What's Not To Like? Mois de la Photographie, Paris 2010

Not just photography.  To say why we like it would take too long.  So here it is.  In bullet points:-

• Harry Callahan, Variations at the Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson.  No gimmicks or pretence.  Just sheer brilliance.  
• The spectacular Richard Avedon sale at Christies, Paris, reassurance, if any were necessary, that the market for photography is expanding exponentially. 
• Gabriel Orozco, Centre Pompidou – intriguing but utterly baffling.  Objects of desire – a beautiful silver lacquered Citroen DS pared down to a single seater; a pair of black leather shoes melded together at the sole; insects set like iridescent jewels embedded into the soft clay or putty used to crush them.
• Andre Kertesz, Jeu de Paume, a retrospective that apart from straight chronology, manages to suggest the emotional and psychological evolution of the artist.  Early photographs are vital, intimate, like meeting old friends.  Later photographs, particularly from his 50 years in America, distant and melancholy.  Last of all, Kertesz’s final elegiac Polaroids produced on the death of his wife Elizabeth.
• Eikoh Hosoe at Galerie PHOTO4 – prints from the series Kamaitachi, a rare distillation of the disturbing and the lyrical: beautiful anarchic nightmares.
• Half Life - Michael Ackerman @ Galerie Vu.  Heartstopping.  Filmic, in spite of the artist's intended eradication of narrative.