Inaugural Photoville Held in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Now thru 7/1

The Inugaural Photoville has been announced to be held in Brooklyn Bridge Park. This first major event from Emerging Photography Collective and United Photo Industries will include: free exhibitions in over 35 shipping containers, site-specific works, outdoor projection shows, tents with vendors, publishers and gear demonstrators, a camera obscura, panel discussions and talks, workshops, a foto canine run and a food & beer garden.

Earlier this year, Sam Barzilay, Laura Roumanos and Dave Shelley launched United Photo Industries, a Brooklyn-based, photographic art-presenting cooperative. From a burgeoning gallery headquarters at 111 Front Street in DUMBO, they have been working with the ambition and energy of an idealist start-up to identify, harness, and conjure unexpected exhibition opportunities, champion new directions in photography and cultivate ties within an ever-expanding, globe-trotting community of photographers.

Their first big dream is a photography event: a photography village, free and open to the public, whose centerpiece will be over 35 shipping containers of exhibition space. The programming will span Brooklyn Bridge Park, on the developing Brooklyn waterfront. Their enthusiasm has elicited partnerships from a long list of local, national and international media, institutions and curatorial partners. Entitled Photoville, the event will take place today, June 22 through July 1, rain or shine.

Photoville will comprise a mix of free exhibitions, talks, hands-on workshops, nighttime projections and a photo dog run along with a summer food & beer garden, creating a photographic destination like no other. Photoville will include: 

Shipping Container Exhibits: Over 35 containers (20- and 40-foot in length) will house photographic exhibits from all over the world. UPI is partnering with global organizations and local exhibitors as well as conducting an open call for submissions, opening the field to the greater public.

Photo Fence: United Photo Industries has joined forces with Photo District News (PDN) and Brooklyn Bridge Park to curate and produce a summer-long outdoor photo exhibition. Printed on photographic mesh and measuring more than 1000 ft in length, The Fence will be a public photographic installation like no other, with an expected audience of more than 300,000 visitors over two months during the summer of 2012. Photographers of all levels are invited to submit images that capture the essence of "community" and fit into one or more of the following categories: Home, Street, People, Creatures, and Play.

The selection committee for The Fence exhibition includes: Leonor Mamanna (Photo Editor, New York Magazine), Rebecca Wilson (Director, Saatchi Gallery London), Krzysztof Candrowicz (Director, Lodz Fotofestiwal), Irene Kromhout (Exhibitions Coordinator, Noorderlicht Photo Festival), Laura Moya (Executive Director, Photolucida), Ihiro Hayami (Chief Editor, PHaT Photo Magazine), Kate Edwards (Picture Editor, Guardian Weekend Magazine), Michael Itkoff (Editor, Daylight Magazine), Ariel Shanberg (Director, Center for Photography at Woodstock), Elisabeth Biondi (Independent Curator), Marcel Saba (Director, Redux Images) and Adriana Teresa Letorney (Publisher, Visura Magazine).

Tents that will house vendors, photo book publishers and camera gear demonstrations, as well as information booths for art schools, local entities and foundations.

Photoville’s growing list of partners includes Brooklyn Bridge Park, Two Trees Management, DUMBO BID, East River Ferry, Brooklyn Arts Council, Leica Camera, Photo District News (USA), International Center of Photography (USA), Parsons, The New School for Design (USA), Fototeca Guatemala (GT), Magnum Foundation (USA), VII Photo Agency (USA), MediaStorm (USA), Tierney Fellowship (USA), The Lucie Foundation (USA), Hellenic Center for Photography (Greece), Lodz FotoFestiwal (Poland), Center for Alternative Photography (USA), 20x200 (USA), PHaT Photo Magazine (Japan), Naarden Photo Festival (Netherlands), Daylight Magazine (USA), Empas.is, High Noon Culture & Art Corporation (China), The Center for Photography, Woodstock (USA), FotoVisura (USA), Conveyor Arts (USA), Dumbo Arts Center (USA), and Lomography, and more will be announced in the coming weeks.

Photoville will announce details about participating artists and organizations, and dates and times of events soon.

For more information and vendors, visit www.photovillenyc.org.