Polka Galerie

Although the initial ambition of Niépce’s and Daguerre’s invention of photography was the perfect reproduction of reality, twists of fate metamorphosed the medium over the course of its history, from the earliest times of experiments with Bitumen of Judea, eventually handing its practitioners freedom from the constraints of figurative realism. Suddenly, reality, which had become infinitely reproducible with the use of light and lenses, slipped away from the painters. Our booth returns to roots of the photographic medium, one that has never entirely severed ties with its original creators’ codes. Perhaps this means revisiting the origins in sibylline gestures, with colored tints, engravings, drawing with photo developer, chemical tints revisiting the chromatic harmonies of painting... From reportage to abstraction, from photo-poetry to street photography and street art, the artists presented at the booth take on the spectator, bearing witness to their influences and secret fascinations. 

Featuring Edouard Elias (& Abdulmonam Eassa), Miho Kajioka, Donata Wenders, Nick Brandt, Joakim Eskildsen, Mario Giacomelli, Steve McCurry, Alexander Gronsky, Kosuke Okahara, Toshio Shibata, Marc Riboud, Joel Meyerowitz, The Anonymous Project, Philippe Chancel and Sebastião Salgado.