William A. Ewing is the director of the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland. Ewing has curated exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Hayward Gallery, London; the International Center of Photography, New York; Culturgest, Lisbon; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York; and many other institutions. His most recent publications through the Musée de l’Elysée include: Ray K. Metzker: Light Lines (2008); Worldview: Leonard Freed (2007); Edward Steichen: Lives in Photography (2007); Edward Steichen: In High Fashion: The Condé Nast Years, 1923–1937 (2008); reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow (2005); and Face: The New Photographic Portrait (2006). Ewing founded Optica Center for Contemporary Art in Montreal in 1972. He was Director of Exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York, between 1977 and 1984.
 
 
NYPH: How has your work at the Musée de l’Elysée influenced All over the place!, your exhibition for the New York Photo Festival?
 
William A. Ewing: I have always thought of myself as a useful bridge between the two continents, because of my personal history (I have spent approximately 17 years of my career on each side of the Atlantic now; I see the lacunae on both sides). I lived in New York for almost 15 years, and have kept in touch with many of my colleagues. They send me all kinds of ideas and suggestions as to who is doing interesting work. I have also developed a good network here in Europe over the past years. The two are complementary. Furthermore, I have found that Switzerland helps me in this regard. Being a small place, encircled by Europe, it has a tradition of keenly observing the events all around it—for its own protection and survival. Also, we are higher up in the air than everyone else, so we can stand on Alpine peaks with our binoculars and see what photographers are doing in France, Italy, Germany, and so on. Cold work, but exhilarating!
We have always been eclectic here at the Elysée, and that means a broad vision. I have a great team of curators (four total, if I include myself) and they are constantly coming up with exciting finds. So in a word, I could say that my vision is much broader and more eclectic today than it was fifteen years ago, and I hope that is reflected in the choices for New York. Also, Nathalie Herschdorfer and Christophe Blaser, co-curators, have come up with some good proposals on their own, which we than battled over and whittled down to a manageable group.
Lastly, to answer your question very concretely, we have selected two components from recent projects here at the museum. One is the big Steichen retrospective, the other is from a survey of amateur digital photography, and we think they stand alone solidly.
 
NYPH: What was your inspiration for All over the place! and what do you hope to accomplish with this show?
 
WE: I have been in the field now for 37 years, and the more I stay with it, and bounce around with it, the more I appreciate the craziness, and diversity of what is going on. We are in an incredibly rich period of possibility, but also a bewildering one—for photographers and for specialists. This confusion can be exhilarating and can push things forward in many different directions, simultaneously. I wanted to say to festival visitors, “Look what I’ve found recently.” But, in truth, there are also things I’ve wanted to show for a considerable length of time.
So I decided I wouldn’t force individual work into themes, or try for a single vision of my own this time, but simply propose work I liked for all kinds of reasons and let the chips fall where they may.
 
NYPH: What do you hope viewers will take away after seeing the show?
 
WE: I want them to feel they have discovered strong new voices or ideas. To say to themselves, “How is it possible we didn’t know about Jacob Holdt’s work?” for instance (work that puts some pretty big-name color photographers in the shade). Or to have their eyes opened by Robert Walker’s astonishing flowers, the most original flower photographs I have seen in the last 20 years. And so on. Others will be thrilled with the visual resurrection, as it were, of Steichen’s Family of Man. For the first time, we are creating a credible recreation of what actually walking through it must have been like.
 
NYPH: What do you think will be the impact of the New York Photo Festival on the photography world?
 
WE: I accepted because the first festival was seen by an awful lot of people. I was surprised by the number of Europeans who made the trip. Also, I thought it was brilliant of the organizers to keep it in one neighborhood. Paris’s Le Mois de la Photo, and Madrid’s PHotoEspaña exasperate me, what with the long journeys between venues. You can’t create the same dynamic, the same sense of community you get here.
 
NYPH: This is a chance for you to showcase what you perceive to be the future of photography. What is the significance of this opportunity, and what is the significance of hosting the festival in New York City?
 
WE: Well, I don’t mean my selection to be about the future. It’s the here and now, informed by my particular experiences and ideas. It all may look odd, dated, or prophetic in the future—I don’t know. I’m just happy to have had the fun of coming back from a trip and saying, “Look what I’ve found!”…And then to my festival co-curators, “What have you come up with?”
As for contributing to activity in New York, I’m also happy to have something going on here. We will be closing our Steichen exhibit at ICP soon. I’m happy to have contributed this historical chapter (with our partner, the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography), and now to move into the here and now.