There has already been a lot of discussion surrounding New York Photo Festival on the blogosphere: Andrew Hetherington’s and Michael David Murphy’s columns over on Foto8, Robert Wright’s critique of Tim Barber’s Various Photographs exhibition (which Joerg Colberg deemed “the worst photography show [he has] ever seen”) and, of course, many others. While I also have some thoughts about how particular events and exhibitions may have been improved (or how the tagline “The Future of Contemporary Photography” should have been dropped immediately), I was quite happy with the festival in general. As with any curatorial endeavor, not everything about it will appeal to everyone, but in each of the exhibitions I managed to find a number of inspiring images and ideas.

As a way to begin digesting everything that I looked at over the past week, I thought I’d begin by sharing a few of my picks from each of the four major exhibitions.

The Ubiquitous Image, Curated by Lesley A. Martin
Location: 76 Front Street Gallery

© Natalie Czech

© Penelope Umbrico

© Harrell Fletcher

© Curtis Mann

© Joachim Schmid

© Useful Photography

Chisel, Curated by Kathy Ryan
Location: St. Ann’s Warehouse

© Katherine Wolkoff

© Roger Ballen

© Lars Tunbjörk

© Andreas Gefeller

New Typologies, Curated by Martin Parr
Location: Smack Mellon & Dumbo Arts Center

© Sarah Pickering

© WassinkLundgren

© Michel Campeau

© Jeffrey Milstein

© Jan Kempenaers

Various Photographs, Curated by Tim Barber
Location: 70 Front Street Gallery

© Mark McKnight

© Dan Otranto

© Lina Scheynius

© Hannah Whitaker

© Santiago Mostyn

(As well as the work of Christian Patterson, Irina Rozovsky, Danielle Levitt, and Balarama Heller.)

Indeed, there was a lot to see. Aside from the major exhibitions and satellite shows, the festival put on artist talks, panel discussions and screenings. It has been said that Roger Ballen gave an unforgettable talk on the first day of the festival. Unfortunately I missed it (kicking myself for this) but I was able to catch a few others, of which I most enjoyed hearing Stephen Gill. When I spoke with Stephen the day before, I could already sense his genuine love for image making but the talk proved it.

As for the panel discussions, I heard good things about the conversation between Martin Parr and Erik Kessels – mostly that it was really entertaining – but was unable to attend myself. I had high hopes for the second day’s panel, “Curating 2.0” (featuring Tim Barber, Jen Bekman and Laurel Ptak), but was ultimately let down. I imagined much more critical discourse and much less individual presentation. However, “The Secret Life of Images” (featuring Lesley Martin, Joachim Schmid and Penelope Umbrico) lifted my spirits. Lesley did a really nice job moderating the discussion, posing questions to keep the dialogue interesting. I was also happy about the inclusion of the last panel, “Picturing Iraq” (featuring Vicki Goldberg, Nina Berman, Steve Mumford and Claire Beckett).

I commend the founders Frank Evers and Daniel Power for making the festival happen. All in all, it was great first run. I think everyone I’ve spoken to has taken something away from it and, if anything, it was such a treat to be in the company of so many people that share the same passion. It was good to see old friends and make a few: Greg Stimac, Christian Patterson, Michael Schmelling, Jason Lazarus, Will Steacy, Michael Bühler-Rose, Brian Sorg, Cara Phillips, Amy Elkins, Nicola Kast, Victoria Hely-Hutchinson, Joe Tripi, Amani Olu, Jon Feinstein, Coley Brown, Brad Troemel, Greg Wasserstrom, Grant Willing, Alana Celii, Grady O’Connor, Amy Stein, Alice Wells, Harlan Erskine, Patrick Romero, Jesse Chehak, Alys Kenny and Casey Kelbaugh (Slideluck Potshow), Noah Kalina, Alexandra Catiere, Richard Renaldi, Seth Boyd, Marc Yankus, Marcus Schaden and everyone at the booth, Ken Schles, Thijs groot Wassink and Ruben Lundgren (WassinkLundgren), Darius Himes, Andrew Hetherington, Joerg Coberg, Laurel Ptak, Raul Gutierrez, Michael David Murphy, Michel Mallard, Meagan Ziegler-Haynes, Christina Caputo and many other fine folks

Evers and Power have already begun planning NYPH09, which will last for 10 days instead of 4 and again be held in DUMBO. According to PDN, next year’s list of curators will include Jody Quon (photography director at New York magazine), Chris Boot (founder of book publishing company Chris Boot Ltd.), Neville Wakefield (critic and independent curator) and Bill Ewing (exhibit curator at the Musee de l’Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland).

I’m looking forward to it. Though next year I will have to bring a pair of black-framed glasses along…

Christian Patterson, Shane Lavalette, Will Steacy, Michael Bühler-Rose, Joerg Colberg
© Unknown NYPH photographer

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Events, Exhibitions, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.