Photo maniacs, rejoice! The UK’s biggest photography extravaganza, aka Photo London, opens this week. Over 100 galleries from 44 cities are competing for attention throughout the spectacular grounds of Somerset House, bringing together a wildly entertaining mix of classic and contemporary. Here, we spotlight the fun of the fair.

VALÉRIE BELIN

This edition’s ta-da moment comes courtesy of Valérie Belin, who has been honoured as the Master of Photography. Throughout the embankment gallery’s halls, the French artist’s grand, Baroque and frankly showstopping works feature subjects ranging from jacked bodybuilders to imaginary pop stars. Belin’s art plays clever games, employing technology and experimentation to subvert the premise that photography can be trusted as a source of truth. And as social media continues to transform the ways we consume celebrity culture, the idea that images are rarely what they say on the tin feels as vital ever. Belin uses photography as a metaphor, revealing not substance but absence, and thus “silent stories”.

SAKIKO NOMURA

Make a beeline to the booth of Galerie Écho 119, where Sakiko Nomura’s sexy and sumptuous solarisations ought to be worshipped. The former apprentice to Noboyushi Araki clearly revelled in the magical possibilities of solarisation, as too did Man Ray, who accidentally discovered this photographic technique by switching on the light in his darkroom. As black as can be, Nomura’s renderings of bodies, flowers and skylines are erotic in the way they tease and disclose their secrets over time. The luminous halo effects will leave you with a train of spiritual reverberations. 

JEAN-VINCENT SIMONET

Meanwhile, over at Messums, the electric experiments of Jean-Vincent Simonet are, as expected, audacious in the extreme. Awash with dripping waves of multicolour, these brand-new unique works deconstruct florals in such a way that they become odd and alien. They possess a psychedelic quality that is firmly rooted in painterly traditions while reflecting the garishness of contemporary life in the era of the ink-jet printer.

ANDI GÁLDI VINKÓ 

How to save the world? Answers come unexpectedly at Erika Deák Gallery in the Discovery section, where Andi Gáldi Vinkó is presenting the heartbreakingly-titled, guilt-ridden If You Knew It, Why Didn’t You Do Something About It? Through a miscellany of seashell sculptures, paper collages, crayon-scribbled pictures and a blazing neon sun, the artist tells the story of a mother-daughter relationship in times of climate emergency. It’s surprising, thought-provoking and conceived with the perfect twist of cynicism and idealism. 

LOLA & PANI 

There’s a real buzz around the booth of Palm* Studios – also at Discovery – which is exhibiting a handful of dreamy prints from Lola & Pani’s new book, Bumps. Compiling the faces and places the photography duo have encountered over the past few years – from Hackney to Australia, the US and beyond – this work offers a fresh and contemporary perspective on teenhood, nature and memory. These are photographs in which moments – and lives – are never flattened or fixed. They are constantly moving from then to now, kids finding echoes in the world around them. 

BRIAN GRIFFIN

At the more poignant end of things, MMX Gallery is staging a mini homage to Brian Griffin, the great British photographer who died earlier this year. He was celebrated for his sharp, witty and wildly performative imagery, which – as evidenced here – made for brilliant album covers. Iggy Popp’s Soldier is a blast, as is the magnetic 1979 shot of a man lighting up a sky rocket in the Dungeness desert, a stone’s throw away from the Nuclear Power Station. There’s a sense of conflict wrapped into this silhouetted figure, for whom the exhilarating and terrifying powers of transformation are within reach. We’ll see him on the other side…

Photo London runs at Somerset House from 15–19 May 2024.