This 2025 edition of Paris Photo strikes an interesting balance: between the nostalgia of a “classic” Paris Photo with historic prints and well-known artists and a real desire to engage a contemporary audience through stories, diversity, and bodies. Delattre’s work, for instance, feels deeply symbolic: she doesn’t produce shocking images but rather human, thoughtful, almost meditative ones. The fact that nearly 40% of the exhibited artists are women is, to me, a powerful signal: the fair is becoming not only a market but also a platform for re-legitimizing voices long marginalized.

A highly gestural fair, centred on the body and the portrait. Many galleries presented works focused on the human figure though not always in a traditional sense: the portraits are sometimes staged, sometimes fleeting, sometimes narrative. For example, Jack Davison, a portraitist widely noted. Numéro describes him as a “portraitist anchored in his time,” and his presentation at Cob Gallery stands out as one of the fair’s must-see displays.

The nude / the female body: the theme of the body and nudity is strongly present throughout the “Elles” pathway (and beyond), as women photographers reclaim the body, the face, and the portrait with images that are not only aesthetic but also political. The fact that the fair foregrounds so many women artists shows that the nude and the female figure is far from devoid of reflection; it is often reframed and pulled away from its traditional clichés.

Here is our selection of standout favorites from Paris Photo 2025:

Article by Kalel Koven – Paris Photo 2025 – parisphoto.com