Paris Photo returns to the Grand Palais for its 28th edition, featuring 220 exhibitors from 33 countries, including 178 galleries and 42 publishers. The fair opens amid a risk-averse market where dealers report slower acquisitions, increased production costs, and reduced collector risk-taking, yet attendance reached 81,000 in 2024. Notable trends include a resurgence of Japanese galleries after a five-year absence, strong Latin American presentations from Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Santiago, and Mexico City, and a rise in women artists to 39% of practitioners, up from 20% in 2018. Highlights include MEM's exhibition of the August 6 Hiroshima Day student photography project and Claudia Andujar's Yanomami works shown by Galeria Vermelho.
The fair's broad geographic diversity and curated solo booths offer a measure of confidence in photography's enduring strength despite market contraction. Director Florence Bourgeois emphasizes a wide survey approach rather than rigid themes, allowing threads like Japanese gallery resurgence, Latin American archival visibility, and intergenerational practices to emerge. This edition matters because it demonstrates how art fairs can sustain relevance by showcasing underrepresented regions and historical projects, counterbalancing market caution with cultural breadth and institutional commitment to medium-specific discovery.