![\"eastriverfog.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/eastriverfog.jpg?resize=470%2C370&ssl=1\" "\\"eastriverfog.jpg\\"")
East River Fog –<\/strong> the view from Nader’s apartment in DUMBO, circa 1995 \u00a9JLevy<\/span><\/p>\n
Three years ago Daniel Power moved his book publishing business to the heart of DUMBO. He spoke to local landlords and when powerHouse decided to move out of its Manhattan premises he persuaded the owner of a massive space to take a gamble on them, at an affordable rent. It is apparent that their move to a new 10,000 sq foot “powerHouse arena” on Front Street may well have fuelled a property and photography boom in the area. Other galleries followed suit, and moved across the water to Brooklyn. \u201cThere has always been room here for the independents, and many of the Chelsea galleries find the model fits here,\u201d says Power.<\/p>\n
Power was introduced to Frank Evers by Nathan Benn, ex-director of Magnum Photos, and they soon after meeting compared ideas and formed a vision for a festival of photography. So what was it that informed the union of a prolific art book publisher and the business leader of a photojournalism agency?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Arles we see a different individual curator each year\u201d explains Power. \u201cIn Perpignan it is the vision of one man, Jean Fran\u00e7ois Le Roy, and so here, even though it was me and Frank, it was our in our interest to have all forms of contemporary photography.”<\/p>\n
For Evers, the central focus of the festival is on the four curated pavilions:<\/p>\n St. Ann\u2019s Warehouse featuring Chisel by Kathy Ryan;<\/p>\n 76 Front Street featuring Lesley A. Martin\u2019s The Ubiquitous Image;<\/p>\n 70 Front Street houses Tim Barber\u2019s Various Photographs;<\/p>\n and just like New York \u2013 New York itself, so big it had to be named twice \u2013<\/p>\n Martin Parr at Smack Mellon and Martin Parr at DUMBO Arts Center (DAC) with New Typologies.<\/p>\n Advance press release estimates for the festival speak of 100,000 visitors and the line up of shows includes more than 15 separate exhibitions including satellite shows and events.<\/p>\n Photojournalism, it would seem, fits into this, but while part of the equation, it is not singled out for special mention. Kathy Ryan, the long serving and highly respected Picture Editor of the New York Times Magazine<\/em>, for instance, has chosen photographers who are \u201cpainters, sculptors and alchemists\u201d. Writing in her exhibition notes she talks about the form of the photographs\u2019 gestures being instructed by Pollock and Twombly, with new Picasso-like meanings gained. She sees the expression of the artists\u2019 craft in terms of brush strokes within the photograph itself. <\/p>\n Evers, too, identifies with this mode of looking at photography. “I have never been just a photojournalism person. My background and interest as a collector and someone who works with and enjoys photography has always been much wider than that,” says Evers. \u201cWe [Daniel and I] didn\u2019t go with our own choices of photography, instead we invited top figures in photography today to be the curators.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThere is \u2018Concerned Photography\u2019 but there is more besides,\u201d Evers remarks in relation to the photojournalism quotient at the festival. VII themselves have their own gallery space in the area which will be showing work by Alexandra Boulat and the VII members will be holding a two day seminar after the festival.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/curtis_mann.jpg?resize=470%2C365&ssl=1\")
Curtis Mann <\/strong>from Lesley A. Martin\u2019s The Ubiquitous Image<\/span><\/p>\n
![\"gefeller.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/gefeller.jpg?resize=470%2C357&ssl=1\" "\\"gefeller.jpg\\"")
![\"eastriverfog_tn.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/eastriverfog_tn.jpg\" "\\"eastriverfog_tn.jpg\\"")