The fotofever Focus
The fourth generation in a family of professional photographers, Cécile Schall was born directly into a world with artistic expression at its heart. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, she would spend 20 years exploring a world of work that was far removed from her artistic heritage, as she pursued business-focused roles in marketing and communications roles for large organisations.
Until, that is, she shifted her focus from promoting products to promoting people, and found herself leaving her ‘regular’ job behind, in favour of career that was centred around artistry and, specifically, photography.
That was 10 years ago. Now, Schall is the founder and curator of one of the most progressive arts fairs in the world.
This year marks Schall’s fifth annual fotofever, a festival comprising 75 international and French galleries all filled with diverse, contemporary photography from the hottest emerging talent. Designed to engage both confirmed collectors and arts market newcomers alike, this year’s edition will take place in Paris at the foot of the world’s most visited museum.
In a new twist, fotofever breaks down the barriers of traditional closed-booth gallery visits, with original walled sceneography offering a route along zig-zag paths for a more fluid and interactive viewer experience.
Alongside a reinvented space, fotofever 2016 introduces Focus – a dedicated section exhibiting the workings of four upcoming artists in their debut solo shows.
We caught up with Schall about the evolution of the fair and the standouts expected for this year’s showcase.
fluoro. Tell us about the starting point for fotofever.
CS. Photography has always been in my blood and after quitting my last “regular” job to work as a freelancer, I started to work on my grandfather’s estate, organising exhibitions. Then, I was hired to launch the Affordable Art Fair in Paris and Brussels and actually that’s how I learnt how to organise a fair of that scale.
After three years of the Affordable Art Fair, photography had become such a huge success and I had become so fond of it that my ambition became about launching my own fair, my own brand, and that’s how I launched the first edition of fotofever five years ago.
f. How have the general public, young and old collectors, taken to the fair?
CS. I think that, because photography is the youngest medium, it’s more accessible, it’s more contemporary, which makes it easier to get new and young collectors into the arts market and encourage them to start their collections.
The other idea was to present only living artists. Most of the artists who are presenting at fotofever are emerging artists, so their works are still at reasonable prices and they appeal to confirmed collectors too, because they are always looking for the new star, the new talent.
f. You have very strict selection criteria. What do you look for when you’re, selecting the people to take part in each edition?
CS. For me, what is very important is to show the diversity of photography for non-collectors.
Some people maybe don’t understand what photography is, because everybody can say that he is a photographer, you know, with his smartphone. But, for me, what is very important is to show that photography is an art, and what you can buy is art – it’s an object, not an image.
And when you are in front of that object, for example in a museum, you feel the emotion that you would just never be able to get through a smartphone or through television. You can see a nice image, but when you meet the object, it’s another story.
f. Do you think that technology has worked in a positive way for photography or a negative, or neutral?
CS. Photography is still less than 200 years old and even though it’s still quite young, it’s undergone so many revolutions.
For example, 50 years ago, artists had to use real collage and now they can just do it with Photoshop, which has led to new questions around photography. People want to know if it’s real or not, done with Photoshop or not. They want to know more about how it’s made.
I think it’s crucial to also show people that, even if the process is not ‘real’, for example if the artist has used Photoshop, what is important is not the tool, but it’s the spirit, it’s the idea.
f. Who are the standout photographers or artists that are taking part in the 2016 fair?
CS. The four artists we are exhibiting in the Focus section are who we really want to promote and make sure that people are going to see.
The first one is Edouard Taufenbach – he’s very, very young. I think he’s like 24, 25 – so we’re really the first fair to show him.
I will always remember the day I first saw his artwork. It was in his representative’s gallery who wasn’t ever planning on showing Taufenbach at the fair – he just wanted my opinion on the artist – but I was just amazed by his work.
What is very important about Taufenbach’s work, is that, whilst it’s very new, he’s actually using old photography to show that existing work can also be a starting point for new ideas. So he’s using a mix of cinema, photography, painting, collage, and each piece is completely unique.
f. So who are the other artists involved in ‘Focus’ and why did you choose them to get involved?
CS. One artist is Muriel Bordier, who I discovered about four years ago when she was exhibiting in a gallery.
What I like about Bordier’s work is that it’s very funny, it’s very anecdotal – she uses humor and spirit to show how society really is. Photography is part of the creation process, so she actually takes a great many photos, but then uses tools like Photoshop to manipulate them and create a new world.
The third one – Antooine Rose – is a veteran and a ‘real’ photographer. He actually first exhibited at fotofever Brussels four years ago and, since then, he’s started to shoot sports – kite-surfing specifically.
When you are a ‘real’ photographer, its always important to have your own expression and he discovered that when he was taking photography in a helicopter – when you look at the world in a perfectly vertical way – it gives you another way of seeing the world which is quite unusual.
f. And the final artist?
CS. Actually, it’s still in discussion. I want to go with the idea of repetition and series and there’s an artist we might show who fits within this, who uses his face to do a kind of autoportrait that combines old photography and new technology.
Technology and limitless creative ambition are contributing to the changing face of photography in equal measure, with fotofever offering a welcome platform from which audiences, both established and emerging, can access these new worlds of which Schall speaks; to buy, to sell, to share in, art which is so future forward.
fotofever is taking place from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 November 2016 at The Carrousel du Louvre, Paris.
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