The Annual FotoWeekDC Celebration of the Power of Photography

FotoWeekDC, even though only two years old, is rapidly establishing itself as one of the premier annual celebrations of photography in the U.S.

Many of us who attended the November 7-14 event in Washington, D.C. in 2009 are ready to mark our calendars for the next go-around in November 2010. Details will be announced at the www.fotoweekdc.org website.

It is difficult to convey the huge scope of this affair, which had over 150 components.

The launch party at four locations on the 3300 block of M Street in Georgetown was one of the parties of the year in DC. Food and drink flowed freely as lovers of photography mingled and perused photography exhibits at the four locations. The exhibits suggested the power of photographic images in documenting and affecting our view of the world today.

The troubling worldwide scene in which we find ourselves today was the sobering theme of many of the exhibits. Political disintegration in Africa, food insecurity leading to desperate migration, plus ethnic and religious hatred in places such as Iraq, were dominant and typical themes.

One display featured a curated collection of the main photography books that had been published worldwide in the last year.

Photo contests sponsored by FotoWeekDC drew entrants from aspiring and professional photographers worldwide. There was even a separate contest for youth photographers in the Washington, D.C. region.

Some events of FotoWeekDC invited participation and were quite novel. For example, a Night Visions happening encouraged anyone who was interested to photograph Washington, D.C. on a designated night, from sundown to sunup. Participants then brought their digital images to a central location where a distinguished group of photo editors was present with photo-viewing computers. The editors chose what they considered the best shot from each photo capture and had it instantly printed large, at 11×14, and hung on a wall. By the end of this all-night party there were about 170 best shots on the walls.

FotoWeekDC also offered an occasion for the rollout of an important initiative funded by the Library of Congress. The LOC was once charged with preserving books, but now sees its mission as a larger one of preserving and protecting images as well. Working with the noted professional association ASMP (The American Society of Media Photographers), the LOC has funded the development of a substantial online website where all aspects of best practices for preparing and preserving digital photographic images are discussed. The public-domain information at this www.dpbestflow.org website covers such subjects as properly preparing photos with the metadata information that will make copyright protection applicable. “Dp” in the name suggests “digital photography” and “bestflow” alludes to “best work flow,” meaning best practices in modern photography production and processing. One critical question, for example, is the issue of proprietary formats in which much digital capture of images now occurs. Nikon and Canon, for example, have their own proprietary photo capture formats. Will those formats be readable in the future, perhaps long after these companies no longer exist? Efforts are ongoing to establish a standard format to which all proprietary formats could be translated.

Both for its exuberance and fun, as well as its thoughtful presentation of worldwide photography and photo issues in our time, FotoWeekDC gets high praise. Next year the momentum for this event will likely be even greater.

FotoWeekDC functions partly due to its broad base of sponsors and citizen volunteers. Founder and president of the event is the visionary Theo Adamstein, president of the Dodge-Chrome image processing facility.

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