The tenth version of Photograph London opened in Somerset Home on Wednesday on the sun-drenched banks of the River Thames. Launched in 2015, the honest is now the most important one dedicated to pictures within the UK. Over the previous decade it’s grown alongside the Georgian-era establishment that hosts it.
“Twenty-five years in the past, Somerset Home’s courtyard stopped getting used as a authorities automobile park, and the final civil servants moved out of the constructing [formerly used as offices for HM Revenue and Customs] simply earlier than Photograph London’s first honest 10 years in the past,” the director of Somerset Home, Jonathan Reekie, instructed journalists on the press preview. “The final decade has been a coming of age for each us and the honest.”
Somerset Home’s advanced additionally contains the Courtauld Institute of Artwork and different arts organizations.
Photograph London, the newest version of which runs by way of Might 18, has additionally been essential for the pictures market. That market was as soon as a distinct segment nook of the artwork world. Photograph London ranks as one of many prime gala’s on this planet for pictures, a medium that holds its personal within the artwork market, regardless of solely accounting for 1 % of world public sale gross sales, in line with Artwork Basel and UBS’s 2025 Artwork Market Report. Main blue-chip galleries comparable to Gagosian and Hauser & Wirth have begun putting elevated weight on pictures, with the previous taking over artists like Nan Goldin, Deana Lawson, and Tyler Mitchell prior to now few years.
Regardless of this, the medium has nonetheless suffered alongside the broader artwork market over the past couple of years, simply to not the identical extent. ArtTactic reported that picture gross sales on the massive three public sale homes dropped by 5.6 % in 2024, totaling $59 million. By comparability, public sale gross sales throughout the complete artwork market dropped 27 % final yr. And whereas the overall variety of pictures bought at public sale declined in 2024, that determine nonetheless marked the second-highest gross sales quantity since ArtTactic’s evaluation started in 2015. “Whereas total gross sales softened, the information presents a extra nuanced and optimistic outlook for the pictures market,” ArtTactic’s 2024 {Photograph} Public sale Market report said. “Development in high-value works and single-artist gross sales, mixed with file sell-through charges, highlights the sector’s resilience and continued enchantment to collectors.”
Sophie Parker, who grew to become Photograph London’s director this yr after becoming a member of the honest in 2018 as its gallery growth supervisor, instructed ARTnews that this sturdiness offers the occasion “a robust basis.” She additionally stated she’s seeing extra collectors who’ve historically purchased prints and editions.
Just like the prints market, which is at present dominated by Gen Z and millennial consumers attracted by decrease prince factors, in line with Artwork Basel and UBS’s knowledge, the pictures market can be benefiting from curiosity amongst younger collectors. “I choose to name it the younger finish of the market versus the decrease finish of the market, and there’s plenty of pleasure and enthusiasm as persons are starting to know what it means to gather pictures,” Michael Benson, Photograph London’s cofounder, instructed ARTnews.
Nevertheless, whereas this new blood is injecting life into the section, Benson stated that the “very established pictures galleries have a gaggle of collectors who’ve sort of aged out, and in some instances, they’re deaccessioning their collections, so that is barely problematic.”
Organizing the honest was no stroll within the park. Benson stated it generally felt like “spinning one thing out of the air” as his crew labored tirelessly to encourage exhibitors to commit as early as attainable.
“We’re at an attention-grabbing hinge level, with many proprietors of the older galleries retiring, and the youthful galleries beginning to make a reputation for themselves, however not fairly on the identical stage,” he stated. “There are nonetheless challenges. We maybe have one or two difficult years forward, because the artwork market catches up with itself—we’re in a type of moments. There was one within the late ’80s, when every part was a bit flat, however the pleasure on the youthful galleries is giving us cause for robust optimism. The way forward for pictures may be very vivid. It’s only a query of getting by way of this little second.”
Arica Hilton, the CEO and founding father of Chicago-based gallery Hilton Up to date, is likely one of the 131 worldwide exhibitors at Photograph London. She’s promoting a collection of beautiful wildlife pictures by Mexican photographer Cristina Mittermeir and Canada’s Paul Nicklen, priced between $25,000 to $40,000. Hilton isn’t frightened concerning the dip available in the market. She pointed to one of many Nicklen pictures, titled Ice Waterfall, which she stated had quadrupled in worth to $100,000 over the past 5 years.
“That’s not unhealthy, is it?” she stated. “It’s not at all times about economics, as a result of individuals who purchase artwork from us may not really feel the economic system contracting as a lot as different individuals. What we’re due to this fact making an attempt to do is current artwork that can encourage and educate them. Our artists are shining a lightweight on environmental points and serving to to cross laws by way of the world.”
Freeny Yianni, the inventive director of UK-based Shut gallery, is displaying at Photograph London for the primary time, together with works by Anna Mossman, Carali McCall, and Trish Morrisey. “Showcasing pictures from performative conceptual artists has helped us stand out, whereas additionally providing accessibly priced works by artists who usually command a lot greater costs,” she stated. “The fact of at the moment’s market is difficult throughout the board, however our position is to current the perfect of what’s obtainable to maintain the market alive.”
Final yr, public sale gross sales for ladies photographers fell sharply by a 3rd, in line with ArtTactic, however feminine artists are effectively represented on the honest.
Twenty-one rising pictures galleries have additionally been given publicity in Photograph London’s Discovery part: New York-based New Discretions is displaying work by Jordan Eagles, who creates items incorporating pictures, blood, and resin. Helphoto from Helsinki is presenting rising feminine artists from Denmark, Sweden, and Estonia.
“This version of Photograph London is testomony to all that we’ve achieved in our first decade—we have now labored intently with the pictures neighborhood to determine London as an necessary international hub for the medium,” Benson instructed ARTnews.
