Close-up on photography at Australia's biggest art fair

Australia's biggest art fair features a dedicated photography showcase for the first time.

The ninth edition of Sydney Contemporary has a section titled Photo Sydney curated by Sandy Edwards, with 15 exhibitors showing off the work of about 40 artists.

"Hopefully this is the beginning of something big, so people realise how wonderful photography is, and also that it has commercial value," said Moshe Rosenzveig, the founder of the Head on Photo Festival.

The festival booth is representing Sydney's William Yang, Melbourne artist Samantha Everton, and Judith Nangala Crispin from NSW's Southern Tablelands.

For really cashed-up collectors, there's also renowned American photographer Roger Ballen, with two of his images at the booth priced at $60,000 each.

Artist Alexia Sinclair is releasing her first new collection of photographs in eight years and her biggest yet, with 52 meticulously produced images titled The Age of Wonder.

She hopes Photo Sydney will demonstrate to collectors that photography is an extraordinary and wide-ranging craft, from documentary shots and hand-painted images, to her own photomontages.

A dedicated section was a fantastic initiative, said Rosenzveig, but it was still to be seen if photography could take off with a broader base of art collectors, in an era when everyone was armed with a phone camera.

"Photography is considered the ugly member of the family that no one talks about. It does the work, but no one wants to be associated with it," he said.

The Head On Festival is still in need of government funding, while Photo Sydney comes at a challenging time for some of Australia's major photography institutions.

Melbourne's Centre for Contemporary Photography is operating a scaled-back program from temporary premises after being forced to vacate its long-time Fitzroy gallery in 2024, while Sydney's Australian Centre for Photography closed in 2020, with its collection and funding acquired by the Powerhouse Museum.

More broadly, Sydney Contemporary shows off work from 116 exhibitors, with work by more than 500 contemporary artists, and sales north of $17 million in 2024.

"It's electric, there's so much excitement and enthusiasm. It's a joyous celebration," said fair director Zoe Paulsen.

Even the Carriageworks facade has been transformed into an artwork, with a shimmering kinetic sculpture by New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana.

Important paintings are also on sale, with a major work by Emily Kam Kngwarreye and a 1974 Brett Whiteley self-portrait on display at Justin Miller Art.

There are also dozens of installations, among them Chinese Carp, an installation of 2000 mechanical fish by Chinese artist Shen Shaomin at Redbase Art.

Sydney Contemporary runs from September 11-14 at Carriageworks.