Paris Photo, Les Echos Week-End and we are_ are pleased to announce the winners of the first edition of the Duo Prize: Marina Gadonneix and the Christophe Gaillard Gallery.
Prize Duo 2025 Winners
About
The Duo Prize honors a collaboration of at least three years between a photographer and their gallery. More than just an award, it is a unique and emblematic distinction that celebrates mutual trust, loyalty, and creative exchange — the essential forces driving the vitality of contemporary photography.
This first edition generated great enthusiasm, with 72 submissions from participating galleries, 60% of which were international. The Prize establishes we are_ as a new player on the international scene.
Marina Gadonneix, Pyrite Cubique, 2025 – Courtesy of the artist & Galerie Christophe Gaillard
© Marina Gadonneix, Adagp, Paris
2025 Winners
Marina Gadonneix (FR, 1977) explores the hidden side of images and the invisible setups that precede all representation. Since her earliest series, she has subverted documentary photography to reveal green screens, pedestals, or waiting sets. Her works oscillate between materiality and immateriality, reality and fiction — as seen in After the Image or Phénomènes, developed in scientific laboratories. These images of supernovas, dark matter, and vortexes become poetic, hypnotic landscapes.
The Christophe Gaillard Gallery, renowned for its strong representation of women artists, defines itself as a place of trajectory for an emerging generation while also championing major estates (Journiac, Pommereulle, Stojka, etc.). Deeply engaged with issues of identity, memory, and transmission, the gallery develops both a publishing program and artist residencies. In addition to its Paris space, it inaugurated La Résidence – Le Tremblay in Normandy, will open L’Usine in 2024, and established itself in Brussels in 2023 — affirming an international presence supported by major fairs and institutions.
Awards
The Duo Prize offers the winners:
— A grant of €5,000 for the artist and €5,000 for the gallery;
— The acquisition of the winning work by we are_;
— Two dedicated exhibitions, in Paris and Lille;
— A gallery–artist talk;
— And national visibility through Les Echos Week-End.
Jury – 2025
Under the presidency of Marin Karmitz, producer and director, founder of MK2, collector, and patron, the jury was composed of:
– Marta Gili, art historian, former director of the Jeu de Paume, and since 2019 director of the École nationale supérieure de la photographie.
– Diane Dufour, director and co-founder of LE BAL.
– Olivier Goy, entrepreneur and collector, founder of October.
– Michèle Warnet, journalist at Les Echos.
– Olivier Bourdelas, collector and patron, art advisor at we are_, and board member of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie.
– Florence Bourgeois, director of Paris Photo.
Program - Paris Photo 2025
See the full Paris Photo program.