E-Photo
Issue #205  8/16/2014
 
Salon de la Photographie Contemporaine Appears Mostly an Exercise in "How Not to Use Photoshop"

By Alex Novak

On the day after Memorial Day without much else to do, I went by the "Salon de la Photographie Contemporaine" at Saint Sulpice. Most of the work was amateurish, and too many of the photographers overused Photoshop. I've seen lots better work than this at portfolio reviews. Three photographers did show some interesting work, even though one was still heavy on the Photoshopping.

They included:

* Amaury Descours, http://www.amaurydescours.com. Great sense of light and I liked his close-up portrait of an elephant.

* Angelina Nove, http://www.angelinanove.com. Very sensual images and prints. A bit uneven, but when she was bad, she was very good, so to speak.

* Stephane Delckie, http://www.stephanedelckie.com. Yes, a bit too much on the Photoshop, but there was something about this large-scale color work that made you feel that you were rooting around the bones of our civilization.

I must say that there was little else at this open-air show, which was only on exhibit for two days—not that you needed any more time to see this mishmash.

Novak has over 48 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formerly board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has had photography articles and columns published in several newspapers, the American Photographic Historical Society newsletter, the Photograph Collector and the Daguerreian Society newsletter. He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, etc.