Photography a hit with Chinese artists

Elliott Erwitt, New York, 1999. Courtesy of Magnum Photos. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The fair will also have a themed annual exhibition, Insights, which will center on new approaches to photography since 2000, and will feature Chinese artists such as Geng Jianyi and Jiang Pengyi.

Confirmed exhibitors include Blindspot Gallery, based in Hong Kong, ShanghArt Gallery, which has space in Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore and Camera Work from Berlin.

Last year the fair attracted more than 26,000 visitors and works were sold for between $1,000 and $120,000.

Well-received exhibitions included the Asian debut show by American artist Taryn Simon, whose Birds of the West Indies series was shown at the Gagosian Gallery’s booth.

An increasing number of Chinese artists have taken up photography to express themselves, while the boundaries between photography and other artistic forms have become even more blurred. Meanwhile, the number of contemporary photography and mixed-media collectors is raising in China, says Jin Hongwei, a Chinese-American collector.