Paris Photo 2026: Booth B02

For Paris Photo 2026, HackelBury presents new work by Doug + Mike Starn, in celebration of the Bicentenary of Photography.

This solo presentation brings together the latest pieces from their series Under the Sky. The works confront the sky’s sublime indifference to human suffering and turn it into a space for contemplation.

For the Starns, the print is the culmination of a photographer’s practice: the photographic object is what museums and collectors actually hold. It has been the foundation of their work since the mid-1980s. After years of digital photography and images consumed on screens, they sense a renewed appreciation for the physical presence of a print.

Under the Sky takes this further. Using stained paper, wax and wheat paste, the Starns push their photographs towards painting, and the finished works take on the physicality of sculptural objects. Imperfection is the point: a reflection of life’s rough edges, its struggles and unresolved truths.

The Starns rework their images from one version to the next, and each version stands as a work in its own right. In doing so, they assert the freedom to interpret photography however they choose, as an artist working in any other medium would.

“These are pictures of the sky, but this work is about all of us. We are all under the same sky, looking up and asking the questions: can we be better than this? How can we do better? Sometimes we do.” — Doug + Mike Starn

We look forward to seeing you there!