Sam Barzilay – United Photo Industries
From his first encounter with photography to the opening of his gallery…
At 11, Sam was given a camera by his uncle and entered his junior school photography club in Greece to learn more about the medium. That’s where he saw an image of the shadow of a fork against a plate by Kertesz. He was amazed by the beauty and the strength coming from this extremely simple composition. He studied philosophy and photography at TUFTS University and at the School of Museum of fine art in Boston, Massachusetts. He then tried to make a living with photography, mainly in travel and social documentary assignments for Greek magazines in Central Asia at a time where not many photographers were going there. Then came the time (2004-2005) for 1 year mandatory military service in Greece and Sam explains that “so as not to lose his mind”, he spent all his free time planning a 3-month journey to the Wahkan Corridor – a narrow strip of land in Afghanistan, separating Tadjikistan and Pakistan. During this challenging journey, he lost 17 pounds, learnt to deal with an 8-hour interrogation by the Tadjik intelligence services, carried with him a DVD with footage of the sacking of the Kyrgyz palace and overthrow of the Kyrgyz government that a friend photo journalist had handed to him to bring back to the US among other incredible adventures. Retrospectively he is surprised he and his friend made it alive.
In 2007 after completing his Masters of photojournalism at Westminster University in London, he was offered an internship at the Paris Office of the VII agency after which he accepted the proposition of Frank Evers – then CEO of the VII Photo Agency – to coordinate and run the first edition of the New York Photo Festival in Dumbo – a joint venture of VII Photo and the publisher PowerHouse Books. He launched the festival in 2008 and became director in 2010.
In early 2011 he decided to create his own company – United Photo Industries – with Dave Shelley. They accomplished their first project – multiple 20 feet shipping containers converted for a few days in temporary galleries – as part of the Dumbo Art Festival in the fall of 2011. At the same time Sam was busy abroad, building a collaboration with the Athens Photo Festival and getting married in Australia! Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, an electrical fire started in the building in which they had their offices. They had to relocate. Their landlord (and supporter) Two Trees Management, proposed an empty space in 111 Front Street for a few month to give them time to get back on their feet. The space was in fact a gallery space so they decided to do 7 shows in 7 days while they were there. At the end of these shows they were offered a lease and took it. This is how the “accidental” United Photo Industries gallery was born.
A fond memory…
He remembers the morning of their first opening. At that point, and because they had lost everything in fire, there was nothing in the gallery but lights and the 15 framed pictures of the show – “ A big 900 square feet of nothing” Sam says. That morning, Dave (Shelley), and Sam’s wife Laura drove a truck to Manhattan where a big company was relocating and therefore giving away furniture. They brought back three desks, three rolling chairs, three couches, three armchairs, filling cabinets, bookshelves
“Finally we had a functioning office – It was Christmas!”
A bad memory…
Not really a memory as such but just a fact. To continue showing art in the gallery or to run the current large scale container project PHOTOVILLE, Sam, Dave and Laura have to pile up many day jobs and he finds that exhausting.
A photograph that has a special importance in his life…
Egg by Rahi Rezvani – Sam relates to the intense beauty and fragility of Rahi’s work, to his senses of magic realism. Rahi is an Iranian – both commercial and fine art – photographer living in Holland. Sam has shown his very large prints in Athens, Brooklyn and Shanghai since he discovered him in 2011.
On his bedroom wall…
Egg by Rahi Rezvani
Thank you Sam!
Stéphanie de Rougé
