Photo London is back: here is what to see

Photo London is back for another year, except not as you’ve seen it before. This year marks the photo fair’s debut at its new Olympia location, in Kensington. After celebrating its tenth anniversary last year, the fair has transitioned away from its usual Somerset House set-up, and now nestles into the historic National Hall venue, which is currently undergoing a £1.3 billion redevelopment led by Heatherwick Studio.

As always, there is a lot to see, and slotting it all into a few compact days is difficult. However, if time permits, it would be recommended to see the work of fashion photographer Steven Meisel. Here the presentation includes his photography in London, and in particular his iconic ‘Anglo-Saxon Attitude’ series, which can be viewed at the Master of Photography exhibition.

In Source, enjoy the work of Peter Sillem who presents a series of prints by married-couple Ute and Werner Mahler, including a selection of their fashion photographs from behind the Berlin Wall in the days of the GDR. Making his Photo London debut, Julian Sander will present a personal tribute to his lifelong friend Rosalind Fox Solomon, who passed away last year. She was celebrated for her portraits of suffering and survival.

Also at Source, JEDNOSTKA presents works by Polish artist Weronika Gęsicka. Here, Gęsicka’s uses photography to question truth and reality using stock photography archives, AI image generation and digital manipulation.

In Discovery, transport to Ibiza through Agony and Ecstasy’s debut. The gallery presents work by Catalan-Spanish photographer Oriol Maspons and German photographer Walter Rudolph. The presentation is rooted in deep visual nostalgia of Ibiza, taken between 1976 and 1985.

Mumbai-based art gallery Fulcrum presents Vasudhaa Narayanan’s imagery which captures gender, domesticity, and the body. Her work dives deep into the patriarchy, caste, and cultural conditioning, and looks at how women’s bodies become contested sites.

At Photo London’s the Positions section is used to platform photographic artists without gallery representation. Morocco-based Hicham Gardaf’s work looks at careful framing and the colour of the city, whereby his work becomes almost abstract. Motivated by social issues, Iranian photographer and documentary maker Tahmineh Monzari focuses on Iranian women and their roles in urban and rural cultures; while in Barcelona, Luis Casadevall captures fleeting encounters within the urban landscape using black and white photography.

The Main Section of the fair features galleries such as London’s The Photographers Gallery. Here they present work by Sayuri Ichida who looks at self-identity, memories and life experiences. PHOTOINK in New Delhi showcases Ketaki Sheth’s series ‘Twinspotting’. The story behind this series came about when Sheth married Aurobind Patel and moved to London. Once there she realised there were 30,000 registered Patels in the UK directory, Sheth began to take portraits of Patel twins in the UK, pairing them with Patel twins back in India.

Photo London founders Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad, said: ‘We are incredibly proud of the team who have brought together an impressive group of galleries for the launch of this new era at Olympia, including newcomers from as far afield as India and Africa proving London is still a great draw for international galleries…it is clear that Photo London’s second decade has begun in formidable style.’