As the world-famous photography fair returns to the Grand Palais, we round up must-have books from Estelle Hanania, Gisèle Vienne, Martin Parr and more
Paris Photo, the photography world’s North Star, is marking its territory once again in the Grand Palais, and amazing photography abounds. It’s a chance to celebrate photographic innovation and catch a mix of fledgling talent alongside some of the industry’s most lauded names, and, of course, to shamelessly people-watch those who saunter to and fro.
Our wishlist is long: we’d have one of Camille Vivier’s female bodybuilders pride and place above the master bed, Julia Margaret Cameron’s kiss of peace in the study and Nobuyoshi Araki’s cat in a tree in literally any room at all. However, for us mere mortals, the easiest way to cough up our rent is in the books section, which seems to get bigger and better every year.
Because nothing beats a library of one’s own, below we’ve scouted out the finest new releases you can get signed at the fair.
While the Japanese photographer Tamiko Nishimura is criminally underrated and often overshadowed by the male members of Provoke (think Daido Moriyama and Takuma Nakahira), she has had a standout year, with a debut solo exhibition in the United States, and now this beautiful book capping it off. Compiling subtle and spontaneous shots Nishimura took in the late 1960s, it reiterates her status as a singular voice in the history of Japanese photography, evidencing an introspective, almost automatic practice that traverses the genres of performance, street and travel photography. A model flâneuse, she finds quiet captivation in urban landscapes, children and, above all, women, going about their business, lost in thought and always beyond the camera’s reach. This is the world seen through Nishimura’s eyes: grainy, hazy and spilling with humanity.
Estelle Hanania’s This Causes Consciousness to Fracture, produced in collaboration with the renowned choreographer Gisèle Vienne, is one of the most buzzed-about books at the fair, given its launch coincided with a conversation between the two authors and French actress Adèle Haenel. Distinguished in design – with foldouts propelling an ever-changing sequence – but never neglecting the “blood, sweat and tears” that has clearly gone into its making, it documents Hanania’s stage and backstage shots of Vienne’s worldbuilding plays, including L'Etang and Extra Life. Together, they pull off an extraordinary and truly radical vision of theatre, puppet play and the body, all the while expanding the definitions of what a book can be. You will struggle to find a more masterful marriage of printing, storytelling and emotion in the Grand Palais.
Literally no one ever asked for a book called No Smoking in Paris, butMartin Parr nevertheless delivers it in his typical, eye-wateringly OTT fashion. It collects five decades’ worth of pipes, cigars, cigarettes and vapes from the Brit’s travels around the world, amounting to more of a commentary than a critique. If this tickles your fancy, down in the ground-floor nave, Parr’s gallery Rocket has recreated his iconic Common Sense grid, an extraordinary motley of original Xerox prints highlighting everything from sandals to doughnuts, all going for €650 a piece. No one elevates the ordinary like Parr does.
This ingenious title by the Polish artist Weronika Gęsicka assembles hundreds of false entries she has tracked down from encyclopaedias, reprinted alongside manipulated stock photographs and AI-generated imagery. The results range from the hilarious to the terrifying, in turn debunking the dusty, age-old notion of encyclopaedias as “fountains of knowledge” while exploring the threats of fake news on media and freedom. The graphic design is smart and sophisticated, swanking a hot-stamped cotton cover and golden ribbon which implores us to read studiously, even if Gęsicka indeed does everything with a wink.
Alas, Thomas Mailaender’s crazy, bonkers show at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie has now closed, but the artist is signing copies of the exhibition catalogue at RVB’s booth. The biggest excuse to snap up the special edition is that it comes with a fabulous unique piece of your choice from the artist’s collection. They are vintage press photos in fingertip-imprinted ceramic frames in all manner of shapes, sizes and colours. Through one-eyed cats, skating nuns, champagne-slurping tapirs, worm racers in Brighton and more, what Mailaender offers is a people’s history that is museum-worthy and, most importantly, fun. Be quick!
Enter the prismatic wonderland of Mika Ninagawa – famed in Japan for her signature “girly” brand of photography – in her scintillating trilogy of books. Each volume seems to fold into the next, seducing you through its stream of primary-coloured flowers, koi fish, lips, cityscapes and cats. Although seemingly hinged on the pleasures of artifice and excess, Ninagawa’s vision bears a deceptively strong emotional charge and fantastical dimension. Ultimately, she offers a meditation on how beauty lays its claim on things both brief and radiant, a dichotomy that is perfectly encapsulated in the title. There will be no better book to brighten up your Eurostar back home.