The AKAA – Art & Design Fair takes over the glass-roofed Carreau du Temple in Paris from 23 to 25 October, during the city's busiest art week. "AKAA" stands for "Also Known As Africa", and the fair's programme centres on African and African-American art across its galleries and design presentations.

New this year is a dedicated section called AKAA Photo, created to mark the 200th anniversary of photography. The section is conceived as a reflection on how photography forms a kind of visual memory: an instrument that has documented the upheavals of the age, independence movements and the continuing power of cultural heritage.

The announcement places the medium at the heart of the fair's identity this year, at a moment when Paris is also preparing to host Paris Photo in November. By giving photography its own section, AKAA is arguing that the camera's history is inseparable from the political and cultural histories its exhibitors are working with.

The Carreau du Temple, a former covered market hall in the Marais, has become one of the established venues of the Paris October season, hosting fairs and exhibitions that run alongside Art Basel Paris. AKAA's choice of dates puts it squarely in the middle of the week's traffic, when collectors, curators and visitors move between the main fair and the city's satellite events.

For a fair that defines itself through diasporic and postcolonial perspectives, the photography section is a natural fit: few media have shaped the image of Africa, and African self-images, as powerfully as the photograph.