Paris Photo takes over the sets of LA’s Paramount Pictures Studios

Iron gate to row of buildings
For its Los Angeles debut, Paris Photo has commandeered the New York Streets backlots of Paramount Pictures Studios
(Image credit: TBC)

'After autumn in Paris, the only place you can go is spring in Los Angeles,' says Julien Frydman, director of Paris Photo, which is currently holding an American edition at Paramount Pictures Studios. The decision to go Hollywood with a second version of the 17-year-old fair was influenced by both the success of the flagship, which attracted 54,000 visitors to the Grand Palais last year, and the central role that the image plays in this sprawling city. Notes Frydman: 'Once I got past the cliché of LA as just the town of the movies, I realized how much art has been produced here, and how much photography and the history of photography matters to the city.'

With 60 exhibiting galleries and a dozen publishers spread among three of Paramount's soundstages, Paris Photo Los Angeles is a glamorous ray of sunshine for fairgoers accustomed to traipsing the aisles of dingy convention centers. The bright, hangar-like stages appear to have been freshly dipped in white paint, and between the multi-gallery exhibition areas is the New York back lot, an ersatz Gotham. Strolling among the streets, vehicle-free save for the odd golf cart, visitors can pop into storefront and townhouse sets that have been transformed into spaces for solo exhibitions and bookshops.

Along with palm trees and a variety of food trucks, the US edition of Paris Photo has rolled out the red carpet for the moving image, a first for the fair. Screenings of film and video works by the likes of Chris Marker and Philippe Parreno as well as on-stage conversations with artists such as Doug Aitken, Gregory Crewdson, and Catherine Opie will take place through Sunday.

'In the postwar period, there's been a collapse of the boundaries between photography, painting, sculpture, performance - all of these things became possibilities,' says Douglas Fogle, formerly the chief curator of LA's Hammer Museum, who organized the fair's special 'Sound and Vision' programming. 'The talks and screenings will be wide-ranging, fun, and very evocative, and cumulatively I think will make the case for why Paris Photo has decided to branch out and push the idea of the image and not simply the still image as such.'

The exhibiting galleries have come prepared for the tinseltown twist on Paris Photo. Fraenkel Gallery welcomes fairgoers to one of the main stages with a trio of Hiroshi Sugimoto's large black and white photos of movie theater interiors (all three cinemas are in California), while Howard Greenberg Gallery is showcasing Edward Steichen's portraits of Charlie Chaplin and Marlene Dietrich alongside the work of the recently departed Shomei Tomatsu and Joel Meyerowitz, whose inverted image of a diver underwater winks at the local pool culture. A more sobering take on water comes from Jim Goldberg, who in a series of images taken in Haiti reveals the continued struggle for clean drinking water in the rebuilding nation. His 'Acqua #3' is presented in a special exhibition by sponsor Giorgio Armani.

Both Danziger and Gagosian Gallery have brought a selection of Polaroids by Andy Warhol, who professed to love Los Angeles and Hollywood in all of its beauty and plasticity, and they're joined here by the M1 BMW Art Car created by the Pop artist in 1979. 'If a car is really fast, all contours and colours will become blurred,' said Warhol when creating the car. Of course, he had other ideas about still images: 'My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person.'

Row of 4 storey brick buildings

Galleries' booths are incorporated into the set

(Image credit: TBC)

Store front with pictures in window

Brachfield Gallery turns a 'store' of the set into a real-life gallery.

(Image credit: Randall Michelson/rmpix.com)

White room with framed photos on the walls

The Paris-based Brachfield Gallery's solo exhibition of American photographer David Armstrong combines a selection of Kodachrome colour snapshots taken between Cape Cod and New York in the late 1970s and early 80s, along with some of Armstrong's first more formal black and white portraits taken during the same period of many of the same characters.

