http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/arts/design/photoville-bigger-and-covering-the-waterfront.html 2016-09-22 22:46:19 Photoville: Bigger, and Covering the Waterfront Almost everything is bigger. Even the beer garden. === ALMOST everything is bigger at this year’s edition of Now in its fifth year, Photoville presents a dizzying array of exhibitions for free, centered this time on the waterfront under the Brooklyn Bridge. Fifty-three shipping containers have been converted into exhibition space, filled with work by hundreds of photographers. Additional displays, by the likes of National Geographic, are on view outdoors. The focus is largely, but not exclusively, documentary, often with an undercurrent of activism: These images resist the pose of neutrality. “I love all photography,” said Sam Barzilay, one of Photoville’s three founders, “but I feel like we have an opportunity to tell people about things they need to know and give them a way to act upon them.” Strolling through the space, you can see famous names in photography mix with less familiar ones, which makes Photoville a good place to discover new work. “Breaking Point,” a group show by The event is organized by United Photo Industries, which produces other public art events like Last year, Photoville presented work by Ruddy Roye, a Brooklyn-based photographer with And Photoville offers a very practical advantage for photographers who want to show in New York. “Renting a gallery for a week costs you thousands and thousands, and I guarantee you wouldn’t get more than a thousand people,” said Laura Roumanos, another founder of the event. At Photoville, she said, “you’re going to reach tens of thousands.” But enlarging the beer garden wasn’t (only) to satisfy the thirst of visitors, Dave Shelley, another founder, said. The space, which also serves food, is intended as “a place to sit, commune, meet new people and discuss what you’ve seen. And then go back.”