Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginaia

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, "3 days of Peace, Love and Photography" that featured presentations by Eugene Richards, Sally Mann, and William Allard, and drew visitors from all over the country, especially the South. The festival was an outgrowth of a yearly event held at the home of National Geographic photographer Nick Nichols, in which photographers came to show work at informal projections in his backyard. Besides the presentations by the three, works from both international and emerging photographers were shown at nightly projections, slideshows were projected onto walls, and large posters hung in the Charlottesville mall area. Alex Webb, Maggie Steber, and David Alan Harvey also showed work and gave classses and portfolio reviews. Local photographers Laurie Waselchuck and David Rae Morris attended, along with National Geographic photographer Tyronne Turner who formerly worked at the Times-Picayune (his article on NOLA will appear in August's issue.) I curated a projection called "The Human Condition" featuring work from members of the Lightstalkers (http://www.lightstalkers.com) website, featuring 75 or so photographers from around the world including a number of World Press Photo Contest winners and members of both Magnum and vii. I thought that the Festival was a model of what I would like to see happen in New Orleans and will be actively pursuing this idea in the future. If some of you have ideas about this I would appreciating your contacting me at andyimages10001@yahoo.com. Naturally members of the Photo Alliance would have to be a big part of making this kind of thing happen occur in New Orleans.