1,000-Foot-Long Photo Installation THE FENCE Opens Today at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Through a series of ambitious public photographic art installations, the enterprising Brooklyn-based cooperative United Photo Industries works to champion new directions in photography and cultivate ties within an ever-expanding, globe-trotting community of photographers. In partnership with Photo District News (PDN), Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Flash Forward Festival, United Photo Industries is pleased to announce the 2013 edition of one of its signature initiatives, THE FENCE, the 1,000 foot-long outdoor photographic installation whose inaugural edition drew over one million visitors during its 10-week run at Brooklyn Bridge Park last year.

THE FENCE returns to Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 13 and will be on view for over 15 weeks, until October 1. The public is welcome to attend a free tour that begins at 6:30pm tonight, June 18in the picnic area near Jane's Carousel in DUMBO and ends at Pier 5. Ample Hills ice cream and refreshments. Visit fence.photovillenyc.org for more information.

The 2013 edition of Brooklyn Bridge Park THE FENCE features the work of 40 photographers who capture the essence of "community," falling within the categories of home, street, people, creatures and play.

The participating artists are K C Bailey, Matt Black, Alejandro Cartagena, Pelle Cass, Arantxa Cedillo, Radhika Chalasani, Sam Comen, Alberto Coto, Francis Crisafio, Bob Croslin, John Delaney, Miska Draskoczy, Natan Dvir, Kirill Golovchenko, Mika Goodfriend, Matteo Guariso, Ian Hall, Don Hamerman, Rebecca Handler, Scott Hoyle, Phil Jung, Birte Kaufmann, Justin Kimball, Alma Leiva, Sara Macel, Mike McGregor, Greg Miller, Roberta Neidigh, Matthieu Paley, Alexis Pike, Jordi Pizarro Torrell, Maria Plotnikova, Claire Rosen, Arjen Schmitz, Robin Schwartz, Ilona Szwarc, Jaime Travezan, Jaka Vinsek and Dianne Yudelson.

A few highlights include:

• Robin Schwartz's Amelia's World, Schwartz and her daughter play out fantasies and explore their own eccentricities by creating fables where animals co-exist and interact as full partners in their invented world.

• Alejandro Cartajena's The Carpoolers documents Mexican migrant workers as they commute south on Highway 85 to San Pedro Garza Garcia, one of Latin America's richest citites.

• Ilona Szwarc's Rodeo Girls, an ongoing portrait project about young girls from Texas who compete in rodeo.

• Mika Goodfriend's Snowbirds, a study of Breezy Hill RV trailer park, a tightly knit community of French Québécois retirees living in the heart of Pompano Beach, FL.

• Don Hamerman's Found Baseballs, a very close look at lost or abandoned baseballs on or near ball playing fields. These objects speak of youth, childhood, play, joy, decay and the past.

• Kirill Golovchenko's Kachalka: Muscle Beach documents a 10,000 sq. meter famous outdoor gym in the Ukraine.

Information regarding each of the series from the Brooklyn and Boston FENCES can be found at fence.photovillenyc.org.

Along with their newest partner, Boston's Flash Forward Festival, United Photo Industries launched a Boston edition of the Fence on May 16, 2013 that will be on view along the Rose Kennedy Greenway all summer long.

The selection committee for the Boston edition of THE FENCE included Maryann Camilleri (President, The Magenta Foundation), Jim Dow, (Photographer & Professor, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Eunice Hurd (Robert Klein Gallery) Gary Knight (Photographer & Founding Member, VII Photo Agency) and Paula Tognarelli (Executive Director and Curator, Griffin Museum of Photography).

The selection committee for the New York edition of THE FENCE included Darren Ching (Creative Director, PDN Magazine), Eder Chiodetto (Curator of Photography, Museum of Modern Art Sao Paulo), Frank Evers (CEO, INSTITUTE), Bryan Formhals (Founder, LPV Magazine), Clare Freestone (Associate Curator of Photography, National Portrait Gallery, UK), Crystal Gwyn (Art Director, Brooklyn Magazine & L Magazine), Rob Haggart (Founder,aphotoeditor.com), W.M. Hunt (Collector, Curator & Consultant, Dancing Bear), Karen Irvine (Associate Curator, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago), Meredith Johnson, (Curator & Director of Consulting, Creative Time), Jessica Johnston, (Assistant Curator of Photography, George Eastman House), Erik Kessels (Founder, KesselsKramer), Stella Kramer (Creative Strategist), Sarah Leen (Senior Photo Editor, National Geographic Magazine) Graham Letorney (Co-Founder, FotoVisura), Jon Levy (Founder, Foto8), Myles Little (Associate Photo Editor, Time), Amy Liu (Director, Pingyao Photo Festival, China), Matthew McCann (Photo Editor, New York Times Lens Blog), Claire O'Neill (The Picture Show, National Public Radio), Shannon Thomas Perich (Curator of Photographs, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution), Stephen C. Pinson (The Robert B. Menschel Curator of Photography, New York Public Library), Christopher Rauschenberg (Founder, Blue Sky Gallery), Miriam Romais (Executive Director, En Foco), Eve Schillo (Curatorial Assistant, Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and Yukiko Yamagata (Assistant Director, Open Society Foundation).

THE FENCE is presented by United Photo Industries, Photo District News, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Flash Forward Festival. Printed by DUGGAL Visual Solutions. Additional Support by B&H Photo & Video, Magenta Foundation, Brooklyn Magazine, Lomography, Two Trees Management, and DUMBO Business Improvement District. Special thanks to the Tolls Bros City Living for providing space on the uplands of Pier 1 for the installation of THE FENCE.

PHOTOVILLE will return this Fall on Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

United Photo Industries principals Sam Barzilay, Dave Shelley and Laura Roumanos are also pleased to announce that the second annual PHOTOVILLEwill take place September 19-29 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. A crowd-pleasing photo destination, PHOTOVILLE is a pop-up village of shipping containers repurposed into galleries, showing a wide array of cutting edge photography. Contained within over 60,000 sq. ft. in the heart of Brooklyn Bridge Park, PHOTOVILLE will feature a feisty mix of exhibitions, lectures, hands-on workshops, night-time projections, a camera-flower installation, and a summer beer-garden complete with food trucks, creating a photography destination like no other and free for the public to attend.

PHOTOVILLE will announce the full line up of programming, artists and partners in August ,who will join the incredible list of existing partners to the 2013 edition:

Photo District News, B&H Photo & Video, Brooklyn Bridge Park, American Illustration - American Photography, Brooklyn Arts Council, BagNewsNotes, Center for Alternative Photography, collect.give, Conveyor Arts, Daylight Magazine, Dear Dave Magazine, Duggal Visual Solutions, DUMBO Business Imporvement District, NY Waterway's East River Ferry, En Foco, Featureshoot, Flak Photo, Flash Forward Festival, FotoVisura, INSTITUTE, La Fototeca Guatemala, Lomography, Magenta Foundation, Magnum Foundation, Mediastorm, Naarden Photo Festival (Netherlands), New York Council of the Humanities, Open Society Institute, Parsons, The New School for Design, Pete Brook of Prison Photography, PHaT Photo (Japan), Resource Magazine, SALT, School of Visual Arts, Slideluck, The Tierney Foundation, Tokyo Institute of Photography and Two Trees Management. More partners will be announced closer to the event.

PHOTOVILLE will be coinciding with 3 major Brooklyn Cultural Events; Brooklyn Tourism and Marty Markowitz's BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL (Sept 16 - 22) , The DUMBO Arts Festival (Sept 27 - 29) and the Atlantic Antic (Sept 29). For more information, visit www.photovillenyc.org.