The tenth version of Picture London opened in Somerset House on Wednesday on the sun-drenched banks of the River Thames. Launched in 2015, the truthful is now the most important one dedicated to photography within the UK. Over the previous decade it’s grown alongside the Georgian-era establishment that hosts it.
Somerset Home’s complicated additionally consists of the Courtauld Institute of Artwork and different arts organizations.
“Twenty-five years in the past, Somerset Home’s courtyard stopped getting used as a authorities automotive park, and the final civil servants moved out of the constructing [formerly used as offices for HM Revenue and Customs] simply earlier than Picture London’s first truthful 10 years in the past,” the director of Somerset Home, Jonathan Reekie, informed journalists on the press preview. “The final decade has been a coming of age for each us and the truthful.”
Picture London, the most recent version of which runs by way of Could 18, has additionally been essential for the pictures market. That market was as soon as a distinct segment nook of the artwork world. Picture London ranks as one of many prime festivals on this planet for pictures, a medium that holds its personal within the artwork market, regardless of solely accounting for 1 p.c of worldwide public sale gross sales, based on Artwork Basel and UBS’s 2025 Artwork Market Report. Main blue-chip galleries reminiscent of Gagosian and Hauser & Wirth have begun inserting elevated weight on pictures, with the previous taking over artists like Nan Goldin, Deana Lawson, and Tyler Mitchell prior to now few years.
Regardless of this, the medium has nonetheless suffered alongside the broader artwork market during the last couple of years, simply to not the identical extent. ArtTactic reported that picture gross sales on the huge three public sale homes dropped by 5.6 p.c in 2024, totaling $59 million. By comparability, public sale gross sales throughout all the artwork market dropped 27 p.c final yr. And whereas the full variety of pictures offered at public sale declined in 2024, that determine nonetheless marked the second-highest gross sales quantity since ArtTactic’s evaluation started in 2015. “Whereas total gross sales softened, the information presents a extra nuanced and optimistic outlook for the pictures market,” ArtTactic’s 2024 {Photograph} Public sale Market report acknowledged. “Development in high-value works and single-artist gross sales, mixed with file sell-through charges, highlights the sector’s resilience and continued enchantment to collectors.”
Sophie Parker, who grew to become Picture London’s director this yr after becoming a member of the truthful in 2018 as its gallery improvement supervisor, informed ARTnews that this sturdiness offers the occasion “a powerful basis.” She additionally stated she’s seeing extra collectors who’ve historically purchased prints and editions.
Just like the prints market, which is at the moment dominated by Gen Z and millennial patrons attracted by decrease prince factors, based on Artwork Basel and UBS’s information, the pictures market can also be benefiting from curiosity amongst younger collectors. “I want to name it the younger finish of the market versus the decrease finish of the market, and there’s a variety of pleasure and enthusiasm as persons are starting to grasp what it means to gather pictures,” Michael Benson, Picture London’s cofounder, informed ARTnews.
Nevertheless, whereas this new blood is injecting life into the phase, Benson stated that the “very established pictures galleries have a bunch of collectors who’ve form of aged out, and in some circumstances, they’re deaccessioning their collections, so that is barely problematic.”
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Organizing the truthful was no stroll within the park. Benson stated it typically felt like “spinning one thing out of the air” as his workforce labored tirelessly to encourage exhibitors to commit as early as doable.
“We’re at an fascinating hinge level, with many proprietors of the older galleries retiring, and the youthful galleries beginning to make a reputation for themselves, however not fairly on the similar degree,” he stated. “There are nonetheless challenges. We maybe have one or two difficult years forward, because the artwork market catches up with itself—we’re in a type of moments. There was one within the late ’80s, when every little thing was a bit flat, however the pleasure on the youthful galleries is giving us motive for sturdy optimism. The way forward for pictures could be very vivid. It’s only a query of getting by way of this little second.”
Arica Hilton, the CEO and founding father of Chicago-based gallery Hilton Modern, is likely one of the 131 worldwide exhibitors at Picture London. She’s promoting a sequence of gorgeous wildlife pictures by Mexican photographer Cristina Mittermeir and Canada’s Paul Nicklen, priced between $25,000 to $40,000. Hilton isn’t apprehensive concerning the dip out there. She pointed to one of many Nicklen pictures, titled Ice Waterfall, which she stated had quadrupled in worth to $100,000 during the last 5 years.
“That’s not unhealthy, is it?” she stated. “It’s not at all times about economics, as a result of individuals who purchase artwork from us may not really feel the economic system contracting as a lot as different individuals. What we’re subsequently making an attempt to do is current artwork that can encourage and educate them. Our artists are shining a lightweight on environmental points and serving to to go laws by way of the world.”
Freeny Yianni, the artistic director of UK-based Shut gallery, is displaying at Picture London for the primary time, together with works by Anna Mossman, Carali McCall, and Trish Morrisey. “Showcasing pictures from performative conceptual artists has helped us stand out, whereas additionally providing accessibly priced works by artists who usually command a lot greater costs,” she stated. “The fact of at this time’s market is difficult throughout the board, however our function is to current the easiest of what’s obtainable to maintain the market alive.”
Final yr, public sale gross sales for ladies photographers fell sharply by a 3rd, based on ArtTactic, however feminine artists are nicely represented on the truthful.
Twenty-one rising pictures galleries have additionally been given publicity in Picture London’s Discovery part: New York-based New Discretions is displaying work by Jordan Eagles, who creates items incorporating pictures, blood, and resin. Helphoto from Helsinki is presenting rising feminine artists from Denmark, Sweden, and Estonia.
“This version of Picture London is testomony to all that we’ve achieved in our first decade—we’ve labored intently with the pictures group to ascertain London as an vital world hub for the medium,” Benson informed ARTnews.
