{"id":1865,"date":"2026-11-07T01:32:39","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T22:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honargardi.com\/en\/?p=1865"},"modified":"2026-11-07T01:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T22:17:15","slug":"photosaintgermain-2026-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/honargardi.com\/en\/photosaintgermain-2026-opening-day\/","title":{"rendered":"PhotoSaintGermain 2026: Opening Day on the Rive gauche (Left Bank)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PhotoSaintGermain, the annual photography festival of the Rive gauche (Left Bank), opened its 15th edition on 5 November 2026 and runs until 28 November. Nearly forty venues take part \u2014 galleries, museums, cultural centres, schools and bookshops, mostly in the 6th and 7th arrondissements \u2014 and this year the festival carries the French Ministry of Culture\u2019s label for the Bicentenary of Photography. Four of the exhibitions that opened on the first day are described below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tina Barney, \u201cBeginnings\u201d \u2014 Zander Galerie<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At 6 rue Jacob, Zander Galerie presents Beginnings<\/em>, six early black-and-white photographs by the American photographer Tina Barney (born 1945). They date from the late 1970s, when she photographed summers in Rhode Island with a 35 mm camera, and she rediscovered them while going through her archives during the pandemic. Faces often stay out of the frame: the pictures look instead at gesture, posture, clothing, hair, glass and atmospheric effects, and they already point to the codes of social class and family life that run through her later colour work. The gallery quotes her comparing them to the loose sketches a painter makes before a larger composition. The opening took place on Thursday 5 November, 6\u20139 pm; the exhibition continues until 9 January 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty photographers for forty years \u2014 Galerie Berthet-Aittouar\u00e8s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Visitors
Opening evening at Galerie Berthet-Aittouar\u00e8s, 5 November 2026. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Galerie Berthet-Aittouar\u00e8s, on rue de Seine (the festival lists nos. 14 and 29), celebrates its 40th anniversary with 20 photographes f\u00eatent les 40 ans de la galerie, de Mario Giacomelli \u00e0 Antoine Schneck<\/em>: twenty photographers who have marked its history, shown as part of PhotoSaintGermain and the bicentenary of photography. The gallery was founded in 1986 by Mich\u00e8le Aittouar\u00e8s; her daughter Odile joined in 2000 and created a department devoted to photography. The works range from the 1950s to today, from the graphic, painterly approach of Giacomelli to the humanist and committed photography of Jean Dieuzaide and Letizia Battaglia; the gallery\u2019s page also names John Craven, Malick Sidib\u00e9, Antoine Schneck and Franco Zecchin. The opening took place on Thursday 5 November; the show continues until 28 November, Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am\u20131 pm and 2.30\u20137 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visitors
Framed prints and an old Surrealism exhibition poster in the gallery. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
An egg nested in red thread under a glass dome, shown in the gallery. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cC\u2019est un regard de l\u2019eau\u201d \u2014 Galerie du Crous de Paris<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Visitors
Opening day at the Galerie du Crous de Paris, 5 November 2026. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The gallery of the Crous de Paris, at 11 rue des Beaux-Arts, brings together three research projects supported by the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap) through its documentary photography grant. The title echoes Gaston Bachelard\u2019s L\u2019Eau et les r\u00eaves<\/em> (1942), and water runs through all three. The curators are Pascal Beausse, head of the Cnap\u2019s photography collection, and Aur\u00e9lia Marcadier, the festival\u2019s director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wall
The wall text of \u201cC\u2019est un regard de l\u2019eau\u201d, signed by the curators Pascal Beausse (Cnap) and Aur\u00e9lia Marcadier. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Guillaume Bihan and Daria Svertilova follow the Danube up to Ukraine to portray young people suspended between childhood and adulthood, whose future remains uncertain. Daphn\u00e9 Nan Le Sergent looks at Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, territories at the heart of the global semiconductor industry, where data has become a resource comparable to water; she builds visual, sonic and poetic analogies around new forms of circulation, power and dependence. Cl\u00e9ment Chapillon turns to the Dead Sea, where Palestinians and Israelis come to float for a while, free of their own weight, while the shoreline withdraws and records the sea\u2019s slow disappearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Colour photographs of young people near rivers, with a night view of an industrial plant at the right. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Upper
The upper room of the Galerie du Crous de Paris. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition runs until 28 November, Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am\u20131 pm and 2\u20137 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jind\u0159ich \u0160treit and FAMU \u2014 Centre tch\u00e8que de Paris<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Rows
Black-and-white prints on dark-grey walls at the Centre tch\u00e8que de Paris. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the Centre tch\u00e8que de Paris, 18 rue Bonaparte, two exhibitions share the festival. Humanity<\/em> is devoted to Jind\u0159ich \u0160treit, the Czech photographer who turns 80 this year: previously unpublished gelatin silver prints selected from his archives, showing people in marginalised and changing regions of Bohemia and of France in the 1990s. According to the Czech press, about seventy of the pictures were made in Saint-Quentin, in northern France, during commissioned stays in 1992\u20131994, alongside selections from other series; the organisers describe it as his first major retrospective in Paris. It is curated by \u0160t\u011bp\u00e1nka Stein and Emmanuelle de l\u2019\u00c9cotais, founder of the Photo Days festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visitors
The opening crowd in the exhibition hall of the Centre tch\u00e8que de Paris. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second show, Y a pas photo !<\/em>, curated by Noemi Purkr\u00e1bkov\u00e1, marks the photography teaching of FAMU, the Prague film academy founded in 1946. It stages a dialogue between generations and asks how the relationship between photography and reality is changing, and how images shape our perception of the contemporary world. According to the Centre\u2019s own website, both exhibitions run from 5 November 2026 (opening that day at 6 pm) to 16 January 2027; the festival listing gives Thursday to Saturday, 1\u20137 pm, as the opening hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A film-strip installation runs down the stairwell, its edge printed with the film stock name Ilford HP5 Plus. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Wide
A wider view of the exhibition hall during the opening. Photo: Kasra Aliha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Practical information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n