The Photography Show, the longest-running fair devoted specifically to the medium, will mark its 43rd edition in April 2024 with a return to the Park Avenue Armory in New York, organisers say. Put on by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (Aipad), the fair is open for applications from member galleries and guest galleries.
“The Park Avenue Armory has always been the favourite venue of our members, collectors and curators,” Aipad executive director Lydia Melamed Johnson said in a statement, adding that the organisation has “evolved post-Covid with a renewed sense of optimism and vitality and a burgeoning membership of young galleries offering new perspectives on the medium”.
The Park Avenue Armory on Manhattan's Upper East Side will host Aipad's fair, The Photography Show, in 2024 Photo by James Ewing, courtesy of Park Avenue Armory
The fair previously took place at the Park Avenue Armory on 67th Street and Park Avenue from 2006 to 2016. The event moved to Pier 94 in Hell’s Kitchen in 2017, where it was held until 2019. After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fair was held at Center415 in Midtown Manhattan in 2022 and 2023. Last year, the Photography Show welcomed 44 galleries to the fair.
Aipad’s new president, Martijn van Pieterson, says the expansive Park Avenue Armory will give the fair more space for galleries to take part. Aipad says between 70 and 80 galleries will be able to participate in next year’s edition, similar to the exhibitor numbers of other fairs held at the Park Avenue Armory, such as Tefaf New York and the Art Dealers Association of America's fair, The Art Show.
Originally built as a headquarters for a militia regiment made up of many members of New York’s social elite during the American Civil War, the sprawling Gothic Revival building is now leased to the non-profit arts organisation Park Avenue Armory Conservancy, which works to support art, music and performances in the Armory’s 55,000-square-foot drill hall and historic Gilded Age rooms.