PARIS, FRANCE.- Paris Photo celebrates its tenth anniversary with a sparkling selection of Nordic talent Guests of honour: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway & Sweden. From November 16-19, 2006, Paris Photo celebrates its first decade with an outstanding panorama of 19th century, modern and contemporary photography, bringing together 108 exhibitors (90 galleries and 18 publishers) at the Carrousel du Louvre.

With a rising number of high-quality candidates (almost 300 applications), the 2006 selection will be one of the most rigorous ever. Ninety international galleries will present solo, group and thematic shows of rare and previously unseen work, representing a total of 500 artists.

With each passing year, Paris Photo has seen an increase in international participation, with 21 countries represented in 2006, up from 14 the year before. Seventy-three percent of the participants come from outside France.

In addition to the 20 French galleries, the largest contingent of exhibitors comes from the USA (21), followed by Germany (9), Spain (7), the UK and Holland (5 each), Italy and Finland (3 each), Japan, Denmark and Sweden (2 each) and one representative each from Austria, Belgium, China, Iceland, Hungry, Luxemburg, Norway, Portugal, South Korea and Switzerland.

26 new arrivals this year: The historical and modern section will be reinforced by the arrival of the Charles Isaacs (New York) and Robert Hershkowitz (Sussex, UK) galleries, specialists in 19th-century photography, and the return of Eric Franck (London) who focuses on vintage 20th Century work.

Contemporary work gains unprecedented representation with the first-time participation of international galleries well known to major contemporary art fair goers such as the New York galleries Laurence Miller and Robert Miller, the South Korean Hyundai gallery and Filomena Soares from Portugal. Paris galleries making their maiden appearance at Paris Photo include Anne de Villepoix, Alain-Le Gaillard and GB Agency.

Paris Photo 2006 will also host the best international publishers of photographic books. The big four -Phaidon, Hatje Cantz, Steidl and Taschen- will come alongside rare booksellers and distributors such as Florence Loewy (Paris), The Photographer’s Bookshop (London) or Journal (Stockholm). The record number of 18 publishers participating in Paris Photo this year attests to the soaring popularity of photography books, central theme of this year’s Mois de la Photo.