The 16th edition of the Parisian photography festival Circulation(s) is now open. Running until May 17, exhibition spaces within the cavernous Centquatre-Paris, a multidisciplinary art and entertainment space in the city, are displaying an exciting ensemble of photographers. 

This year, Circulation(s) is presenting 26 artists across 15 nationalities, taking the temperature of what young European photographers are preoccupied with. Below, we’ve selected five projects from emerging image-makers, taking in Afrofuturist visions, the queer potential of haircuts, gen Z gatherings and more. 

MARINE BILLET, RELIÉES

Marine Billet, a millennial French photographer, wanted to explore Gen Z and understand how young women shape their identity today by putting out an open call on Instagram and casting five people who didn’t know each other. For half a year, all six corresponded via voice notes about the mundane but intimate details of their lives, such as what they were doing in their downtime, what their bedrooms looked like, and what they were cooking for dinner. They finally met in an old, rented residential house, the backdrop contrasting with the energetic vibes of the assembled group. The shoot was a hybrid between staging and documentary; the resulting large-format images on view are inspired by the gorgeous theatrics of Florentine paintings. 

JOANNA SZPROCH, ALLTAGSFANTASIE

“I have space in my everyday life to be playful,” says Joanna Szproch. Having worked in the fashion photography milieu in Poland, she began to find it exploitative and, upon moving to Berlin, decided to carve out a space of fantasy on her own terms. She replaced the fashion industry’s objectifying gaze and reductive beauty standards with images she felt focused on sensuality, autonomy, and joy through a deeply female lens. Her project, presented against a bubblegum pink wall, includes photographs of herself and her muse – a Polish model she met at a test shoot casting who became a friend and constant source of inspiration – as well as trinkets in translucent boxes, including lollipops, dolls, rosaries, and sex toys.

ELLEN BLAIR, HOMEMADE UNDERCUTS

Ellen Blair’s warm and thoughtful series explores queer identity and expression – as well as care and solidarity – through hair. The show includes a vintage leather barber chair and a cork message board filled with archival queer leaflets from Belfast alongside funny fliers made for the occasion (“the plural of milf is milves”; “Are you gay yet/why not”). Blair hopes people will add to the board as “a living sort of thing”. As Blair’s exhibition text notes, a haircut can take on deeper significance for those awaiting gender-affirming healthcare. With that in mind, two queer hairdressers based in Paris gave free haircuts on Saturday afternoon within the exhibition space.

T2I & NOUN, MANMAN DILO

Manman Dilo, the Creole name for ‘mother of the waters’, is a mystical feminine force from French Guiana: half-woman, half-fish. This fluid hybridity of identity is explored by the artist duo T2i (an Afro-Guyanese songwriter, rapper, and graphic designer) and NouN (a North African artist who trained at the infamous French Kourtrajmé multimedia school under the artist JR). The two developed an Afrofuturist conography by adapating this ancestral Amazonian myth to our own time. Their installation at Circulation(s) – against walls painted the purest, brightest blue – includes a short video, a translucent textile portrait, photographic prints, and wallpapered images.

SADIE COOK & JO PAWLOWSKA, EVERYTHING I WANT TO TELL YOU

American-born Sadie Cook and Polish-born Jo Pawlowska, two non-binary strangers in Reykjavik, were often confused for one another thanks to their slender silhouettes and cropped haircuts. When they finally met, they were delighted to find out they were both “obsessives who process things visually,” Cook says. Their collaboration poses the question: what would it look like if everything was built for us? Using what Cook deemed “beautiful colours and silly things”, the duo created a hyperdense installation, clustered with layers upon layers of photographs, screenshots, selfies, and glitched videos.

Circulation(s) runs until May 17 at Centquatre-Paris.