As a born-and-bred New Yorker, I love going to local festivals. I can’t wait to gorge on the sausage-and-pepper heroes and zeppoles at the annual San Gennaro festival, suck down a few lagers at the Brooklyn Brewery bash, or throw back some littlenecks at the yearly Oyster Festival here on Long Island.

Yes, I admit – most of the festivals I get excited about involve food, drink, or, ideally, both. But there’s a new fest about to debut in the tri-state area that’s got me rethinking my reliance on fattening fare to have a good time. The New York Photo Festival (www.newyorkphotofestival.com) is coming to the Dumbo section of Brooklyn May 14–18, and it’s being touted by festival organizers as the “first international photo festival in the United States.”

I’m not sure how accurate that statement is—there’s an internationally billed festival in San Antonio that’s been in full swing for a few years now (www.safotofestival.com), and there may be others that a quick Google search could turn up. But I really don’t care, because a) they’re probably not of this scope, and b) I don’t have plans to head off to Texas or anywhere else in the country anytime soon—this inaugural fest is right here on my home turf, and I’m excited to see what talent is exhibited from around the world.

The promo they’ve got circulating on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPAq_-AN1M) is pretty cool, showcasing some of square footage where the artists’ work will be on display. And they’ve got some well-known names associated with the event, including the four main curators overlooking the photography pavilions: Magnum photographer Martin Parr, New York Times magazine picture editor Kathy Ryan, Lesley A. Martin of the Aperture Foundation, and Tiny Vices’ Tim Barber.
At any rate, with nearly 100,000 visitors anticipated, I guess I’d better get my tickets now. I’m not too worried about the crowds, though—if I can handle San Gennaro’s 1-million-plus attendees, I can elbow my way to the front to catch a glimpse of the Microsoft-sponsored New York Photo Awards at the festival.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 10:55 am and is filed under Jennifer Gidman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.