Paris Photo's digital section turns to AI and computer-made images

Paris Photo, the photography fair held at the Grand Palais in Paris, is showing a digital section this year that is built around artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-generated imagery (CGI, pictures made by software rather than a camera). The fair's 29th edition runs until 15 November, and the Art Newspaper reports that the digital sector has 12 exhibitors this year.

This is the fourth round of the digital sector. Marco De Mutiis, of the Fotomuseum Winterthur photography museum in Switzerland, curated the 2026 version. Nina Roehrs led the first three editions.

Alongside it runs a programme called Soft Photography, organised by the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne, an art school in Switzerland. It looks at where AI and CGI sit within photography. The programme includes an interactive exhibition and a series of talks.

Among the exhibitors, Heft Gallery showed Alkan Avcıoğlu's Disreality series, a set of AI-generated images. Carmen Araujo Arte showed Alejandro Cartagena's collages, which are made by cutting found photographs into small mosaic-style pieces and reassembling them.

The fair itself is led by Florence Bourgeois, its director, according to Paris Photo's website. Anna Planas is artistic director for the 2026 edition. The fair takes place from 12 to 15 November.

A separate programme, Elles × Paris Photo, is presented in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture. It highlights women artists and their place in the history of photography. Aldeide Delgado curates it this year.

The fair also hosts Révéler, a special display of works from the photography collection of the Centre Pompidou, the national modern art museum in Paris. The display marks the bicentenary of photography, 200 years since the medium's early development. It brings together about 100 works by nearly 30 historic and contemporary artists. The works are grouped under two themes, Faire l'image (making the image) and Identités (identities).

For visitors, the mix is wide. One part of the fair looks at machines making pictures, another at women photographers from the past, and a third at photographs from the Pompidou's own holdings. Each section is set out on the fair's programme, with the names of the people who selected the work.