(Image credit: Randall Michelson/rmpix.com)

Dark movie theatre

Fraenkel Gallery is aptly welcoming fairgoers to one of the main stages of the set with a trio of Hiroshi Sugimoto's large black and white photos of movie theater interiors (all three cinemas are in California). Pictured is 'Avalon Theatre, Catalina Island', 1993

(Image credit: TBC)

3 swings in the dark

'The Past is Gone, the Future is Cancelled', 2008, is from Joakim Eneroth's 'Short Stories of the Transparent Mind' series. It is being shown at Paris Photo Los Angeles by School Olivier Castaing

(Image credit: TBC)

People stood around trees in the dark

'Retitled V' by Joakim Eneroth, 2008, shown by School Olivier Castaing

(Image credit: TBC)

Young boy carrying cartons of water

'Haiti 2013 - Mairie de Petion-ville' by Jim Goldberg, is one of a series of works by the photographer that make up 'Aqua #3', presented by Giorgio Armani. Taken in Haiti, these images reflect the continued challenge of access to clean drinking water as the country struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake

(Image credit: TBC)

Large studio with dark wall art

Selected photographs from Sally Mann's 'Battlefields' series, made between 2000 and 2002, at the booth of Karsten Greve.

(Image credit: Randall Michelson/rmpix.com)

Corner of white room with framed photos

Fraenkel Gallery's booth, showing 'Anonymous, Bakersfield,' by Katy Grannan, 2011 (right).

(Image credit: Randall Michelson/rmpix.com)

Colourful sports car

'Art Car No. 4', by Andy Warhol, BMW M1, 1970.

(Image credit: Randall Michelson/rmpix.com)

Yellow image of girl jumping in the snow

Untitled (Plate 5), from the Shapes Series by Tierney Gearon, 2012, shown by Jackson gallery

(Image credit: TBC)

Colourful photo collage on the wall

The booth of London-based Brancolini Grimaldi is showing Miles Aldridge's 'Carousel', a new portfolio of 32 lithographic and silkscreen prints.

(Image credit: Randall Michelson/rmpix.com)

Black background with white spots

Untitled #1, by Catherine Opie, shown by Regen Projects

(Image credit: TBC)

Green & gold tray

Catherine Edelman is presenting a series of works by John Cyr, depicting famous photographers' developing trays. Pictured is 'Sally Mann's Developer Tray', 2011

(Image credit: TBC)

Green & bronze tray

'Neil Selkirk's Developer Tray' by John Cyr, 2011

(Image credit: TBC)

Artwork of elderly couple on building roof

'The Wrinkles of the City, Los Angeles, Lovers on the roof, USA' by JR, shown by Galerie Perrotin

(Image credit: TBC)

Artwork of a woman on clock tower

'Unframed, Man Ray revu par JR, Femme aux cheveux longs' by JR, shown by Galerie Perrotin

(Image credit: TBC)

Purple paint artwork

'Sleeper' by Doug Aitken, shown by Regen Projects

(Image credit: TBC)

Coloured string lights

'Lights' by Jessica Backhaus, shown by Robert Morat

(Image credit: TBC)

Close up of woman's face

'Dora Maar' by Man Ray, 1936, shown by Galerie 1900-2000

(Image credit: TBC)

People crossing busy American street

'San Francisco' by Fred Herzog, 1962, shown by Equinox

(Image credit: TBC)

Man sat in smoke cloud

'Smokeman', by Susanna Hesselberg, 2005, School Olivier Castaing

(Image credit: TBC)

Dark exposure

Untitled (Antietam #5) by Sally Mann, 2000, Karsten Greve

(Image credit: TBC)

Colourful striped artwork

'The no-mind not-thinks no-things, sonbet', by Doug and Mike Starn, 2012-13, shown by Hackelbury

(Image credit: TBC)

Dying leaf

'Black Pulse 7' by Doug and Mike Starn, 2000-7, shown by Hackelbury

(Image credit: TBC)

White artwork

'Cosmo Girl, Lexus, Viagra, Vogue, American Landscapes' by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Paradise Row

(Image credit: TBC)

Stephanie Murg is a writer and editor based in New York who has contributed to Wallpaper* since 2011. She is the co-author of Pradasphere (Abrams Books), and her writing about art, architecture, and other forms of material culture has also appeared in publications such as Flash Art, ARTnews, Vogue Italia, Smithsonian, Metropolis, and The Architect’s Newspaper. A graduate of Harvard, Stephanie has lectured on the history of art and design at institutions including New York’s School of Visual Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.