Art and photography, like anything else in life, goes through trends and phases. At this weekends Paris Photo LA, what was new, in and hot in the world of photography, was very apparent.
With a significant history in the art world and a worldwide reputation, Paris Photo LA, is the Spring counterpart of the largely successful Paris Photo, held in Paris every fall. This is THE event to be exhibited in or be at, if you are a photographer, curator, art collector, or simply someone that enjoys visual storytelling and photography.
With the groundswell support of the Los Angeles culture and art scene spearheaded by local LA artists, Paris Photo has created a bold cultural experience that allows everyone to live through the world of each photographer featured at the event.
With more than 70 galleries, 30 solo shows, an entire stage devoted to emerging photographers, and several "first-time" exhibits, such as Hans-Christian Schink being exhibited on US soil for the first time, the new aesthetic of what is fashionable and "in" for art collectors, curators and fans of photography, could be heard around the lot with the inaudible buzz surrounding the emerging and recently discovered minimalistic Asian photographers, such as Nobuyoshi Araki and his contemporary counterpart Motoyuki Daifu.
Nobuyoshi Araki
While the heavily photo-shopped experimental photography still had many fans fascinated with the photographers post-production photo manipulation, the stars of this show were the photographers that rediscovered old techniques that created awe inspiring visual storytellingMichael Macku printed his black and white negatives on glass, creating 3D photography works of art. While Zoe T Vizcaino, used a simple Canon DSLR camera to shoot a single-shot, non-edited, reflecting photographs of bodies of water that played tricks with our eyes.
But a photograph that touches your soul is one that will haunt you. Both Alex Timmermans and Desiree Dolron did just that.
Their work transported me to outside of myself and made me dream about the beauty of the world once we choose to look at it differently.
A life without creativity and beauty is no life at all...
Ana Lydia