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Paris Photo 2025 to Feature New Sally Mann Works.
The hallowed halls of the Grand Palais in Paris are set to become the epicenter of the photographic world once more with the announcement that Paris Photo 2025 will feature a stunning suite of never-before-seen works by the legendary Sally Mann. This isn't just another addition to a fair roster; it's a seismic event, a curation that promises to anchor the entire event with the profound, often unsettling, beauty that has defined Mann's career.For those who have followed her trajectory, from the intimate, controversial immediacy of 'Immediate Family' to the haunting, elegiac landscapes of the American South, this new body of work represents a tantalizing question mark. What new ground has she broken? What unseen ghosts has she coaxed from her signature large-format camera? The fair itself, a temple to the medium ranging from vintage icons by Cartier-Bresson or Ansel Adams to the sharpest contemporary visions from artists like Pieter Hugo or Rinko Kawauchi, provides the perfect, weighty context for such a revelation.Mann’s work has always operated in the liminal space between the documentary and the deeply personal, the chemical and the spiritual. Her mastery of the wet-plate collodion process, with its glorious imperfections and ethereal flaws, isn't mere technique; it's a philosophical stance, a rebellion against the sterile perfection of digital photography.Each scratch, each pool of emulsion, becomes part of the narrative, a tangible record of time and chance. To see new work from her is to witness a master continuing her dialogue with memory, mortality, and the very nature of light itself.One can imagine the hushed reverence that will surround these new pieces, likely large-scale prints where the details emerge slowly, pulling the viewer into a world both familiar and profoundly strange. The curation of her work at a major international fair also raises compelling questions about the art market's relationship with such deeply personal art.How does the commercial machinery of a high-stakes event like Paris Photo contend with photographs that feel like stolen secrets or excavated memories? It’s a fascinating tension that Mann’s presence guarantees, elevating the fair from a mere marketplace to a genuine site of artistic pilgrimage. This highlight underscores Paris Photo's continued role not just as a barometer of market trends, but as a crucial institution for defining and challenging the photographic canon. With Sally Mann as its lodestar, the 2025 edition is poised to be less an exhibition and more an experience, a deep, resonant engagement with the power of an image to hold time, to reveal truth, and to haunt us long after we've left the grandeur of the Grand Palais.
#Paris Photo 2025
#Sally Mann
#photography
#Grand Palais
#art fair
#contemporary art
#vintage photography
#featured