SHANGHAI.- The World Photography Organisation and Montgomery announced earlier this year the inaugural edition of Photo Shanghai - the first international art fair dedicated to photography in China. The Fair will run from 5-7 September at the landmark Shanghai Exhibition Centre, and aims to establish the most professional and international platform for fine art photography in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Fair is Shanghai’s foremost international art fair taking place this year - and is of particular relevance with the current growing interest in photography and the art fair boom taking place in China. Some of the world’s most renowned galleries will be exhibiting their photographers’ work, contributing to what will be both a glamorous and significant event.

Examples of photographers whose work will be exhibited at the Fair include: Araki, Nick Brandt, René Burri, Edward Burtynsky, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Patrick Demarchelier, Yang Fudong, André Kertész, Peter Lindbergh, Vivian Maier, Steve McCurry, Daido Moriyama, Martin Parr, Robert Polidori, Sebastião Salgado, Josef Sudek and Edward Weston.

Fair Director Alexander Montague-Sparey, (previously Head of Photographs at Christie’s London), who has worked with some of the biggest collectors, dealers and artists in the field and created many notable new auction markets for contemporary photographs, comments:

“We are delighted to welcome photographers Roger Ballen, Birdhead and Martin Parr to the city of Shanghai on the occasion of the Fair. Our talks, education, exhibitions and VIP programme will provide our audience with everything they need to explore, from the more emerging - to most established collectable fine art photography available on the market today. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the galleries who are participating, for their dedication to the field of photography and for allowing us to showcase the medium at the highest level. It has been an honour working with them to produce this curated and elegant Fair. It is with much excitement that we unveil the first edition of Photo Shanghai to an international audience of collectors, experts and enthusiasts on September 5th 2014”.

The comprehensive Photo Shanghai VIP programme also includes a Private Collectors Summit and Forum at which 30 leading photography collectors and experts from around the world, will explore the current opportunities of the international photography market, ensuring Shanghai welcomes and hosts some of the most influential photography collectors in the world.

Photo Shanghai will host the first Beijing Photo Biennale’s exhibition: “Contemporary Photography in China, 2009 – 2014”, curated by Wang Huangsheng, its artistic director, Director of CAFA and the foremost curator of photography in China.

Huangsheng, comments: “Photo Shanghai, as an event of the highest calibre, will definitely bring enormous changes to the development of photography art in China in many aspects, including academic research, professionalization, standardization, market development as well as public awareness”.

Yet another welcome addition to the Fair will be Li Ningchun, Director of N-Minutes Festival, who has created especially for the inaugural fair, a cutting edge programme, establishing the connection between video art and photography, with a focus on Asia Pacific and Western artists.

Leading partner -Maserati – have also created the Neptune Photography Contest, to support up and coming photography artists with the winning images displayed at the Fair. Other leading partners include: Sony, The Wall Street Journal - the principal international media partner of Photo Shanghai - with Modern Media acting as the Chinese media partner.