Sally Mann's New Works at Paris Photo 2025.

5 hours ago7 min read

The hallowed halls of the Grand Palais in Paris are set to become the epicenter of the photographic world once more with the arrival of Paris Photo 2025, a fair that promises a compelling journey from vintage icons to the most daring contemporary visions. For any serious follower of the lens-based arts, this event is less a simple marketplace and more a cinematic narrative of the medium's evolution, a story where the past converses urgently with the future.The most anticipated revelation, the one causing a palpable tremor of excitement through the community, is the promised display of never-before-seen works by the legendary Sally Mann. Mann, an artist whose career has been a masterclass in exploring the intimate, the Southern, and the elemental, has long operated with the patience of a novelist and the eye of a poet.Her seminal bodies of work, from the controversial yet profound immediacy of 'Immediate Family' to the haunting, gothic landscapes of 'Deep South' and the visceral biological traces of 'Body Farm,' have consistently challenged the boundaries between the personal and the universal, the beautiful and the decayed. To witness new work from her is to be granted access to a continuing, deeply personal visual diary that also serves as a profound commentary on memory, mortality, and the very nature of the photographic act itself.One can speculate that these new pieces will continue her meditations on the Southern terrain, a land she has described as 'so thick with time and memory it's like walking through a narrative,' perhaps pushing further into the abstract or utilizing alternative processes that echo the ethereal quality of her 'Proud Flesh' series. Her presence at the fair, represented by stalwart galleries like Edwynn Houk or Gagosian, elevates the entire event, framing it not just as a commercial endeavor but as a significant historical moment.Beyond the Mann-centric fervor, the Grand Palais will unfold as a sprawling tapestry of photographic history. Collectors and curators will navigate the booths of international powerhouses like Pace/MacGill and Fraenkel Gallery, where vintage prints by titans like Irving Penn or Diane Arbus command quiet reverence, their silver gelatin surfaces holding decades of cultural weight.In stark and thrilling contrast, the 'Curiosa' sector will likely showcase contemporary artists who dismantle and reassemble the very idea of photography, incorporating digital manipulation, AI-generated imagery, and immersive installations that question the stability of the image in our hyper-visual age. The fair thus becomes a dialectic, a space where the crisp, decisive moment of a Cartier-Bresson is placed in direct conversation with the layered, time-collapsing digital composites of a contemporary artist like Stan Douglas.This dynamic is the lifeblood of Paris Photo; it’s where the market, academia, and pure aesthetic passion collide. The selection of works, the curation of the booths, and the very air of the event are charged with the unspoken question of what value we assign to a captured moment, whether it's a century-old platinum print or a screen-based NFT.For the artists, it's a monumental platform; for the galleries, a critical barometer of taste and trend; and for the attendees, it is nothing less than a pilgrimage—a chance to stand before the original prints that have defined our visual consciousness and to discover the new voices who will inevitably reshape it. The announcement of Sally Mann's new works is not merely a highlight; it is the narrative anchor around which the entire grand spectacle of Paris Photo 2025 will orbit, ensuring its place not just in the art market ledgers, but in the annals of photographic history.

#Paris Photo 2025

#Sally Mann

#photography

#Grand Palais

#art fair

#vintage

#contemporary

#featured

Stay Informed. Act Smarter.

Get weekly highlights, major headlines, and expert insights — then put your knowledge to work in our live prediction markets.