Scenes from the New York Photo Festival 2008
And what a scene it was!! The inaugural New York Photo Festival kicked off on May 14 with 4 days and 4 nights of events, beginning with a VIP Vernissage featuring a proclamation from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz proclaiming May 14 “1st Annual New York Photo Festival in Brooklyn, USA.”
The Festival proved an astounding success with over 15,000 tickets sold, 2,500 VIPs and artists, 1,000 members of the international press, packed seating for all day and evening programming events at St. Ann’s Warehouse (450 capacity), 20 countries represented in curated and satellite pavilions, 85,000 clicked site visits, 47,000 blog posts, 2.5 million unique visits to www.nyphotofestival.com, 49 media partners, over 3,000 submissions for New York Photo Awards (www.newyorkphotoawards.com/), and 87 countries of submission.
“I think the festival was remarkable for creating a physical location,” observes Co-Chair and Co-Founder Daniel Power, “and a contained one at that, where one was thrust into large and spacious venues with some of the most exciting works and creations in the art form are being explored and developed today, all the while literally bumping into new friends, old acquaintances, and photo world stars. That’s not been done before, anywhere. It’s an exciting tradition to start, and I can’t wait for each May to come. It will always be here, it will always be Brooklyn, and it will always be our inimitable panache and style of organized chaos.”
“We all had a blast doing NYPH 2008, and are thrilled by the almost unanimously positive response to the first New York Photo Festival,” says, Co-Chair and Co-Founder Frank Evers. “We were shocked by the huge turnout from the international community. We knew that the Americas would show up, but never really expected the extent to which the rest of the world showed up—and a good time was had by all. It is clear that this event made a big difference in the world of photography, and we look forward to doing it again next year. As one of our Chinese visitors told us, DUMBO in Chinese means ‘making waves,’ which is pretty appropriate when you think about it. That was the whole point of our creating the festival in the first place, to make waves and create a special place for people to get together, to celebrate the future of photography, be exposed to top-notch ideas, work and talent. We can’t wait for next year!”
