There’s already a lot to take in at Brooklyn Bridge Park- with sweeping views of the East River, the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge, but just in case your eyeballs were sighing, you can excite them with the news about Photoville.
Photoville is a photography village in Brooklyn Bridge Park built out of shipping container exhibition spaces, educated with free lectures and workshops, and nourished by food trucks and a summer beer garden. It even has its own dog run.
Who built it? Photoville is a partnership exhibition between United Photo Industries (the DUMBO-based non-profit that promotes emerging artists worldwide through curated exhibitions) and Brooklyn Bridge Park (in charge of, well, that beautiful waterfront park under the Brooklyn Bridge).
Each of the 30+ shipping containers is its own museum with its own exhibit. The village as a whole features artists from around the world, and addresses issues from Chinese migrants trying to make it big in Bejing to the documentation of Bedford Stuyvesant as a cultural community at risk. But the real highlight is Brazilian artist Andre Feliciano’s “Greenhouse,” which features 3,000 of his signature camera flowers that bloom out of lilies, tulips, sunflowers and more. This is Feliciano’s first public installation in the USA, so it’s an exhibit not to be missed.
The village also features a variety of free lectures and workshops (some recommend registration), that delve into controversial issues about photography, like the use of photos by the media and the how to make your photography make a difference. Others teach you how to do cool things- like gum printing, how to master the Polaroid camera and even how to make your own camera out of anything.
The village opened last Friday, but fear not! It is open to the public until July 1st, with a slew of great workshops and events lined up for this Thursday through Sunday.
And even after the village dismantles, there is a semi-permanent ode to this great event still visible through the summer. THE FENCE was a call for artists of all skill levels to explore the theme of “community” through photography. The photos selected for the fence explore the ideas of home, streets, people, creatures and play in neighborhoods all over the place. THE FENCE begins at Pier 1 and travels along the walkway to the Uplands of Pier 3 where it connects with Photoville. So if you can’t make it to the park this weekend, you can still see some great photography before fall hits.
Photoville is located on the uplands of Pier 3, along the Brooklyn waterfront between DUMBO and Atlantic Avenue.
Hours of Operation:
Thursday June 28th: 4-10pm
Friday June 29th: 4-10pm
Saturday June 30th: 11am-10pm
Sunday July 1st: 11am-7pm
