Paris Photo, the international fair dedicated to photography, opens its 29th edition at the Grand Palais on Thursday 12 November 2026 and runs until Sunday 15 November. According to the fair’s press kit, this year’s edition gathers 246 exhibitors from 38 countries — a figure the kit breaks down as 199 galleries and 48 publishers — including 80 first-time participants, across five sectors.
One of the edition’s organising threads is the bicentenary of photography. In an interview published in the press kit, the fair’s director, Florence Bourgeois, says Paris Photo will be the first international event to mark the bicentenary, under the patronage of the French Ministry of Culture. The kit frames the theme not as a retrospective celebration but as a reading of the medium’s history, its technical evolution and its new forms. The design magazine Wallpaper*, previewing the fair on 10 November, reported the same exhibitor and country figures.
Thomas Ruff at the entrance
Visitors entering the Grand Palais will be met by a monumental installation devoted to the German photographer Thomas Ruff, a leading figure of the Düsseldorf School. According to the press kit, the retrospective hang, produced in collaboration with five galleries — David Zwirner, Konrad Fischer, Mai 36, Lia Rumma and Sprüth Magers — stretches 36 metres and traces more than forty years of work, from analogue images to digital simulations.
Five sectors, from the 19th century to the digital
The Principal sector, in the nave, brings together 152 galleries. The kit highlights dealers specialising in early photography, among them Gilles Peyroulet and Bruno Tartarin, while Hans P. Kraus Jr. presents works made with the earliest processes by pioneers including Louis Daguerre, William Henry Fox Talbot, Anna Atkins and Girault de Prangey. On the contemporary side, Christophe Gaillard shows a solo presentation of Isabelle Le Minh, whose work examines the history and limits of the medium. A dedicated trail links bicentenary-related presentations across the fair.
The Voices sector, curated by Zasha Colah and Francesco Zanot, takes “Disappearance” (La disparition) as its theme. The Digital sector is curated by Marco De Mutiis, digital curator at Fotomuseum Winterthur. On the first floor, Émergence presents twenty monographic projects by a new generation of artists, and the Éditions sector gathers 48 publishing houses from 17 countries.
The Centre Pompidou, women artists and prizes
The fair has invited the Centre Pompidou to present Révéler, a display drawn from its photography collection that brings together about a hundred works by some thirty historical and contemporary artists. The Elles × Paris Photo trail, founded in 2018 in partnership with the Ministry of Culture to highlight women artists, is entrusted this year to the curator Aldeide Delgado. According to the kit, women account for 38% of the artists shown at the fair in 2026, against 20% in 2018.
The programme also includes talks, book signings and the Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards. The 2026 Maison Ruinart Prize, which honours a project in the Émergence sector, has been awarded to Philippe Jarrigeon, presented by the gallery Womanray. The press kit puts last year’s attendance at 75,000 visitors.
Practical information: Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Avenue Winston-Churchill, 75008 Paris. 12–15 November 2026 (invitation-only preview on 11 November). Tickets, according to the press kit: €36 weekday, €41 weekend, €26 evening or student. Organised by RX France.
Sources: Paris Photo 2026 press kit; parisphoto.com; Centre Pompidou press page for Révéler; Wallpaper*, 10 November 2026.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by the Honargardi editorial team.