At Printemps Paris, a new exhibition challenges the way we think about fashion, photography, and the future of sustainability.
Just as the fashion set wrapped another season of Paris Couture Week, the seventh floor of Printemps‘ Boulevard Haussmann flagship shifted gears. On Thursday evening, the storied department store opened its doors to a new exhibit that trades fantasy for focus. Tucked among vintage racks and upcycled pieces, the Grand Prix Photography & Sustainability 2025 exhibition arrived with the kind of timing that felt deliberate.
Now in its fourth edition, the prize, backed by Eyes On Talents and Paris Good Fashion, spotlights artists who don’t just document the world but attempt to reshape it. With 73 global submissions distilled into four winning projects, the jury, which included names like Diptyque’s Nathalie Chopra, IFM’s Xavier Romatet, and Printemps CEO Jean-Marc Bellaiche, selected work that pushed both form and message.
Among the winners is Flama, the Venezuelan artist whose “Look Again” series draws from personal memory and collective heritage. Working with fellow Venezuelan creatives, Flama reinterprets existing artworks into wearable pieces. “We need to reconcile with what we were before we were told to want more,” he said on opening night. The project has become a way to revisit and rewrite what consumption means, through a lens of longevity and loss.
American photographer Jeff Rich takes a different approach. His “Yield” documents the scars left behind by industrial extraction across Montana’s mining sites. Collagist Just Willis, also from the US, explores cultural distraction and historical trauma in his project that weaves together references to ancient Rome and American slavery.
From France, Clara Chichin reframes the city park not as escape but resistance. Her images capture how these green spaces function as quiet sanctuaries, holding space for calm and confrontation at once.
The exhibition, curated by Vittoria Matarrese, runs through August 31 on the seventh floor of Printemps Paris, before traveling to the brand’s New York outpost later this year.
