A new fair dedicated to photography is due to open in San Francisco early next year at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion on the city’s northern waterfront (27-29 January). Photo San Francisco, which is organised by the World Photography Organisation (WPO), is the latest attempt to break into the photography market in the US; last month, Reed Exhibitions, the company behind three editions of Paris Photo Los Angeles, announced that it has cancelled this year’s fair, due to open in April, because of weak sales.
Scott Gray, the founder of WPO, says: “The aim is to deliver an elegant and international art fair that, through a tangible dialogue with our Asian fair (Photo Shanghai), provides a unique platform for contemporary photography on the West Coast; offering opportunities for the established west coast collectors as well as the less established audiences in the wider Silicon Valley and Bay areas.”
Asked if the market in California can sustain a new photography fair, he says: “Photography is at home in San Francisco as it is an incredible city that is deeply rooted in photography, both at the collector and institutional level, resulting in a large and important group of collectors that have a passion for the medium. Photography’s vibrancy also appeals to the new audiences that stretch beyond the city itself, reaching further north and south through California.”
The World Photography Organisation is a subsidiary of the Montgomery Group, the London-based fairs organiser. In 2014, it launched the Photo Shanghai fair, which is billed as “Asia’s premier art fair dedicated to photography”.
The last edition in September, which included 47 exhibitors, drew more than 26,000 visitors. The next edition is scheduled to take place 9 to 11 September at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre. The group artistic director Alexander Montague-Sparey oversees both Photo Shanghai and its sister San Francisco edition.
