British art writer and historian Osei Bonsu introduces us to a fresh cohort of groundbreaking image-makers at Paris Photo’s Curiosa Exhibition

British-Ghanaian writer, art historian and curator Osei Bonsu brings us new voices offering different perspectives on photography’s increasingly unstable relationship with the physical world at the Curiosa Exhibition for Paris Photo.

“The show explores the tacit narratives that can lie behind an image”

The show explores the tacit narratives that can lie behind an image and draws on the lived experiences of emerging artists hailing from different parts of the globe in innovative ways. Cuban artist Leandro Feal’s photographic essay of hedonistic party scenes in Havana comments on young people’s political experience in his home country. 

French art duo Johanna Benaïnous and Elsa Parra draw on the long tradition of fictional self-portraiture—pushing photorealism to its edge, and New York-based Nate Lewis etches away at his printed images to reveal new meanings beneath. 

Curiosa also features the eclectic work of sports enthusiast and portraitist David Meshki, visual artist Marguerite Bornhauser, surrealist image-maker Nydia Blas, and sculptural photographer Thomas Hauser. Bonsu’s nine creative visionaries are part of a new generation of artists using photography to dissect and recontextualize truth and perception in all its forms.