What makes a fair work?  (Of any kind, really:  a question out of Merchant Capitalism 101—or even Trade 101.)  The merchants and the goods are key—by far the most important factor.  But we’re not just talking about a marketplace, retail street or mall design – an evolving commercial geography.  This is also a calendared event, a concours.  Location is always important.  Placement; also presentation:  you’re bringing your best stuff; it has to look great. 

The presentation issues are multiplied when the ‘stuff’ is fine art.  Site, installation, lighting, space, framing, as well as aspects of the ambience that may be contingent on the moment of viewing – all come into play.  A certain glamour (or, arguably, the reverse—something darker) may be useful.  All of which locate a point where the tools of mass culture might engineer the right platform or pedestal for a high culture product. 

From von Stroheim to von Sternberg, West to Wilder, from Sturges to Coppola, Blake Edwards to Bob Evans, Swanson to (well) Shrek – Paramount has provided just such a platform, albeit in recent years more often in a distribution capacity.  (The production going on behind so many of those soundstage gates is currently for television.)  That was itself a charm walking down the ‘streets,’ alleys and walkways between production offices and facilities and the many soundstages.  At a time when those of us who live here and have had some acquaintance with the film industry wonder if Hollywood, as a film-making capital (and the industry itself) is dying it is reassuring to hear its heartbeat. 

Beyond the inherent interest of a working studio campus (and a quintessential Hollywood ‘legacy media’ property at that), however, are the soundstages themselves, where the production magic is executed.  Spacious, versatile, perfectly lit, incomparably airy with ceilings that double as heavenly vaults – you couldn’t do better for exhibition space in a museum.  It’s hard to believe no one thought of it before Paris Photo.  Then to break things up a bit, and for still more air, the New York street exteriors. 

As with any fair though, what counts are the goods – and the participating galleries and publishers brought them.  It’s become common in recent years for galleries to showcase artists in solo ‘statement’ presentations – and Paris Photo certainly had its share (some 31 out of the 81 exhibitors, including publishers). Some of these created a bit of drama in their respective spaces (what’s a soundstage for after all?); but it was refreshing to see a comparable impact amongst the many galleries that brought small groups to show.  The generous space afforded many artists a solo impact opportunity.  

Among several strong solo installations, Edward Burtynsky’s “Water” series at Bryce Wolkowitz (with Howard Greenberg, New York) was probably the strongest.  You felt its resonance across the soundstage in Karin Apollonia Müller’s starry Far Out geoscapes and cool, dessicated L.A. landscapes at Diane Rosenstein’s space.  1301PE made a serene lightbox with Uta Barth’s subtle “Deep Blue Days” series circling their space.  Louise Alexander (Porto Cervo) made a splash with rarities by Guy Bourdin which looked forward both to his own later commercial and fashion work and far beyond to contemporary photography.  Across the lot, Penelope Slinger’s photo-collage works sounded a dashing feminist note in the Riflemaker (London) space behind one of the New York street storefronts.    

Space – with a bit of light, air and time – is what makes it work; to show the work beautifully and give the viewer time to step forward and back, or simply pause (there were those moments, too).  A viewer can’t ask for much more.  Whether in solo showcases or in small groups, the spaces afforded stand-alone moments, where your focus could rest for a moment, and to which you might easily return, whether from across the stage or from across the lot. 

I already mentioned La Ausencia (Absence), Santiago Porter’s haunting response to the 1994 AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people both inside the building and in its immediate vicinity.  Porter’s work is an array of 60 photographs and photo-documents, arranged in groups of three:  a portrait of a surviving friend or relative, an object left behind or intimately connected with the decedent, and a brief text (a survivor’s vignette, testimony or description).  But the same Rolf Art space amply displayed the equally charged photography of Marcelo Brodsky (documenting everything from civil rights struggles in the United States to the desaparecidas of Argentina’s guerra sucia), architectural photography by Facundo de Zuviría, the garish, quasi-surreal streetscapes of Marcos López, and the work of Graciela Sacco. 

Or consider The Apartment (Vancouver), where Garry Neill Kennedy’s midnight blue array of rendition (as in ‘extraordinary rendition’) aircraft, Spotted, was visible in its storefront window from across ‘Washington Square.’  Speaking of stand-alone moments, Ry Rocklen’s collapsing, literally foreshortened, folding “Peter’s Chair” beautifully (however delicately) commanded the center of Tom Solomon’s elegantly curated and installed selection, which also included brilliant work by Miljohn Ruperto, Juan Capistran, and an amazing Dennis Oppenheim (“Leafed Hand”).  Soo Kim had a few outstanding pieces amid Angles’ group, one of which was a masterpiece.  Doug Prince’s exquisite photo-objects of photographs, negatives, transparencies and collage layered in Plexiglas pulled viewers away from much larger work at Catherine Edelman (Chicago).  Robert Heinecken’s virtuosity stood out amid very strong Matt Lipps and Allan Ruppersberg in Marc Selwyn’s space (diagonally across from Müller’s work in the Rosenstein space).  Carrie Mae Weems’ work at Paule Anglim mesmerized, in spite of the very impressive Bruce Conners and Lynn Hershmans that shared the same space. 

You get the idea.  Outside a museum or an excellent gallery (are you missing L&M Venice as much as I am lately?), you rarely enjoy this level of experience.  I can’t go through an entire fair in this space, much less do justice to any of the work on view, so here’s a quick run-down of a few other arresting artists/moments at the fair:  Nathalie Boutté at Magnin-A (Paris); Richard Misrach at David Fraenkel (San Francisco); Eric Cahan and Brandon Lattu at Koenig & Clinton (New York); Insook Kim at 313 Art Project (Seoul); Ernst Krieg at Feroz Gallery (Bonn); Paul Thoral at Guido Costa (Torino), Nicolai Howalt at Martin Asbaek (Copenhagen).  I haven’t mentioned much in the way of moving image, but Veronique Bourgoin’s surreal, bricolaged film (screened at the foot of the stairs descending into the subway off the Paramount New York street), Normadrine was a treat.  (More to come on that hopefully later.)

The first reports from Paris Photo representatives indicated some success.  Over 16,000 visitors attended, and at least some of the galleries reported substantial sales.  (I had only the most limited information regarding L.A. exhibitor sales, but my occasional impression from local fairs is that they bring out-of-town and international buyers for work that should have sold to local collectors when first exhibited in the gallery.  It’s the L.A. collector’s inferiority complex.  They don’t want something until they know someone else wants it; then they’ll pay double for it.)  L.A. clearly loves Paris Photo.  What remains to be seen is whether L.A. and its international visitors showed them the money.  I hope so.