Roxana Azimi_When you launched the fair last year some British photography dealers were skeptical about the potential of a market in Great Britain. What made you sure there was one?
Michael Benson_We were pretty sure there was one, for various reasons. The work we do with Prix Pictet indicated that there was a huge enthusiasm for photography and the people we talked to actually made it clear that there were a lot of interesting collectors in photography. The really interesting point was when Tim Jefferies from Hamiltons said to me when he talked about the fair last year, “you pulled a rabbit out of a hat and I had no idea there was a hat. And I certainly didn’t expect that there would be a rabbit inside it!”. We realised from people’s expectations that it was the right moment to launch the fair and that the market was more promising than the dealers may have thought it was. In fact many of the dealers met people that they had never met before and have continued the conversations and relationships since then. Some dealers met collectors who live in the same street as the gallery and had never been at the gallery.
How come?
M B_I think people have always wanted to collect photography. They just didn’t have the confidence or didn’t really know how to go about it. Some people were very keen but didn’t know how to interact with the gallerists.
Fariba Farshad_Our UK based dealers were more skeptical about collectors in London than those actually in Continental Europe and America. We heard positive voices from France, in particular from Paris that immediately said that most of their collectors were living in London. Everyone in London said “we will support you but we are not that positive”. Paris galleries joined us very quickly. Also, I have an interesting anecdote to tell you. Some of our advisory members and photography collectors told me that they bumped into their friends in the courtyard of the Somerset house and asked “did you ever buy photography, do you like photography?” and they said “yes, we’ve been buying for years”. Photography collectors are very subtle and quiet. They’re quietly loving that medium and quietly buying it. Mainly because London hasn’t been a centre for photography fairs. Therefore they were going for a long time to other countries to buy photography. That was a new discovery for us.
M B_During the course of this year, we ran a series of courses on collecting photography and they were sold out, so there is a massive interest in this.
F F_We ran six talks since November and we will continue to run pre and post talks because it is very important not to be a “come and go” in five days and that’s that. We want to carry on continuous discussion about photography until we’re absolutely convinced that photography has been embraced by London and UK.
Does the coming out of collectors that nobody expected explain the increasing number of exhibitors this year?
M B_The galleries that had exhibited last year went back and said to their colleagues “you really have to be part of Photo London”. They truly enjoyed the fair. Especially the American exhibitors told other dealers about us and we have therefore a much larger contingent from Northern America than last year. In June last year, when we wrote to the exhibitors “if you wish to come back, please let us know”, 95 % said to count them in. We have a massive waiting list for the fair.
F F_64 out of 70 galleries from last year are back, it’s a big indication on how much they actually enjoyed the fair. There are beautiful rooms, a courtyard. It’s almost homely. People can take refuge in each room and in each section. Not being in the middle of a huge and busy fair all the time actually makes the experience different. That’s why we have gone for Somerset House, regardless of all the complexity of dealing with a magnificent place like this.
You built a tent in the courtyard to allow more galleries to exhibit?
F F_We have 10 more galleries, so we have 80 this year. Some galleries really needed bigger, larger walls that we could not have. It’s a good way of experimenting larger galleries and bigger pieces and see how that is going to work. We certainly don’t want to cover the whole courtyard because what we love about Somerset House is that beautiful courtyard. But we are under lots of pressure, the waiting list is quite long and we can’t just ignore it.
Do you imagine an extension in the vicinities in the future?
M B_We’re looking for all sorts of options but that’s a question that we will deal with after the fair.
F F_Certainly there’s no thought about moving from Somerset House. Our vision is based on being different and experimenting with a different space. It has been proven quite successful. There are four restaurants and one of the best in London is based in Somerset House. There is a beautiful lounge on the riverside. It’s an experience. There is no though about relocating but we have to think about expanding.
You mentioned many more exhibitors from America. Did the cancellation of Paris Photo Los Angeles have any impact or will it have in the long run?
F F_We were totally sold out in December, before the cancellation was announced.
M B_We will figure it out next year. It can only increase the competition for places here.
Did you notice any particular trend that the London audience is looking for? Do the collectors prefer contemporary photography, because of Frieze spirit?
M B_No, people are actually interested in 19th century photography. I was very pleasantly surprised of the level of interest. Within a month of the fair, Hans P. Kraus, from New York, rang and asked if he could show here. He wouldn’t have if he had not sensed a movement in the market for 19th century photography. Equally, of course because of the contemporary art experience, people are interested in the contemporary artists. There’s a lot of interest in the discoveries, young emerging, quite difficult works. There’s interest across the board, there is not one style of photography that is emerging that would be the “London style”. Maybe that will happen in ten years time. People collect at all levels, some spending 300 pounds and others spending considerable sums of money acquiring major works.
Many museums of the city stage photo shows during the fair. Was it easy to convince them?
F F_That goes back to who we are. We are pretty known within the photography community. We’ve been working on Prix Pictet for eight years. Creating this huge number of nominators, working with institutions, we built for a very long time the confidence and trust of our colleagues. We’re not coming from the corporation, we’re a small company that has been working on photography for years, they see us as colleagues rather than a commercial marketing only exercise. That’s why we’re doing all those exhibitions. We dedicate the whole of the downstairs where we could actually have maybe 15 or 20 galleries, to exhibitions, commissions, 33 talks, a huge public program.
M B_The first year we were in conversation with them. This year, places like the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, V&A or Whitechapel talked about what they might do during Photo London, rather than us asking them. I think there are 34 satellite events going on, many which that happened without any conversation with us.
F F_Our vision from the beginning was “how can we get London to fall in love with photography?”. Some things happened organically, even faster than we ever expected. Some of it we certainly worked hard on.
Do you feel there is a Photo London week, the same way as there is a Frieze week?
M B_Yes I think there is.
What were your criteria for the commissions you launched this year?
M B_We try to encourage experiment. If it’s done by young and emerging artists, it’s very important to us. If there’s a bit of humour, it’s also important. Those exhibitions enrich Photo London, it’s something visitors don’t experience in other art fairs. It’s not a supermarket but a profound artistic experience. This added engagement is an important element to the fair.
F F_We run 33 talks this year with great speakers that you wouldn’t necessarily hear speaking in the same place at the same time. The talks program is very rich and it makes Photo London special.
PHOTO LONDON, 19th - 22nd May 2016. Somerset House, Strand, London,
http://photolondon.org
