AIPAD | The Photography Show 2026: Park Avenue Armory, New York | Stand A14

For the past 30 years or so, from Paris Photo, AIPAD, Frieze Masters, to Basel – each fair we have attended as a gallery has had a very specific curation transported to the host city. At each fair, audiences are different, cultures adopt and absorb photography in different ways. At each fair, the curation was different, uniquely crafted for the event, held together by a red thread — a red thread which in fact defines our work at Michael Hoppen Gallery: art whose authors have a singular combination of an obsessive and unusual creative vision and extreme craftsmanship in the way the (often, photographic) work is produced.

Ahead of this year’s AIPAD, a good friend had introduced me to the work of Charles Matton, a fascinating, multi-disciplinary artist from Paris, who not only sculpted, but also made exacting beautiful models of artists studios. Unbeknown to most, he also made very beautiful and strangely ethereal photographs in the 1970’s, using a process I vaguely remembered from my college days: The photostat. The Photostat’s properties are unique, producing prints of a very strong graphic quality whilst retaining a great mid tone greyscale, somewhere between a lith-print and a gravure. For a short time, during a very fertile period during the 1970s, Matton continued to create these very unusual photographs around his key interests of painting and sculpture. The photographs indeed have a sculptural quality to them rather than simply a recording . I am very fortunate to work closely with Charles’ widow, Sylvie Matton, and together, we have  selected a small exhibition of Charles’ works for AIPAD: and what we anticipate for the first time in some 55 years, a  glorious wall of vintage and unique vintage photographs. These works, made as a foray into investigating the photograph and how one could expand and push it into new and different guises, sit alongside works by Man Ray, Dr Harold Edgerton, Peter Beard, who have all famously pushed the medium as far as they could. We have focused heavily on Japan the past 15 years and I still strongly believe it to be one of the most interesting and creative photography fields in the world; yet there is still so much more to show. And we will be showing key Japanese artists Ishikawa Mao, Ishiushi Miyako and Tamiko Nishimura whose photographs, often shot from trains are the most subtle and beautifully crafted images I have seen for a long time. Also joining our stand will be works by the inimitable Nobuyoshi Araki and a new young Japanese artist to our gallery, Eriko Masaoka, whose black and white printing is brilliant.

Kristina Chan is also new to the gallery and is a Canadian-born, London-based artist working across photography and printmaking. Her practice explores the relationship between image-making and cartography, examining how systems of navigation, measurement, and visual recording shape our understanding of memory, territory, and truth. Her beautiful large colour prints are some of the very best I have worked with. Other new artists who seemed to fit well with the initial selections are Fredrick Karoly, an avant garde Hungarian artist whose unique photograms will hang alongside the wonderful Ei Q, the Japanese artist.

And we always like to bring some unusual anonymous works. I recently bought a beautiful miniature album of tintype portraits. I have rarely seen such small tintypes before - a long and laborious exercise and these are beautifully crafted. I suspect by a family member who had a passion for making portraits and the consistency of the works are noticeable by their quality. This year’s walls will be unusual and with artists from many periods and corners of the world reinforcing the power of the photographic image. It is unstoppable!