Throughout the world, freshwater supplies are threatened with contamination and over-use. The world is now using 52 percent of the available fresh Water. Water consumption is growing at twice the rate of population. Yet 1.2 billion people still do not have access to clean Water.
Water is one of the principal determinants of human survival and economic development. As the basis for all organic life, Water is also an essential part of spiritual practice throughout the world and an important catalyst for creative expression.
"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in Water." - Dr. Loren Eiseley The Immense Journey, 1946
An ambitious 2-part program of new technology / mixed media and classical photography, reaching across 130 years of photo-related art.
Through the juxtaposition of black and white classical photography with the work of artists who are transforming silver gelatin print into digitized imagery, mixing photography with other media and using the fluid medium of the Internet, FotoFest examined the relationships between past and future in art.
New directions in cross-disciplinary work and contemporary experiments with historical photographic techniques. Exhibitions ranged from site-specific mixed media installations to classical black and white photography.
FotoFest commissions and creates 18 exhibits: a groundbreaking exhibit on contemporary Slovak staged photography; contemporary photography from Mexico; photographic art from South Africa, with one of the first U.S. presentations of world-renowned South African artist, William Kentridge; Finnish master photographer Pentti Sammallahti; Brazilian artist Eustaquio Neves; large-scale contemporary Italian landscape photography; and historical Peruvian work by Eugene Courret
As part of the The Sixth International Festival of Photography, FotoFest creates an exhibit with Susan Meiselas from her book project Kurdistan, In the Shadow of History and exhibits The Mountain People of Yunan Province, an exhibit by previously unknown Chinese photographer, Wu Jialin, who comes to Houston from mainland China. Wu Jialin becomes internationally known as a result of this exhibit.
In Spring 1994 FotoFest presents the first group exhibition of post-revolutionary Cuban contemporary photographers from the island.
FotoFest produces American Voices, Latino Photography in the U.S., a ground-breaking exhibition of contemporary photographic art by artists from the three oldest and largest Spanish language cultures in the U.S. A Symposium on Latino photography and culture in the U.S. includes Latino artists and scholars as well as cultural leaders from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
FotoFest creates The Global Environment, a multi-faceted exhibition featuring still photography, sculptural installations and a six-computer work station on the geography, population and natural resources of the earth. FotoFest creates The Earth Forum computer station with the Houston Museum of Natural Science. After 1994,FotoFest donates The Earth Forum to The Museum of Natural Science where it is used as an earth study center training 10,000 public school children a year since 1995.
FotoFest creates and commissions 13 exhibits by European artists and 15 exhibits by Latin American artists to reflect important political, economic, and cultural/ aesthetic directions on both continents.
Among the European highlights are Charles Marville’s vintage prints showing the rebuilding of Paris from 1865-1880; early editions of the famous Soviet magazine – USSR under Construction; 1930s work from the Bauhaus Archive; avantgarde Czech artist and designer Karel Teige; a hidden archive of the World War II Hunger Winter photographs from The Netherlands; contemporary Black British photographers; Spanish artist Tony Catany's work on The Mediterranean; contemporary Soviet photography from Soviet Manifesto; and Polish artist Wojiech Prazmowski.
All exhibits from Latin America are new to U.S. audiences – the first portfolio of war photography in Latin America, The War of the Triple Alliance 1865-1870 ; the Catholic legacy, Guatemala; exploration and opening of Brazil by Marc Ferrez; pioneer women photographers from Argentina; a secret archive of the War in Salvador; contemporary work from Argentina and Uruguay; color work from Brazil; contemporary conceptual work from Colombia and Venezuela. Brazilian ambassador to the U.S., French, Dutch and Argentine cultural officials, and the Director of Bauhaus Archives in Berlin come to Houston to open FotoFest exhibitions.
FotoFest launches the third Biennial at The George R, Brown Convention Center with replica of Berlin Wall. The Biennial salutes historic changes in Central and Eastern Europe. FotoFest transforms Houston’s Convention Center into an immense art gallery with 27 exhibits from 22 countries. There are inaugural exhibits from Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria as well as a special behind-the-scenes look at the rise of Vaclav Havel and the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution.
FotoFest inaugurates three groundbreaking historical and contemporary Japanese exhibits. Princess Christina of Sweden opens FotoFest’s exhibit of contemporary Swedish photography. Opening of Nelson Mandela exhibit coincides with Mandela’s release from prison. Collaboration with Eastman Kodak brings the predecessor of CD technology to Houston – a laser disk showing over 6,000 images from the portfolios of 300 international photographers.
FotoFest inaugurates the first citywide international Biennial of Photography in the United States, FOTOFEST1986.
FotoFest curates and commissions 30 exhibitions for the First Biennial. Six Houston museums, 14 art spaces, 27 commercial galleries, and 17 corporate buildings show photography from 16 countries. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) opens acclaimed exhibit of Robert Frank by MFAH curator, Anne Tucker. 110 international and North American curators, collectors, publishers, and photographic opinion makers come to FotoFest to review photographers’ portfolios at The Meeting Place.
The Meeting Place becomes one of the hallmarks of FotoFest, widely replicated by photo events in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Mexico, Rumania, Slovakia, the U.K. and the U.S. The Meeting Place has launched the careers of thousands of photographers since 1986. Fifteen years later, 350 photographers’ portfolios are reviewed by 120 museum curators, gallery owners, magazine editors, and representatives of photo agencies, collectors and publishers – from the U.S. and around the world.
