The New York Photo Festival kicked off last night for a sneak preview of the festivities that showcases photos curated by Magnum photographer Martin Parr, Lesley A. Martin of the Aperture Foundation, Tim Barber of tinyvices.com and the NY Times Magazine picture editor, Kathy Ryan in various locations in Dumbo Brooklyn. Large crowds of media and press were drawn last night to powerHouse Arena for the opening and at the curated pavilions at 76 Front Street (by Lesley A. Martin The Ubiquitous Image) and 70 Front Street (by Tim Barber Various Photographs).

We spoke with Daniel Power, one of the founders of the event and Founder and Publisher of the 2007 Lucie Award-winning publishing company powerHouse Books who told us that “moving here [to Dumbo] inspired us to dream about it. It is the largest formal installation ever attempted here, and we have taken over 75,000 sf of the area.

DumboNYC: Coordinating an event of this scale requires a huge amount of effort. Event programming, media sponsorships, pavilion locations, and marketing. What’s been the most challenging part of planning for the NYPF?
Daniel Power: We came up with the idea in March of last year, and decided to go ahead last June. It’s been massive and exhausting, but the work and the installations are pretty amazing. Never before in photography as anything like this been attempted. The most challenging has been navigating the raw spaces and creating a 48-hour turnaround in the spaces occupied by the previous fair. [N.B: BKLYN Designs had their show in Dumbo the previous week.]

From the crowds we saw, the festival founders Daniel Power and Frank Evers of the VII Photo Agency have planned an international scale event that looks successful.

DumboNYC also caught up with Zannah Mass, the Cultural Director at Two Trees Management, who brought in Two Trees as the seed sponsor for the event.

“Two Trees was the first sponsor to sign on, the seed sponsor, after being inspired by Daniel Power and Frank Evers’ idea. As a landlord of much of Dumbo, Two Trees was in a unique position to secure the space needed for the festival to be realized. So, we were instrumental in getting the festival access to almost all of the spaces it is using. It was a great community effort too, in that the local arts groups who get subsidized space from us, space needed for the festival to be occur, really rallied to cooperate. Now St. Ann’s Warehouse is even critically involved in the production management.

The festival itself is an ambitious vision being realized with extraordinary work thanks to the photographers, curators, producers, and staff. It’ll be a real gift to us all, hopefully for many years to come. I can’t wait!”

For information on exhibitions and events for the NYPF, visit nyphotofestival.com. The festival runs through this Sunday, May 18.

Previously:
{New York Photo Festival To Draw Crowds From Around the World, 10Mar2008}
{Dumbo Becoming Next Photo District, 05Nov2007}