Photography is a beautifully personal medium. The wonder in the art stems from the fact that you're presented with an image, one person's perspective into a world but for the viewer, the imagination is given the freedom to run wild with narrative and feeling. You look at the work of somene like Gregory Crewdson, say, a frozen moment of a forlorn woman sitting on a suburban street corner with nothing but a velvet vanilla magic hour sky overhead and suddently an entire story and influx of emotion flashes before you. "The viewer is the magic part of the whole process, every viewer is getting a different thing," says David Lynch in recent on-stage conversation about his work with Paris Photo.

As the centerpiece of The Month of Photography for fifteen years, Paris Photo has invited prestigious artists to select 99 photographs of their choosing from over 1000 images in the fair that fills the Grand Palais. Their selections are then compiled in Paris Photo Vu Par…(Paris Photo Seen By…) published by Steidhl. And in the first installment of what will become an annual reoccurrence, the brilliant master of images himself, David Lynch has chosen his 99 favorites, and in the video below, reveals to us what it is about them and the medium that fascinates him so deeply. 

Naturally, the photographs he chooses are very much a part of the same themes that we see repeated in his work—voyeurism, mystery, love, and the human form. The conversation highlight his love of flesh, what’s hiding behind red curtains, and humans’ natural inclination to uncover mystery—essentially reaffirming why Lynch is perhaps my favorite human being. Take a look.