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Chris talks AI, getting photography off our screens, and what to expect at the first 5 Boro Foto Fest.
Inside Street Photography |
The official newsletter of Street Photography Magazine |
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| Friday, 2 Oct 2026 | Reading time: 14 mins | Read online
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"More Art, Less Content": Chris Gampat on 5 Boro Foto Fest |
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A little food for thought today, and one really cool, free event that needs to be on your radar.
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Photography has never been easier to make and see and yet, strangely, it’s also easier than ever to overlook. To my point, we scroll past thousands of images on the daily and we make work for platforms we don’t control. And now, as many people struggle to separate generative AI from human-made imagery online, questions about what a photograph is, who made it and what the work is worth are hot topics.
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Chris Gampat, founder and editor-in-chief of The Phoblographer, wants to take some of that conversation offline. On October 25, the first 5 Boro Foto Fest will bring photographers, galleries, collectives and photography lovers together at Culture Lab LIC in Queens for something closer to an artist’s market than a traditional photo festival. The emphasis is on physical work people can see, hold and buy, and all of the photography being presented was created without generative AI.
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I talked with Chris about why he felt photography needed an event like this, why he’s drawing such a firm line around generative AI, and why the future of photography might involve spending a little less time looking at it on our screens.
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Where did the idea for the 5 Boro Foto Fest come from? Was there a specific moment when you thought, “Photography needs something like this”?
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Most of my journalistic work in photography for the past few years has taken place in the tech sector. We took a break from the arts at Phoblographer because of a dispute with a PR rep and the NYTimes. There were some other things too, but the big thing that I saw is that AI is constantly coming for all of us. And I wanted to do something in-person for a while beyond just being at my desk. This is an idea that I sat on for like two years and then decided to do it. I asked for help, which is something that's hard to do as an entrepreneur let alone in the photography world and the journalism world. So I did it outside of my normal spheres and I got it. Some of the ideas came from a good friend in Zurich. Others from my business partners Stephen Mallon and Nigel Sielegar. They're both incredibly important to this whole thing.
Stephen has been in this industry for probably longer than I've been alive and we met when I was Vice Chairman of APA NY and he was, I believe, the Chair of ASMP.
Nigel and I have met through the food world. He's the designer of the original Motorola Razer phone and he runs a few companies now.
Something else to know: lots of folks don't know that I'm a super high-functioning blind person. And that makes me an anomaly in this industry. So with this, I'm leaning into being an anomaly. I truly haven't seen any of the other big photo publications create something where artists can actually make money.
God, when I re-read what I'm writing, I realize that I really am 39 years old, hahaha!
Sounds like a lot of factors combined to bring the festival to life. (And don’t remind me! I’m 39 too haha.) So, what can attendees expect to experience at the festival?
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This is the part that I'm really excited about. All of the work that we're curating with photographers has no generative AI used in the creation of the images. When art lovers enter Culture Lab LIC's parking lot, they'll be greeted by a bunch of photographers, galleries, and collectives under canopies. Think of it like a giant flea market but everyone is in the photo industry. Then there will be a stage with some quiet music, food, drinks, etc. When they enter Culture Lab LIC, they'll see even more photographers and vendors. The promotional images show some of the photographers, but not everyone yet. And a really fun aspect about the website is that as you refresh certain pages, the images change. That's because those are images from the photographers who've granted permission for us to use their images in promotion.
You'll see some familiar names too. We're doing this in Long Island City in Queens. There's so much public transportation that gets there including the ferry. It's an excellent place for street photography too, of course.
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The event is very deliberately anti-generative AI. Why was it important to make that stance part of the festival’s identity rather than simply focusing on traditional photography?
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In the same way that it's an important stance that no one wants to be reading journalism written by AI. If it's marketing copy, then that's different, right? But if it's something that you assume is done by a human, then that's a massive difference. No one wants to have prints of generative AI on their wall. They want work made by humans, that is made more rare, and that means something to them. In addition to that, I think that social media and online algorithms have been taking too much away from photography. It's one of the most essential art forms but people don't think of it as such. At least the music industry has protections, but photography doesn't all that much. We're in something now that I like to call the post-social media age. And we need to get back to making photographers build their legacy. You can't do that on Instagram.
