A focused look at some fresh viewpoints

PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW

June 07, 2011|By Cate McQuaid, Globe Correspondent

Clockwise from top left: Magda Biernats San-Zhr Pod Village, Holly Lyntons… (The Magenta Foundation)

FLASH FORWARD 2010 GROUP SHOW

Fresh Works: A Sampler of New England Photographers

At: Fairmont Battery Wharf, 2 Battery Wharf, through June 11. www.flashforwardfestival.com

Hundreds of photographers and photography aficionados spent this past weekend taking in lectures, panel discussions, and a sangria party at Flash Forward Festival Boston. The hobnobbing is over, but the exhibitions are still up, including an international survey of young photographers, a promising look at 10 local ones, and a handful of quirky photographic art installations outdoors at the Fairmont Battery Wharf in the North End.

The Magenta Foundation, a nonprofit arts publishing house based in Canada, organized the festival showcasing emerging photographers. Its Flash Forward program supports Canadian, American, and British photographers under 35.

“We want to catch them and teach them how to have a career,’’ said MaryAnn Camilleri, Flash Forward’s director. Panel discussions were aimed at photographers, collectors, and other fans, and featured some big names in the medium, including photographer Todd Hido and curator Susan Bright.

Last October, the first Flash Forward Festival took place in Toronto, featuring an exhibition of the 2010 winners. That show was retooled for the festival here.

Boston photo fans may have seen previous Flash Forward exhibits at the Griffin Museum of Photography, in Winchester. For this year’s festival, Camilleri invited the Griffin’s executive director, Paula Tognarelli, and George Slade, curator at the Photographic Resource Center, to organize “Fresh Works: A Sampler of New England Photographers’’ — a more absorbing exhibit than the festival’s larger “Flash Forward 2010 Group Show.’’

The distinction points up the difference between a curated exhibit and a juried one: Depth versus breadth. Juried shows — the “Flash Forward 2010’’ exhibit for one — tend to be broad and democratic, rather than tacking toward a singular vision. Curated shows — even if they are, like this one, samplers — can be better tailored, thanks to the disciplined eyes of a good curator.

The “Flash Forward 2010’’ show hopscotches among documentary work, photojournalism, and fine art photography, with only a couple of images for each artist. That could work if the installation created correspondences from one image to the next, but the organization feels random. Without thematic or formal ties, the show is crowded and hard to digest.