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intro. Please let me welcome you to the fourth edition of photo basel, my first as curator of the fair. Having seen photo basel grow and thrive during the previous years, I was excited to join the team last fall and contribute towards its further success. Sven Eisenhut, the energetic Founding Director of photo basel, had already set in motion an impressive venture. Helping him and the wonderful photo basel team—Sandra Pfeiffer, Léa Girardin and Elwira Spychalska—to maintain, or rather accelerate, that momentum was my expressed intention. And I believe that together we have achieved yet another leap forward, that this edition of the fair offers something to you, the attending photography aficionado, that is quite special and distinguishes us from many other art fairs. We envision to become a fertile ground on which the appreciation for the medium of photography will steadily grow in terms of its artistic and discursive qualities, but obviously also as an object for exhibition and collection. Towards that end, we sought to make photo basel at Volkshaus a generous and intimate place for viewing and contemplation — front and center with an exceptional pool of 35 international exhibitors presenting a very focused and highly considered selection of art works, but also with a relevant and curated program. In a world that seems caught in ever-faster product and news cycles and that constantly strives for spectacles and superlatives, we prefer to focus on substance and quality, and let you, as our patrons, label our efforts with the appropriate descriptive adjectives. Certainly, we feel proud that quite a number of galleries will premiere emerging artists or novel projects by established artists at our fair, but we know that the new has to be embedded in an ongoing history of photography. And naturally, we would like to be considered by you as one of the best art fairs, but we can only achieve that, if we keep our eyes on continually catering to the interested public as well as the participating galleries. After all, we are in the business of bringing both parties together, being a welcoming host and as such, facilitating discovery, exchange and acquisition. We have tirelessly prepared for the this fourth edition of photo basel all year and look forward to see it unfold this coming week in June. We feel honored that you have joined us. Thank you for your interest and trust. Sincerely, Daniel Blochwitz photo basel Curator