Forgot Password?
Please enter your email address to receive a link for resetting your password.
Thank You
You will receive an email with further instructions. Please contact customer support if you need any further assistance.
Please verify your email address
A verification link has been sent to your email to activate your account. The link will be valid for 1 hour.
Please check the spam inbox if you can't find the email. If you still can't find it, we can resend it.
A verification link has been sent to your email 00:00
5 Boro Foto Fest NYC: Bringing Photography Off the Screen
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
Photography has always been about more than making an image. It’s about seeing, feeling, connecting, and preserving a moment in a way that can be experienced again and again. But in an increasingly digital world and at a time when generative AI is reshaping how we think about images the experience of holding a photograph, discovering a new artist, or turning the pages of a photo book feels more meaningful than ever.
That’s the spirit behind 5 Boro Foto Fest, a new photography-centered festival bringing photographers, collectors, artists, and photography lovers together in New York City. Created by Chris Gampat, founder of The Phoblographer, along with Stephen Mallon and Nigel Sielegar, the festival was born from a desire to bring authenticity back to the photography community and to celebrate photography as art in its most tangible forms.
In this interview, Printique sits down with Chris Gampat to talk about the inspiration behind 5 Boro Foto Fest, the importance of human-made photography in the age of AI, and why slowing down to truly experience a photograph may be more important now than ever.
Copyright Bin Yang
What inspired you to create the 5 Boro Foto Fest, and what did you feel was missing from the photography community in New York that you wanted this festival to address?
That can really be summed up with one word: authenticity. When I started out in the photo industry in my early 20s in 2009, the web was only really getting started. Of any industry in media, print was perhaps still most important here and in lifestyle. And I have long missed curling up with magazines and prints. At Phoblographer, we took a break from featuring artists and I wanted to do it and hold myself accountable to authenticity. So I thought: why not do a photography print festival. So I asked for help from Stephen Mallon and Nigel Sielegar. We agreed, the idea of a photography-centered artist flea market was missing. And the idea that photography can be art is in danger right now. This is designed to remind people of that.
As a result, the 5 Boro Foto Fest is a place where art lovers can come see a semi-rejected form of art in photography. Think of these as photographs, not as, “pics.” There will be prints, zines, books, etc. Collectors will really be in love with what’s being sold. So too will the average person. There’s a ton of democratization that I feel we’re doing here.
Copyright Stephen Hurst
The festival puts a strong emphasis on prints, books, zines, and other physical forms of photography. Why do you think it’s especially important to bring photography off the screen and into the hands of people today?
I think it’s important becaause we’re all so super tied down to our screens and we’ve become too digital of a society. People forget how to talk to one another and we’re all so connected and disconnected at the same time. When you hold your phone, you’re not taking in the other sensor information about art. When you go to a museum and look at people staring at prints, you’ll understand. They stand there with their arms crossed, walking slowly, taking things in, putting their hands on their chin, and contemplating things. That’s been lost with photography. And the way to bring that back is to make people look at it again.
Copyright Theik Smith
The 5 Boro Foto Fest has taken a clear stance in support of human-made photography in an age of generative AI. What does “human-made photography” mean to you, and why was that an important principle for the festival?
Human made photography means images made by humans using their own cameras and their own post-production not involving generative AI. Composites are fine. It’s important to the festival because we’re celebrating the human and what we can do. People are so tired of AI slop. But the algorithms are suffocating what’s real and what isn’t. We’re cutting through the algorithms. The idea is that art lovers will be able to see just what real photographers can do. And you’d be surprised at the creativity of real, passionate artists.
We’ve got a solid and great list of photographers, many of whom have been featured on the Phoblographer before in our publication. There’s street photography, conceptual work, surreal work, stuff inspired by paintings, it’s pretty wild.
Copyright Jason Gardner
New York has such a rich and diverse photography community. What are you hoping photographers, collectors, and photography lovers will discover when they come together at the festival?
I adore this question: I’m hoping that art lovers come and experience the work of photographers who they otherwise wouldn’t have necessarily seen in museums, galleries, etc. Some of the photographers have work in museums and galleries already. But their work isn’t given the prominence that a small space on a wall would have. Instead, they’re given an entire table and space for them to spread their work out for people to see. They’ll see the photographers who actually make the work, go through the prints, page through the zines and books, etc. It’s going to be a sensory experience at Culture Lab LIC, not something just behind a screen.
Copyright Raditya Indriyanto
If you could change one thing about how people experience, collect, or appreciate photography today, what would it be—and what role do you hope 5 Boro Foto Fest plays in making that change happen?
Truly, I’ve been working to try to turn Phoblographer into a print magazine. And I think we need to consume media more like that. Not everything needs to be instantaneous news. There are things that we need to slow down, digest, and take in for a while. Look at the way peoples’ attention spans have changed over the years and how they consume media. The metronome of all this is going back and forth so fast and people should experience the effects of it when it slows down some.
This is a festival for art lovers and photography lovers. And there’s truly nothing like this out there right now that I can think of where a photographer has direct access to a lover of the arts.
Thank your Chris. Printique is a proud to be a sponsor for 5 Boro Foto Fest. For more information, visit the 5 Boro Photo Fest website.
Vendors can apply until September 25th, 2026. Attendees can join us on October 25th at Culture Lab LIC.
