title_SeeingHarvey

SEPTEMBER 6 - NOVEMBER 3, 2018
SILVER STREET STUDIOS

2000 Edwards Street, Houston, Texas 77007

FotoFest marks the first anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, the historic and catastrophic storm that inundated huge swaths of Houston, surrounding areas, the Texas Gulf Coast, and Louisiana last August. Opening just after the storm’s one-year anniversary, SEEING HARVEY: Personal Stories, Public Responses will focus on the widespread and sustained influence this monumental event had on the region’s landscape, infrastructure, and communities, and on the resilience and fortitude of those affected.

Seeing Harvey will combine images from professional photojournalists and artists with photographs made by members of the public. To assemble the collection, FotoFest is accepting submissions of work from the public through social media and via the web. 

Harvey dropped an estimated 27 trillion gallons of water on the states of Texas and Louisiana, causing an estimated $190 billion in damages and taking the lives of 107 people. It will likely be remembered as the costliest storm in United States history.

Harvey

Rikki Saldivar goes through old family photos at a house that belonged to her grandparents on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, in Houston. Saldivar's grandparents, and four young relatives, drowned in a van in Greens Bayou during Tropical Storm Harvey. Photo by Jon Shapley, Courtesy of Houston Chronicle

As the Gulf Coast enters another hurricane season, FotoFest looks back and considers what has been learned, how things have changed, and what, if anything, has improved. Working with partners, including the recently-established Houston Flood Museum, the Houston Chronicle newspaper, the Center for Public History at the University of Houston, and the Severe Storm Prediction, Education, & Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center at Rice University, FotoFest is staging a number of public programs to encourage discussion on how the region collectively dealt with the events, and how the people, the city, state, and federal governments are preparing for future storms. Dates for the public programs will be announced as they are confirmed.

SEEING HARVEY is exhibited concurrently with the exhibition DELUGE, a video installation, recovered artifacts, and striking images of Houston flood survivors, and their environs, by international photographer Gideon Mendel.

#SeeingHarvey

EVENTS

Tuesday, October 2, 2018, 6:30pm / Flooding and the Future of Houston and Documenting Harvey
Houston Chronicle, 4747 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77047
With JIM BLACKBURN, co-director of the Severe Storm Prevention, Education, and Evacuation from Disaster (SSPEED) Center at Rice University and director of the Bayou City Initiative, and DR. STEPHEN KLINEBERG, founding director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University; and WENDY WATRISS, award-winning photojournalist, in conversation with photojournalists of the Houston Chronicle. Presented in partnership with the Houston Chronicle, Bayou City Initiative, and SSPEED Center at Rice University.

Saturday, November 3, 2018, 2-5pm / Hearing Harvey: History and Memory
FotoFest International at Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards Street, Houston, TX 77007
An afternoon of personal storytelling and recording oral histories with the Center for Public History at the University of Houston. A selection of storytellers will recount their experiences during Hurricane Harvey, after which members of the public are invited to record their own histories to be added to the Center for Public History's archive.

2018-2019 EXHIBITION SPONSORS

Houston Endowment Inc.; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; David and Martha Moore; National Endowment for the Arts; Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation; The Wortham Foundation; Texas Commission on the Arts; Judith and Gamble Baldwin; The Powell Foundation; FotoFest Board of Directors; Silver Street Studios; Hexagroup; Iland Internet Solutions; and generous donors to the FotoFest Challenge Grant.

Special Support for SEEING HARVEY and DELUGE
Bayou Fine Art Imaging; Robert and Heather Westendarp; Saint Arnold Brewing Company; and Total Wine & More.