Text: Zoltan Alexander
The 5th edition of Photo London at Sommerset HOuse with 24 countries, 114 galleries, record sales and over 42.000 visitors in four days.
The much acclaimed 5th edition of PhotoLondon at Somerset House closed just a few days ago with record sales and robust numbers of over 42.000 visitors in four days. 24 countries and 114 galleries participated, many of them for the first time.
The founders Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad with Giada Vaghi, Head of VIP and Philippe Garner, Chairman of the PhotoLondon Curatorial Committee shared the same opinion:
“Despite the toxic shadow of Brexit, we have emerged stronger than ever. Our team have traveled thousands of miles and worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome. Given the context, this is an extraordinary achievement.”
I found other Dafna Talmor pictures at Budapest based TOBE Gallery on the ground floor, in a beautiful daylight room. No need to introduce the gallery to Artlyst readers, I have already featured them last year during my trip to Budapest. At that time TOBE Gallery had the tiniest space in the city. Since they moved, they tripled the size of the gallery, invested in an international programme and amongst numerous art fairs in Vienna, Basel, Milan, Arles and Amsterdam they came for the first time to LondonPhoto. The gallery brought female photographers; two Hungarians, Dora Kontha and Anikó Robitz, and London based Dafna Talmor, who is co-represented by Sid Motion Gallery.
TOBE is founded by Caracas-born Tomas Opitz, who is also an art photographer, and by co-founder Bea Puskás. I asked Tomas how they started their gallery focusing on contemporary photography, which is still a fragile subject in Budapest.
TO “The heritage of Hungarian photographers is truly amazing, but those Hungarian artists emigrated a long time ago and built their careers in the West. Indeed, contemporary photography is still a delicate territory in Hungary. It took great consideration and courage to open our gallery in 2013, with the aim to provide the opportunity to present Ibero-American and local contemporary artists. Since 2017, we are in a new gallery space in the heart of Budapest at the Palace district.
I am proud to say that our multi-cultural program brought already many Ibero-American and Hungarian artists together. Our aim is to exhibit young, emerging photographers, to bring them together and send the message out to local Hungarians to give contemporary photography a better value.”
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