The New York Photo Festival '09 kicks off this evening and gets into full swing tomorrow. Exhibitions, satellite shows, panels + talks, and award ceremonies continue through Sunday, May 17th for four seriously jam-packed days in DUMBO. It's a lot of ground to cover, so here's a rundown on the comings and goings of some JBP-related peeps:

Exhibitions:
HHS! panelist + 20x200 artist, photographer Stefan Ruiz is included in Chris Boot's main exhibition, Gay Men Play. He'll be showing portraits of gay men taken during party weekends in Berlin and San Francisco.

Portfolio Reviews:
Jeffrey Teuton, Associate Director of Jen Bekman Gallery and myself, Sara Distin, Associate Director of Jen Bekman Projects, Inc. | 20x200 + Hey, Hot Shot! will be reviewing portfolios in the review pavilion.
I'll be there Saturday + Sunday afternoon from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Jeffrey will be there Friday morning from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Sunday afternoon from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Sign-ups for morning sessions begin at 8:00 a.m. and at 1:00 p.m. for afternoon sessions. You can opt for a slew of reviews or for just one.

Panels:
On Friday, May 15th, two talks that are definitely going to be worth listening to include: at 10:00 a.m. "Blogging in the Photography Community," a panel lead by Joerg Colberg with Cara Phillips, Laurel Ptak, Andrew Hetherington, and Brian Ulrich and at 5:00 p.m. "The Edge of Vision, Abstraction in Contemporary Photography" presented by Aperture with Lyle Rexer, Jack Sal, Silvio Wolf and Penelope Umbrico. *

Books + Magazines:
NYPH'09's Book Soup is Thursday, May 14th from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. The event includes a talk, "The Death of the Photo Book," lead by powerHouse Books CEO Daniel Power and followed by book signings. 20x200 artist Rachel Papo and HHS! panelist + 20x200 artist Kent Rogowski have both published books with powerHouse.
HHS! panelist Stephen Frailey serves as Editor in Chief of DEAR DAVE, magazine. Visit the Media Lounge of St. Ann's Warehouse to be the lucky recipient of a limited number of Issue #4 that will be handed out for free!

Photo Awards:
Many congratulations are due to Bob O'Connor, Kevin Miyazaki, Daniel Traub, Juliane Eirich,** Brad Moore, Yijun Liao and Shen Wei.*** Among hundreds of nominees, these seven are up for New York Photo Awards this year. Come out to cheer them on when the Winners and Honorable Mentions are announced (and their work presented) at the Gala Ceremony for the New York Photo Awards 2009 on Friday, May 15th at 8pm in the St. Ann's Warehouse Auditorium.

Hope to see you down under the bridge this weekend!

Bummed you won't be in Brooklyn? We have some 20x200 photo greatness to lift your spirits:

* TOMORROW! 20x200 presents a special edition by Penelope Umbrico to benefit Aperture. Be sure to get your hands on a print by signing up for the mailing list.
** See new work from Juliane Eirich at 2:00 p.m. today on 20x200.
*** Sign up for Jen's newsletter to be among the first to see Shen Wei's 20x200 editions this summer.