MaryAnn Camilleri wants to flash forward to a time when photographers of all ages work together. In fact, that’s why she founded the Flash Forward Festival.
“Because of the ever changing industry at this point in time, I’m trying to teach Boston how to work together and create something,” says Camilleri. “It is really about being inclusive.”
Camilleri is the Flash Forward Festival director and founder of the nonprofit Magenta Foundation. The festival was born out of a desire to network and educate aspiring photographers. Since its beginnings as a competition, which introduced emerging photographers from Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., Toronto-based Camilleri and the Magenta Foundation have developed their understanding of and appreciation for the Boston arts community.
“I started to get to know the community and asked everyone who I should talk to. I campaigned,” she says. “It was like being the mayor.”
The campaigning has paid off with great dividends. The second iteration of the five-day festival combines industry panels on how to publish, publicize and monetize photography in print, magazine and digital formats with a variety of different exhibitions.
Camilleri says a committee of six people internationally came up with what they would like to show people.
“The programming is exciting, taking people from different fields,” she says. “When we talk about the [photography] industry, people forget that the art directors are really critical — it’s important to introduce the [art directors] from Vanity Fair and Enroute Magazine in Canada.”
If you go
Flash Forward Boston
Tomorrow through Sunday
Fairmont Battery Wharf
Free, 800-257-7544
