Winner of the SAM 2024 residency, this exhibition is Yan Carpenter's first solo show in France. Born in 1994 in Rio de Janeiro, Yan Carpenter lives and works in Guadalupe, in the city's north zone. A self-taught photographer, DJ, history teacher, and former drummer, he developed a photographic practice rooted in his daily life, in the heart of the favelas where he grew up. Through his lens, he captures fragments of life—gestures, faces, suspended moments—that convey the vitality and complexity of a territory often underrepresented.
With this exhibition at the Sorbonne, Photo Days reaffirms its commitment to the emerging international scene, offering young artists a space for visibility and dialogue. In this space of knowledge and exchange, Yan Carpenter's images find a curious and growing audience, amplifying the human and social impact of his work.
Created in 2020, Photo Days aims to bring together all the venues and events related to photography and video in Paris during the month of November. The initiative includes institutions, galleries, fairs, an auction house, and some carefully selected private spaces, such as artists' studios, laboratories, or collectors' apartments, in order to offer visitors, professionals or amateurs, a complete photographic immersion at a time when Paris is becoming the world capital of photography.
Since its creation in 2009, SAM Art Projects has integrated three pillars of support for artistic creation in its philanthropic program: the SAM Prize (worth €20,000, awarded annually to a French artist who presents a project for a foreign country), the SAM Residencies (which have already hosted and exhibited in France more than 20 artists from 19 countries), and commissions with carte blanche. By relaunching the residency program in 2023 – suspended in 2020 due to the health crisis – Sandra Hegedüs, founder of SAM Art Projects, reinforces her commitment to the production and dissemination of contemporary art, fostering artistic exchange between the Global North and South, and between the East and West.
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