I mean, also, just think about it: in the face of big tech an AI, a blind guy who is known in several circles as a street photographer and a few handfuls of artists in the photo industry are standing up to remind people about humanity and what we're capable of. Most importantly, that our art deserves to be on your walls, in your hands as you're paging through zines, etc.
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Do you see generative AI primarily as an economic threat to photographers, an artistic one, or something broader than either of those?
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It's an economic threat to a lot of things. First off, people don't even think of crediting photographers when they use their images. Here in NYC, there's a BBQ vendor that sells and donates some of the proceeds to charity. And I had a lot of respect for him until he used a copyrighted image that I know. He tried to play it off and act like he was the victim. But the truth is that if someone impersonated him, he'd be pissed.
But the problem is that people don't think about this or even think about copyrights because we aren't taught that. So with that said, if they don't understand copyrights and usage, how would they understand the ethics about AI?
This happened years ago too with a company called Unsplash and I remember how I was one of the only photography publishers talking about it. There's no equity here and we need something a lot more socialism based. Instead, we've got hyper-capitalism happening right now. What's worse is that when this stuff is taught in schools, students aren't retaining anything because their phones are killing their attention spans. We have to respect the rights of the artist more.
Street photographers especially need to have their rights protected as AI is combing their work to build stuff.
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What does authenticity mean to you in photography right now?
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I adore this question. Very personally, I think that the images should be shot by the photographer. And I think that a single photograph must be at least 75% one image to call it a photograph. Otherwise, it's a composite. And that's fine. But the thing is that Photoshop is so easy these days that there is no skill involved. If most of someone's work is post-production, then they're a photo editor/retoucher for a living. If they're mostly shooting images, then they're a photographer. It's similar to a bar that serves food too. If most of the money made is from food, then they're a restaurant. Think Applebees. If most of the money is from booze, then they're a bar. Think your local dive bar, for example. Definitions matter there in a legal sense because kids aren't allowed in bars. But photography has never had that.
I've got mixed feelings about street photography being edited. There's Diado Moriyama's work, that definitely edits. Then there are so many others who don't.
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There’s a strong emphasis here on physical work: prints, books, zines, mixed media. Why does getting photography off the screen matter to you?
Because we're all staring at screens and treating them like something that's super, duper disposable. When you have a print around you and you see it all the time, then it matters to you. Imagine taking a Polaroid print of you and a loved one. You don't put those in your drawer and forget about it. You keep them out on your desk or something. When photos are on a screen, people don't treat them like they matter. When they're in front of them at a museum and printed, matted, etc. they treat them differently. Anyone that says something along the lines of, "Oh, I could've done this though," also needs to answer the question: well, why didn't you do it?
The 5 Boro Foto Fest is doing that at a super duper affordable option.
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This is the first 5 Boro Foto Fest. If it succeeds beyond your expectations, what could this become?
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We're already talking about doing this maybe twice next year. I don't want this to seem extremely commercial either. I want it to be like a big Artist's Alley that you'd see at Comic Con or something, but photographers. Then I just want bigger brands and vendors to support them. In the future, we want to make this even more affordable for photographers. We're discussing allowing photographers under 30 to have a free spot too.
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There’s a thread running through Chris’s answers that I think is especially important right now: photographs should have somewhere to go besides the feed.
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They can become prints on someone’s wall, or books and zines. They can become projects that take years or decades to make and objects that stay with people for even longer. And, importantly, they can have value beyond the attention they receive online.
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I don’t think photographers need to abandon the internet, and I certainly don’t think there’s only one right way to make or share photography. But I do think every photographer should consider the idea that our photographs are more than disposable pieces of content competing for a few seconds of someone’s attention.
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Maybe one simple way forward is to make the work, put it into the world, and give people a chance to encounter it somewhere other than a screen.
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A big thank you, Chris, for taking the time to share more about the thinking behind 5 Boro Foto Fest with us. And thank you to you and your team for doing the heavy lifting to put this kind of festival together. We’re very much looking forward to seeing it come to life in Queens later this month.
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If you’re in New York City on October 25, stop by Culture Lab LIC, meet the photographers, browse the prints, books and zines, and experience some great photography away from the screen.
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