The 12th edition of Unseen Photo Fair, an international fair dedicated to the evolution of contemporary photography located in the heart of Amsterdam, has doubled down on innovative proposals and unexpected perspectives, coming from different horizons.
François Visser, Viviane Sassen, Michiel Kluiters, Daniel Arsham, Janette Beckman, Terry O'Neill, Fan Ho, Ben Thomas, Svante Gullichsen, Hans van Asch, Dean West… This new edition of Unseen has invited us to discover a wide range of photographers. This international art fair in Amsterdam, founded in 2012, is dedicated to contemporary photography in all its forms.
It was born from the desire to highlight numerous talents developing experimental projects, whether these stem from the early works of emerging artists or from previously unseen pieces by established names. It has thus made a name for itself thanks to its high conservation standards and intimate atmosphere. Unseen connects the new to the established and the established to the innovative, creating a platform that has become an important overview of the latest developments and directions taking the medium of expression. " explains founder Roderick van der Lee.
Year after year, the fair continues to attract galleries, photography enthusiasts, collectors and art professionals from around the world.
AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE DISCIPLINE
This 12th edition, held from September 19th to 22nd, once again transformed Westergas, an art and culture village located in Westerpark, into an essential event for photography enthusiasts. The founder chose to focus the program on a global reflection on photography, bringing together established and emerging talents. The event hosted 71 exhibitors, a smaller number than in 2023, due to some galleries' strategy of expanding their booths with specific displays.
The selection also included 65 publishers from the book market, offering photography enthusiasts even more opportunities to enrich their libraries, and 8 projects from the Unbound section, which explored and pushed the boundaries of the photographic universe, notably with videos by Israeli artist Yael Bartana, whose works are part of the collections of MoMA, Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou. Her work focuses on the social rituals that shape individual identities and collective memory.
VISIBILITY DYNAMICS
The fair's approach also involves maintaining momentum by attracting new participants. This is the case with the Einspach Gallery from Budapest, which was participating in the event for the first time, dedicating a solo show to Tamas Dezsö. The artist casts a gaze that is both beautiful and somber on the pastoral landscapes and forgotten ways of life of Hungary, Romania, and other regions of Eastern Europe.
Elsewhere, London's Open Doors approached photography from a curatorial perspective, presenting new works from Javier Hirschfeld Moreno's Profile series. The Spanish artist explores the role and responsibility of the medium in representing self and collective identities.
Further afield, the Motormond space in Amsterdam focused on pan-diasporic cultures, while the Homecoming gallery, which opened its first space in the Dutch city this summer, presented the works of Mia Weiner. Originally from Chicago, this photographer explores identity, gender, and the psychology of human relationships. She is also among the recipients of the 2024 V&A Parasol Foundation Award for Women in Photography, launched by the Victoria and Albert Museum.
COURT OF THE GREAT ONES
Unseen has reaffirmed its position thanks to numerous established galleries, such as Annet Gelink's in Amsterdam, which is shining a spotlight on the Dutch documentary and fashion photographer Bertien van Manen (1935-2024), who passed away last May. Her work was notably inspired by Robert Frank's series *The Americans*, and several of her pieces have entered the collections of the MoMA in New York, the MEP in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).
Among the regulars, Antwerp's Steiglitz 19 remained at the forefront and this year chose to highlight the work of Kevin Osepa. This Curaçao native is interested in the identities of young Afro-Caribbeans.
As for the Stevenson Gallery, located between Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Amsterdam, it presented a solo show by the prolific artist Viviane Sassen, whose work is also exhibited at the Foam Museum. Unseen also gave pride of place to museum exhibitions throughout Amsterdam, such as those of Awoiska van der Molen at Huis Marseille and several young Belgian photographers at the Brakke Grond cultural center.
BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT
We conclude with several displays from the "Past/Present" section, which traced the history of photography. Depth of Field (DOF) in Amsterdam offered an interesting perspective on the photographic representation of textile imagery. The gallery exhibited a rare 1931 print of the Shroud of Turin by Giuseppe Enrie, also known as the "Shroud of Turin" or "Holy Shroud," the famous yellowed linen cloth depicting a man with wounds related to the crucifixion of Jesus. The photographic approach makes the contours of one of the "most studied artifacts in history" more clearly visible. Also featured were early photographic reproductions of works of art, including those by Adolphe Braun.
A change of pace with the Blue Lotus Gallery in Hong Kong, which took us into the urban excitement of the Chinese city with Fan Ho (1931-2016), one of the masters of photography, and the contemporary vision of rising star Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze.
We close the section and this edition of Unseen with the SmithDavidson gallery, based in Amsterdam, Mexico and Miami, which offered a lovely dialogue between two iconic British photographers, Terry O'Neill and Janette Beckman.
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