Over 500 photographs – 220 artists

Companion, research subject, symbol, mirror, or fantasy, animals have never left the photographers’ frame since the invention of the medium. Animal Model offers an immersion into two centuries of images that reveal how photography has shaped our view of animals and profoundly influenced the ways we love, exploit, or defend them.

Bringing together works by renowned artists as well as anonymous photographs, the exhibition leads us on a theamatic journey built around seven perspectives: the anatomical gaze that observes and analyses; the performative gaze, capturing our fascination with animals; the emotional gaze, centered on our domestic companions; the fascinated gaze, celebrating the beauty of the animal world; the ethical gaze, exposing animal exploitation; the aesthetic gaze, where visual, formal, and experimental explorations inspired by animals unfold; and finally the viral gaze that subverts and spreads, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.

Inferno & Paradiso is an immersive slide-projection exhibition created by Alfredo Jaar, one of the most socially active artists of our day. For this show, Jaar selected 20 contemporary press photographers and asked each of them to choose two images from their archives – the most painful one they had taken and the most hopeful one. Like Virgil in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Jaar takes us on a journey through heaven and hell, exploring how the onslaught of images of human suffering is dulling our sensitivity.

Iranian artist Hannah Darabi (b. 1981) was selected as the laureate of the 2025 Prix Elysée by an international jury. In her work, she uses photographs, videos and archive materials to explore popular dance as a form of identity-based resistance rooted in the social and political history of her native country. Her series set images in dialogue with archives, texts and objects to lay bare the political complexity of contemporary Iran.

The Echo of the World is a major solo retrospective of the work of Luc Delahaye (b.1962). The exhibition at Photo Elysée, organized in collaboration with Jeu de Paume in Paris, looks back on a quarter-century of the French photographer’s output, featuring pieces produced between 2001 and 2025.

Salvatore Vitale presents an exploration of how the gig economy is reshaping labor and revealing the contradictions of digital capitalism.

An extraordinary traveler, photographer, and writer, Ella Maillart traveled across Asia on numerous occasions. In 2025, her complete body of work was recognized by UNESCO. This exhibition highlights the dialogue between images and texts and explores the role of this photographic heritage in the creation and preservation of the memory of the world.

In 2026, Photo Elysée will offer a programme exploring how images shape our perception of the world. The programme invites us to reflect on the power of images to bear witness, ask questions, and encourage engagement.

Photo Elysée is participating in Paris Photo from November 13 to 16 to present the work of Iranian artist Hannah Darabi.

Photo Elysée offers a critical reinterpretation of the photographic archives of the Lehnert & Landrock studio, which have been part of the museum's collection since 1985. Active in North Africa in the early 20th century, Rudolf Franz Lehnert (1878–1948) and Ernst Heinrich Landrock (1878–1966) constructed and disseminated an iconography of the Orient intended for a European audience, deeply marked by the colonial context of their time.

From September 19, 2025 to February 1, 2026

L is for Look explores the place of photography in children's books. From their rise in the 1930s, the exhibition traces the history of a medium that has seen images become a universal language. Playful and immersive, it celebrates children's books and invites all generations to enjoy a packed program of educational activities.

The exhibition is co-produced by the Institut pour la photographie des Hauts-de-France and Photo Elysée.