New York City’s free premier photography destination

Each year brings a special and outstanding group of artists and programming partners to curate and present free outdoor photo exhibitions across all five boroughs of NYC. With stories highlighting hope, joy, and compassion, while honoring experiences of adversity and heartbreak, Photoville aims to elevate the power of visual storytelling by fostering empathy and understanding within our communities.

PHOTOVILLE FESTIVAL BRINGS OVER 80 FREE EXHIBITIONS OF LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY TO BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK AND EVERY BOROUGH OF NEW YORK, JUNE 7–22

14th annual Photoville Festival fills New York with commanding visions of our tumultuous moment—and of the resilience, connection, and joy that persist within it

Through the festival’s pluralistic lens, Photoville Village (a cluster of shipping containers, banners, and PhotoCube exhibitions in Brooklyn Bridge Park) and exhibitions across New York’s five boroughs connect the many sides of the city and disparate experiences throughout the world

Photoville NYC 2025 kicks off with an event-packed, free-to-the-public Opening Weekend Community Celebration in Brooklyn Bridge Park, on Saturday June 7th and Sunday the 8th.

Throughout the month of June, Photoville offers professional development opportunities in partnership with Leica Camera and Diversify Photo, as well as education field trips for New York City elementary, middle and high-school students supported by PhotoWings

Photoville (co-founded by Laura Roumanos, Sam Barzilay, and Dave Shelley) brings local and international visions of our world today to Brooklyn Bridge Park and every New York City borough with its 14th annual festival, Photoville NYC 2025 (June 7–22). In over 80 free-of-charge exhibitions, the festival reflects our tumultuous moment, while offering hope in its collection of images from across the spectrum of human experience that transcend our era of reinforced silos and borders.

Founded in 2011, Photoville has throughout its history sought to populate New York’s public space with perspectives as diverse and international as the city itself. In pursuit of this mission, they launched the Photoville festival, committed to nurturing a new lens of representation, an overarching vision that extends to a diversity of themes and stories. Celebrating and emulating New York’s spirit and identity at the nexus of the hyper-local and vastly global, the festival’s exhibitions offer windows into lives and stories unfolding down the block and oceans away.

Proudly supported by its partners, including marquee partners Brooklyn Bridge Park, Leica Camera, PhotoWings, The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, NYC Parks, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council for the Arts, Two Trees Management, and the DUMBO BID, Photoville’s widespread exhibitions reach residents and visitors throughout the many corners of America’s most populous city, while maintaining Brooklyn Bridge Park as a central festival hub. The festival features Photoville’s signature shipping container exhibitions, clustering open-air viewing opportunities in what’s become known as the Photoville Village in Brooklyn Bridge Park. With Brooklyn Bridge Park, Barretto Point Park, Bella Abzug Park, the Seaport, Alice Austen House, Travers Park, and many other locations brimming with images and ideas, Photoville is likewise a celebration of the city’s many spirited public spaces, and the worlds that intersect within them.

In 2025, striking photography unflinchingly offers insight into experiences of a world in upheaval, commingled with works that zoom into everyday joys, marvels, and the perseverance of human connection. Siddhartha Mitter, in The New York Times, has written that Photoville “is a reminder of photography’s power not just to document crisis, but to help imagine better lives.” Harnessing the urgency and intimacy photography offers, the festival introduces us to works by photographers working in myriad forms (from eye-opening photojournalism to inventive visual storytelling) at various points of their careers (from the vital explorations of student photographers to works from acclaimed artists at the height of their powers).

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A look back at our 2024 Festival

Photoville 2024 featured the return of the Photo Village in Brooklyn Bridge Park and our classic shipping containers, in addition to open air exhibits in Brooklyn Bridge Park and around all 5 boroughs. It also featured in-person and virtual workshops and special events, including artist talks, professional development workshops, tours and more. We displayed 87 exhibitions dispersed throughout New York City. 

Over 1,000,000 visitors engaged with our free and public exhibitions in the five boroughs, showcasing the incredible work of over 200 artists, collaborating with partners including The New York Times, National Geographic, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Alice Austen House, Doctors Without Borders, Magnum Foundation, Pulitzer Center and more.

Working with parks and city officials to safely install exhibition banners and custom structures throughout parks and public spaces in New York City, exhibitions remained on view for several months so that communities could enjoy them while using these open spaces as a place to recharge, exercise, and relax.

Daytime programming at the 2024 Festival included 100+ workshops and special events presented with and by artists and industry professionals, with partners such as Diversify Photo, Leica Camera, Adobe, ICP, PhotoWings, and more. Professional development workshops had over 600 attendees.

Over 700 students and educators across New York City attended our 2024 Festival education program which was proudly supported by our partner PhotoWings and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment. Throughout the week, participants were able to meet exhibiting photographers to hear them speak about their work, while also attending panel discussions of student photographers beginning their journey in visual storytelling.