Photography takes center stage at Frieze London and across the city, with major exhibitions of Lee Miller at Tate Britain, Wolfgang Tillmans at Maureen Paley, Arthur Jafa at Sadie Coles, and Peter Hujar at Pace Gallery. Commercial galleries like Gagosian and David Zwirner are investing heavily in photography, appointing specialists and staging solo shows, while prices for vintage prints range from $25,000 to $90,000. The surge reflects a post-pandemic market shift where photography's compatibility with online viewing rooms has boosted its fine-art status.
This moment matters because it signals a blurring of the historic boundary between photography and fine art, driven by institutional recognition and collector demand. As galleries expand their photography departments and photographers adopt smaller edition runs, the medium is gaining parity with painting and sculpture. London, long seen as lagging behind Paris and New York in photography dealing, is now asserting itself as a key market, with Frieze serving as a catalyst for this transformation.