Paris Photo 2010

For photographers and photography enthusiasts there is only one place to be this month: Paris. November 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of Mois de la Photo à Paris, a collaboration between countless photography institutions, museums and galleries that turns the city into the world's capital of photography for four weeks every two years.

And if there is one unmissable event taking place during this period it is Paris Photo - with over 100 jury-selected exhibitors, twice-daily conferences and debates and a trio of special exhibitions, it is still the world's leading fair for 19th century, modern and contemporary photography.

Highlights of this year's edition (the 14th) include the BMW Paris Photo Prize - which carries a €12,000 prize and is awarded to an artist/photographer for work on a theme relating to BMW France's advertising campaign - and the SFR Young Talents competition, which spotlights the work of five emerging photographers selected for exhibition by a jury of professionals. 

Central to the fair is the special exhibition, this year titled Spotlight on Central Europe. During the early 20th century, photographers from countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary - which produced such photographic greats as Moholy-Nagy, Brassaï, André Kertész and Robert Capa - were leading the charge in the push to find new visions for the medium. Subsequently exiled behind the Iron Curtain for 40 years, the countries of the former Eastern Bloc have latterly seen a political and social - and with that, a cultural - revival since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The exhibition has been curated by Ljubljana-born art critic Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and features more then 90 Central European photographers grouped into five sections and ranging from the great names in history to emerging talent.

(For more exhibitions exploring the importance of Central European artists see A Vision of Central Europe, curated by Belgian artist Luc Tuymans for Bruges Central, on show around the city until January 2011).