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“NYC is the melting pot, the metropolis of the world, and therefore the most natural location for a festival with a mission to bring together global talent that is both timely and critical.”

Main Exhibition : Object Lesson / Curated by Vince Aletti - 81 Front Street

Photograph by Sharon Core

The history of photography is that of the still life, a staple of artwork throughout the modern era that has been reinvented with the introduction of photography. From the beginning, virtually every important photographer has contributed to the genre, and their names evoke an immense range of images and approaches: Henry Fox-Talbot, Paul Strand, Edward Steichen, Josef Sudek, László Moholy-Nagy, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, Man Ray, Walker Evans, Robert Mapplethorpe and Wolgfang Tillmans, among others. With this long tradition in mind, Vince Aletti has taken the occasion of the New York Photo Festival to reexamine the still life today. Object Lesson, according to Aletti, "pays homage to one of its masters, Irving Penn, whose work sets a standard few can match."

Participating Artists: Jeff Bark, Adam Bartos, Sharon Core, Sally Gall, Bill Jacobson, Richard Learoyd, Laura Letinsky, Andrea Modica, Yamini Nayar, Jiro Takamatsu

Use Me, Abuse Me - Curated by Erik Kessels - Smack Mellon Gallery

Photograph by Chantal Rens

Use Me, Abuse Me begins with Kessels' a posteriori observation that easy access to photography tools and software results in quicker, more facile modes of image production, consumption and disposal. Perhaps a condition of this state, a plethora of photographers and image-makers are experimenting with pre-existing images and using them within their own work on an unprecedented scale. Photographs are variously collected, reinterpreted, cut, copied, pasted and generally abused.

Erik Kessels' show is about how images and image-making technology influence artists and photographers. Use Me, Abuse Me explores several questions, including: Where will image-making take us? Will all existing photography be endlessly recycled? Will we soon see more photographers taking fewer photographs? How far can we stretch the medium of photography?

Participating Artists: Linus Bill, Lucas Blalock, Marcel Gähler, Osang Gwon, Paul Kooiker, Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, Renato Leotta, Thomas Mailaender, Sanja Medic, Chantal Rens, Claudia Sola, Asha Schechter, Joachim Schmid, Batia Suter, Ruth Van Beek

Bodies in Question - Curated by Fred Ritchin - St. Ann’s Warehouse (North)

Photograph by Marc Garanger

Ritchin's pavilion considers the ways bodies are newly placed into question as humans become virtual and are under constantly increasing surveillance. The show looks at a crucial crossroads in human consciousness and survival, a moment when new forms of media are powerfully emerging as much of the planet struggles to advance. The artists and image-makers comprising Bodies in Question-residing in Canada, China, Denmark, England, France, Korea and the United States-comment on these transformations in media and society, and on the identities and struggles of people who may be left behind.

A major element of Bodies in Question is the first U.S. exhibition of Marc Garanger's controversial 1960 portraits of Algerian women, taken under French Army orders for French identity cards given to Algerians during their mid-20th Century War of Independence Femme algérienne portraits, which he took as a French combat photographer forced to photograph Algerian women in 1960 without their veils to create identity cards for the army. Garanger forced the women to show their faces in public, often for the first time, turning an act of cultural imperialism into a raw depiction of beauty and sublime dignity. Garanger returned to Algeria four decades later to foster a discussion within the same communities around these photographs.



Participating Artists :
 Benjamin Busch, Robbie Cooper, Luc Courchesne, Raphaël Dallaporta, Tina Enghoff, Marc Garanger, Jessica Ingram, Alexandre Maubert, James Pomerantz, Joseph Rodriguez, Linn Underhill, Deborah Willis, Michael Wolf, Lim Young Kyun

Hidden Books, Hidden Stories - Curated by Lou Reed - St. Ann’s Warehouse (South)

Photograph by Paul Kooiker

Hidden Books, Hidden Stories consists of three components. Hidden Books, Hidden Stories is an exceptionally personal exploration of myriad imaginative and compelling visual narratives. Some are in books, some presented in larger-than-life scales of projection and display that impress and delight. Part one is is a grand audiovisual presentation that will premiere during the festival's opening night Vernissage. After the show's premiere, the projection will be screened during regular intervals during the festival on the presentation stage at St. Ann's Warehouse.