching YouTube reviews and looking for bargains on Amazon.
Mike, I don’t know if you ever were able to go to the “classic” Photokina shows, but that set the standard for me. I attended almost every Photokina from my first show in 1984 (with the intro of the M6) up to the mid-90’s. We’ll never see those times again! Everyone who was anyone was there, and some of the booths took up entire halls (like Kodak). One year Kodak even had a complete Kodachrome line on display!
Leica was always a must see, and as a friend of the company, had access to the back lounge, meeting rooms and bar. That was a must after trudging through the halls of the Messe. Take a load off your feet and have a nice Kolsch. I would meet with Stefan Daniel and the various CEO’s of Leica there working on the LHSA special editions. We also got invited to the staff party which was a lot of fun too. Oh well, those were the days!
It was always a great opportunity to meet with famous photographers such as Ralph Gibson, Helmut Newton, etc. Walther Benser was one of my favorites and a Leica legend.
The annual PMA show in the US was good, but nothing like Photokina!
Yes, I have good memories of Photokina, although it was always a tiring experience with so many halls to visit. I think it was 2014 when Leica had two stands — a large exhibition stand in one of the halls and an enormous private gallery and press reception area, complete with drinks and food on tap at all times for trade visitors and journalists. Those were the days. As Joerg-Peter says in his comment, all manufacturers seem interested in these days are social influencers.
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I’ve pretty much got everything I could possibly ever need or want ..although that new Canon R Whatsis (R3) with eye-activated focus looks good ..just like my old ‘analogue’ (film era) Canon EOS 3 and EOS 5 which focus exactly where you want just by looking at whatever you want to focus on! ..and it’s all done subliminally, without your consciously thinking “I should focus there“. It’s certainly high time that eye-operated-autofocus came back.
(Another weird autofocus system – in film cameras, or rather, in just the one film camera – was Contax’s film-back focusing: you used standard, non-autofocus Contax/Yashica-fit lenses, looked through the viewfinder, squeezed the button, and the rear of the camera pushed the film forwards (for distant shots) or backwards (for near shots) by up to 8 millimetres.. result: perfect focus!)
[Then there was the Corfield Periflex, which had a periscope viewfinder; dropping down into the light path within the body of the camera, so that you could see what was coming in through the lens! Then there was the Stephenson-Snodgrass steam-powered focusing: you lit a fire inside the camera three days before shooting, topped it up with water, then the camera would autofocus while you sucked air through the lens via a vacuum tube ..or am I just imagining that..?]
The steam powered autofocus had me laughing so early in my day. Thanks!
Not forgetting the Kodak Autographic (non-steam-powered) that let you write a description of each shot onto the film while it was still in the camera, using a special stylus, which then appeared on the neg (and print). Some ideas deserved to survive longer than they did, as it could have solved so many family snap mysteries in later years (such as, “Who’s that in the hat next to Great Aunt Bertha?”).
Clearly The Cat!