The fifth edition of SP-ARTE/Foto, Latin America's most important photography fair, closed this past weekend. The fair featured over 250 works from 26 galleries, including photos by Albano Afonso, Caio Reisewitz, Claudia Jaguaribe, Geraldo de Barros, Lucia Koch, Luiz Braga (selected to represent Brazil in the 2009 Venice Biennale), Rochelle Costi, Márcia Xavier, and Thomas Farkas. International artists included Marina Abramovic, Candida Höfer, Massimo Vitali, and Robert Polidori. The only participating North American gallery was New York's 1500 Gallery, which specializes in Brazilian photography.

Sponsored by Iguatemi, the company that opened Brazil's first shopping center in 1966, the fair was devoted to trends in contemporary photography and sought to showcase Brazilian galleries and their artists. The country has a longstanding art scene, and the São Paulo Biennial, established in 1951, is the world's second-oldest biennial (after Venice). Brazil's art market has been on the rise lately, with a Brazilian investment firm launching the country's first art fund earlier this year, encouraged by the international reputations and sales of artists such as Beatriz Milhazes and Adriana Varejao.

SP-Arte/Foto is an offshoot of Brazil's SP-Arte Contemporary Art Fair.

To see photos from the fair, click on the photo gallery at left.