Best known as a manufacturer’s trade show (think Focus only much, much bigger) Photokina also boasts a Visual Gallery, this year curated by Daniel Hug. He’s gathered together established and less well-known photographers, including Ed van der Elsken, Stephanie Sinclair and, for the first time, the Hasselblad Masters.

The van der Elsken show centres on just one photo story – Love in St. Germain des Pres, better known in the UK as Love on the Left Bank. Shot over three months in the early 1950s, it chronicles Vali Myers, an Australian artist living in Paris, and the progress of her love affair. Originally published in 1954, it was the first of van der Elsken’s 20 books and the project that first made his name.

American photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair, meanwhile, is showing something altogether darker – her ongoing project on child marriage, which has already won a grant from the Alexia Foundation, the UNICEF Photo of the Year award and the Free Lens Award at the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism. Sinclair is a member of the VII photo agency, and contributes regularly to National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine and Time, among many others.

The Hasselblad Masters show gathers together work by the 10 photographers nominated as winners last year – Lyle Owerko, Joao Carlos, Claudio Napolitano, Dirk Rees, Mark Holthusen, Quentin Shih, Stephan Zirwes, Bang Peng, Nina Berman, and Mark Zibert. These and many other exhibitions are on view at Photokina from 21 to 26 September in the Kölnmesse Hall 1, and admission is free with a Photokina pass.