As the crow flies, Bièvres isn’t that far away from the centre of Paris. But it sure does feel like it.
This small French villages lies 15 minutes by train from the bustling hub of Massy Palaiseau on the French capital’s southern fringes. It doesn’t take long to leave the concrete and traffic behind, and the train rattles past quiet suburban streets and tree-cloaked hills
Bièvres is an unremarkable village of around 5,000 people, with a high street made up of little more than a few galleries, a chemist, a bakery and a handful of grocery stores, bars and bistros. Its most commanding presence is its town hall.
It’s around this town hall that this quiet French village becomes, for one weekend every June, perhaps the biggest secondhand camera market in the world.
For two days during Bièvres’ International Photo Fair, more than 250 stallholders sell every conceivable kind of camera, lens, accessory, manual or photographic curiosity you could hope to find. The sellers from all over Europe, and some of the buyers from much further afield; America, Hong Kong, Australia.
Hardcore collectors – the same souls no doubt turning up at some of the high-end auctions taking place across Europe in early summer – rub shoulders with analogue fans who have taken the short train ride from Paris. Whatever their price point, there’s something for their collection. There is Victoria photographic ephemera next to boxes of plastic lens caps, battered Soviet SLRs beside mint Swiss Alpas, and humble Hanimexes next to Leicas that will cost you thousands.
Here in the UK, the closest equivalent to the Bièvres market is the Photographica event held by the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain (PCCGB). The French event is easily twice the size, and some years anything up to 300 stalls will be vying for your attention.
I first visited Bièvres in 2021, but it was to sell film rather than buy cameras. I’ve spent the last four events selling Kosmo Foto film at the New Market, alongside the likes of boutique film producer Film Washi, Paris film lab chain Nation Photo and Lyon-based photography store Ateliers de Marinette.
There’s usually very little time to go window shopping. I usually get little more than a few minutes to wander round before the crowds filter in after noon on a Saturday, and that’s usually it until the end of the day. The Sunday is even busier. The bargain hunters are usually prowling around from 8am, hoping to spot a bargain that has survived the first day.
Before I attended my first show in 2021, one regular attendee told me to make a list of things I might be looking for, otherwise I might be a little overwhelmed. I did as I was told and wrote a list of 10 cameras and lenses I’d been looking for – including some really rare stuff. Almost everything on that list was there, including a rare Pentacon Super SLR in fully working condition. It cost me less than half the price I would have had to have paid in the UK.
“I have first been in Bièvres as a visitor in 2013 and I was overwhelmed by the amount of gear stacked everywhere around me,” Lomig Perrotin, who runs Film Washi, tells Kosmo Foto. “I mean, I am quite used to a flea market and can easily spot good bargain but in Bièvres my scanner was just flooded with too much information! Still, I found me a pretty cheap and nice Sinar 4×5 that I used a lot to test the first “W” films.”
Perrotin has been selling at the fair’s New Market since 2015, and his stall is a real draw for the New Market – it’s the only camera fair he sells it, and a rare chance for Washi Film shooters to meet the man behind the emulsions. “Most of my work is done locked down in the dark and as I sell to distributors only I have seldom contact with end users of my films,” he says. “So Bièvres is a perfect occasion to go out of my bunker, meet the film community and get feedbacks about my products.
“I love the fact that it gathers in the same place the whole community of analogue photography,” he says. “You can see at the same booth old grumpy ‘t’was better in the old days…’ who collect camera without using it and the young guy or lady looking to bargain their first SLR.”
Bièvres happens whether it the forecast is rain, hail or shine. There’s a main thoroughfare in the secondhand market, lined with trees and with covered stalls to keep the rain and sun off. Many other stallholders, however, offer cameras off tables in front of their vans or cars. Some come with little more than a bag of cameras and a blanket to put them on. In 2024, I met one of them – Paul Dza – who goes by the name Bortsch Film selling Soviet cameras sourced from his travels around the former USSR. We’ve since become firm friends, and he’s written articles for Kosmo Foto about some of the cameras he’s discovered in post-Soviet flea markets.
This social aspect of the fair is a real highlight. Like Film Washi, my first Bièvres allowed me to catch up with a few contacts I’d only ever chatted to online. Other faces have become more familiar with each passing fair. In the afternoons, if it’s sunny, one of the traders strides out in his kilt and starts playing the bagpipes. The player? Jean Loup Princelle, who wrote The Authentic Guide to Russian and Soviet Cameras, a well-regarded guide to Soviet camera production released soon after the fall of the USSR.
Another regular attendee is a familiar name to camera collector or camera shop owners – Jim McKeown of McKeown’s Cameras. It’s a definitive encyclopaedia (and price guide) listing as many cameras as possible. McKeown’s last edition was published in 2006 and he is still working on its follow up, nearly 20 years later, taking pics at the camera fair of any cameras that have so far eluded his attention.
Edwin Molenaar, who curates camera auctions for the European online auctioneers Catawiki, is another regular visitor. “I visit a lot of fairs, both as a collector and as an expert for Catawiki,” he tells Kosmo Foto. “However, I always find myself drawn to Bièvres the most. What I really appreciate about it is the excellent blend of historical items for collectors and fresh perspectives from individuals like yourself and Lomig, who are vital in ensuring the continued vitality and growth of the analogue photography business.
“Regarding the fair’s growth over the years, I would say it hasn’t necessarily grown in size but has definitely transformed. Five years ago, only a handful of young people attended. Now, I estimate that approximately 50% of the visitors are users of photography equipment rather than solely collectors.”
Camera fairs have, it’s fair to say, struggled to attract younger photographers in past days: stereotypes of solitary old men peering at dusty old kit in church halls doesn’t exactly sound like the most thrilling way to spend your weekend. That feels like it may be changing with the analogue photography generation that has been drawn to the hobby via social media. The internet has made analogue photography relevant to younger photographers and the wealth of blogs, websites and reference material online may no longer make it so daunting – you can see whether that pristine pre-war Leica or battered Zorki really is worth the price the seller is asking.
“The aspect I enjoy most about Bièvres is this harmonious blend of the old and the new. It’s fascinating to witness the resurgence of interest in analogue photography and the engagement of younger generations with the very things we’ve cherished for years,” Molenaar says.
“You can definitely say that there is a real revival and that analogue photography is rejuvenated. Every years there is more young people, more female photographers also, more different people in general,” says Perrotin.
2025 has been a strange year, and a tumultuous one; the ongoing economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ructions caused US President Trump’s proposed sanctions to many trading partners has left many people with much less disposable income to spend on luxuries. But people were still turning up to Bièvres with cash in their pocket; Perrotin himself said he made more this year than any other year before.
As for me? I picked up no less than five cameras – a couple for my collection and a few to sell on Cameraburo. Amongst them was a semi-transparent Vivitar compact camera with brightly coloured plastic parts, with the name of French car maker Citroen. What better place to find a camera like that than in a market in a leafy French village?
And I’ll leave you with an image taken by Clement Marion, a fantastic photographer who, this year, took the stall next to Film Washi that is usually occupied by Kosmo Foto. He took portraits over the weekend on an Afghan Box camera, a large format device that both takes pictures and develops them. It’s the first time I’ve sat for an Afghan Box: if you see Clement at a photo fair or festival near you, I suggest you do the same.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
