PARIS—Inaugurated by French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand on November 18, the 13th edition of Paris Photo proved, in the current context of global finance, to be not quite as unlucky as some might have feared. Indeed, in terms of attendance, the five-day fair was a record breaker: 40,150 visitors (including Lou Reed, the soccer star turned actor Eric Cantona, and François Pinault), compared to 37,760 last year, at €15 a pop for the paying public. Where sales were concerned, it was a mixed bag: Some galleries did better than in 2008 (which was not nearly as good as the exceptional 2007), others maintained last year’s level, and many saw business drop. Twenty-three countries were represented at 102 stands, with France of course dominating (21 galleries, five publishers/booksellers), followed by Germany (11 galleries, two publishers), and the U.S. (10 galleries, two booksellers). This year the spotlight was on photography from Iran and Arab countries, with an exhibition of historic holdings from the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut, a selection of Arab and Iranian videos, and eight galleries from the region presenting contemporary work. The fair also hosted the SFR Young Talent exhibition, and awarded the 2009 BMW-Paris Photo prize to Dutch photographer Karijn Kakebeeke (represented by Dubai’s Empty Quarter Gallery, which had a stand) for Bend it Like Beckham (2006), a photojournalistic piece showing the first time a young Afghan woman, Khadija, played with a soccer ball — she is now a member of the country’s first ever female soccer team.

It has already been noted during past editions that Paris Photo is perhaps not the best place to find daring, cutting-edge photography, a phenomenon that has been explained by the fact that avant-garde contemporary work will sell for higher prices at “art” fairs than it will at photography shows. (Wolfgang Tillmans, for example, will not allow his work to be sold at photography fairs precisely because he considers himself an “artist” and not “just” a photographer.) This may explain the preponderance of aestheticizing landscapes and subjects safe for the boardroom on display at this year’s Paris Photo, although the current financial context may also have encouraged some galleries to play it safe. The trend was epitomized by Massimo Vitali’s enormous, bleached-out beachscapes, on offer at three different stands, by the welter of (often very beautiful) photographs of reflections — whether in water, glass, plastic bags, or in glossy-black alkyd-painted boards and old-master portraits (Finnish photographer Jorma Puranen at Helsinki’s Anhava, which sold 12 of his works for a total of €48,000) — and by the ubiquitous Michael Wolf–style cityscapes (including some by Wolf himself, at Antwerp’s FIFTY ONE Fine Art Photography Gallery). Even road accidents were aestheticized, in Nicolai Howalt’s 2009 Car Crash series, offered by Copenhagen’s Martin Asback Gallery. Overall it was the lower-priced contemporary work that sold best, in the range of €2,000 to €15,000.

Some of the more startling and provocative contemporary photographs came from Iranian and Middle Eastern artists. At Dubai’s B21 Gallery, three series were on display: Actions (2009), by Iranian-born Reza Aramesh (who now works in London), consisting of large-format prints showing often half-stripped young men in what are labeled as re-enactments of historic hostage takings against an unlikely background of English stately homes; Men of Allah (2008), by Ramin Haerizadeh (an Iranian working in exile in Dubai), comprising digital collages of cross-dressed flesh-baring bearded men (all of whom are in fact the artist himself) squashed onto photocopier glass; and Iran Without the Shah (2009), also by Haerizadeh, a photomontage diptych sending up current Iranian attitudes to the old regime. Such biting social satire and in-your-face political polemicizing were largely absent from the Western work on display at the fair. B21’s Amin Moghadam explained that Paris Photo was an occasion for the gallery to show more daring work than would be the case back home, a strategy that paid off handsomely, as they sold nearly everything on the stand: eight Arameshes for an average price of €15,000 per print, and three Haerizadehs for around €15,000 each. In contrast, the work shown by the two Tehran-based galleries — Assar Art Gallery and Silk Road — seemed, perhaps inevitably given the country’s political climate, somewhat tamer, but sold well: Assar saw four Sadegh Tirafkan pieces go for €5,000 each and three Mohammad Ghazali works for €1,500 each, while Silk Road parted with everything in its stand, including four Bahman Jalali prints from the several "Image of Imagination" series (2003–06; often featuring vintage black-and-white shots of pre-revolutionary Iranian life with superimposed color images of flowers or petals) at €10,000 each.