The Easel

11th November 2025

Paris Photo 2025: Exploring the Curation

Paris Photo claims to be the world’s leading photography fair. It is, by its nature, eclectic, exactly the moment when Magnum Photo can delve into its fabled archive and highlight some great images. Running parallel to the main event are shows by Susan Meiselas (reviewed here) and Luc Delahaye, one of the greats of French photography (reviewed here; 9 min).

4th November 2025

The Louvre’s Jacques-Louis David Retrospective Offers a Fresh Perspective on the French Master

David lived in interesting times – the French Revolution, Napoleon, the Bourbon restoration. These politics animate his art, and he used his art as a political tool. Not surprisingly, Caravaggio’s dramatic style was a major influence. Nowhere is this clearer than in his The Death of Marat, an iconic image of the Revolution. Marat suffered ill-health in life but in David’s rendering of his death, he is exalted as a martyr. Not just a personal elegy to a friend, David’s work is also “potent propaganda”.