Martin Parr, Kathy Ryan, Lesley A. Martin, and Tim Barber each bring their personal vision of the newest and most important trends in contemporary photography to the main pavilions of the New York Photo Festival. “The NYPH08 curators were selected for their decisive and innovative approaches to curating, editing, sequencing, and showcasing the varied work of the medium in ways that continually surprise and inspire those of us in the photography industry and the creative cultural public at large,” say New York Photo Festival Founders and Co-chairmen, Frank Evers and Daniel Power.

Images from New Typologies, Curated by Martin Parr

Magnum Photographer Martin Parr’s exhibit, New Typologies, highlights the use of the photographic series as an attempt to bring order to the chaos around us. The show features the work of WassinkLundgren, Donovan Wylie, Jeffrey Milstein, Jan Banning, Sarah Pickering, Ananké Asseff, Michel Campeau, and Jan Kempenaers.

Photograph © Jan Kempenaers	Photograph © WassinkLundgren

Martin Parr was born in Epson, Surrey, in 1952 and studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic. Parr was the featured curator of the 2004 edition of Les Rencontres d’Arles. His monograph Martin Parr was published in 2002, accompanying a large retrospective of his work initiated by the Barbican Art Gallery in London. It has since been shown in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. Parr is also assembling an exhibition, “Parrworld,” curated by Thomas Weski for the Haus der Kunst in Munich, also opening in May 2008. This will show new work from Parr and his substantial print, objects, and photography book collections.

Images from Chisel, Curated by Kathy Ryan

Kathy Ryan, picture editor of The New York Times Magazine, looks at sculptural and painterly qualities of recent photography in Chisel. The exhibit includes new works by Roger Ballen, Horacio Salinas, Stephen Gill, Katherine Wolkoff, Simon Norfolk, Raphaël Dallaporta, Julian Faulhaber, Lars Tunbjörk, Alejandra Laviada, and Andreas Gefeller.

Photograph © Horacio Salinas	Photograph © Roger Ballen

Kathy Ryan received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Griffin Museum, as well as the first annual Lucie Award for Picture Editor of the Year at the International Photography Awards in Los Angeles. In 1997 she was named Canon Picture Editor of the Year at the Visa Pour L'Image Photojournalism Festival in Perpignan, France. Ryan has been a judge in a number of photography competitions and has chaired the American Photography Annual Jury. The New York Times Magazine has won awards from the Art Directors Club and the Society of Publication Designers and has reached first place in the Best Use of Photography category of the Pictures of the Year International competition. A member of the Board of Advisors of the Look3 Festival of the Photograph, Charlottesville, VA, Ryan is also an MFA Thesis Advisor at the School of Visual Arts, New York, and is an Editorial Advisor for Foam magazine, Amsterdam.

Images from The Ubiquitous Image, Curated by Lesley A. Martin

Lesley A. Martin, book publisher at the Aperture Foundation, reflects on the replication and reproduction of the photographic image in The Ubiquitous Image, focusing on how contemporary artists are using the seemingly limitless cache of disseminated images to create their own work. Artists include Joachim Schmid, Claudia Angelmaier, Marco Breuer, Penelope Umbrico, Harrell Fletcher, Natalie Czech, Curtis Mann, Hank Willis Thomas, Robert Bowen, Peter Piller, and Useful Photography.

Photograph © Claudia Angelmaier	Installation © Penelope Umbrico  (photo credit: Hew Porter)

Lesley A. Martin is the publisher of the book program at the Aperture Foundation. She has edited over fifty photography publications, including: Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer; An-My Lê: Small Wars; Fandomania by Elena Dorfman; Shuffle by Christian Marclay; Paris – New York – Shanghai by Hans Eijkelboom, and Richard Misrach: On the Beach. Martin is also the coauthor of two volumes on design, Graphicscape: Tokyo and Graphicscape: New York; and a contributing author and editor of Full Vinyl: The Subversive Art of Designer Toys.

Image from Various Photographs, Curated by Tim Barber

Tim Barber—photographer, curator, publisher, and former photo editor for Vice magazine—brings together over 300 images in Various Photographs. The exhibit showcases a wide spectrum of works from well established to unknown photographers.

Photograph © Catherine Lutes

Originally from Amherst, Massachusetts, Barber studied photography in Vancouver, BC, before relocating to New York City. He currently runs the online gallery tinyvices.com, which has featured the work of hundreds of artists including Ryan McGinley, Richard Kern, Peter Sutherland, and Boogie. Its corresponding gallery installation, tinyvices, has toured all over the world, from Proyectos Monclova in Mexico City to colette in Paris, and continues to be an innovative showcase for new work.