Report and Visual Essay by Hans Hickerson •
Polycopies started as a small popup photobook sales event with a few vendors in 2014. It has grown and today includes prizes, speakers, workshops, and focused programs. It was on a refreshingly more human scale than Paris Photo, but at peak hours it too could become a mosh pit. Here you found not institutional / mainstream / established offerings but a community of the creative and edgy. It was amazing to see so many people, mostly young, devoting themselves to photography and photobooks. The books on display were a diverse range of subjects, genres, styles, and forms – too many to summarize here. With over 80 exhibitors, Polycopies was expansive, a buffet of tempting items all of which would not fit on your plate. You could easily linger with the books at one place and have no time for the others. I visited for several hours on each of four different days and was able to spend quality time at perhaps a quarter of the tables, although it was time well spent.
The takeaway: good news! Photography is alive and well and living in Paris.
Three interviews I conducted with the Directors, Sebastian Hau, Sara Giuliattini, and Laurent Chardon, will be published in the PhotoBook Journal early next week.
Polycopies – 2019 Report
Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.
PhotoBook Journal 
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