Global Visions

The FotoFest Biennial 2026, Global Visions—FotoFest at 40, celebrates four decades of groundbreaking photographic arts and education programming in Houston, Texas. 

The works on view by over 500 artists from the United States and over 58 countries represent FotoFest’s sustained global impact and reach. The Biennial’s central exhibition is organized chronologically, featuring significant works and themes from each of the 20 previous biennials from 1986 to 2024, and marking the organization’s contributions to the field of photography. The exhibition presents works by Adrian L. Burrell, Edward Burtynsky, Mário Neto Cravo, Susan Derges, Lalla Essaydi, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Samuel Fosso, Flor Garduño, Shilpa Gupta, Rula Halawani, Alfredo Jaar,  Koo Bohnchang, Dorothea Lange, Susan Meiselas, Delila Montoya, Aïda Muluneh, Pushpamela N., Luis González Palma, Doug and Mike Starn, and many others drawn from the 1986–2024 Biennial exhibitions.

Curated by FotoFest co-founder and former artistic director Wendy Watriss and FotoFest executive director Steven Evans, with co-curators Annick Dekiouk and Madi Murphy, the Biennial 2026 dives deeply into the international and local archives of FotoFest’s 40-year legacy and renews contact with hundreds of artists.

It reconstitutes the organization’s widely praised exhibitions and citywide photo and mixed-media presentations that have defined FotoFest’s pioneering history. Photographs from past biennials span themes of geography, identity, war, ecology, and social change.

Chronicling History: FotoFest Book
A new 600-page book, co-published by Schilt Publishing, offers an in-depth look at FotoFest’s history and the groundbreaking reach of its programs. This publication, a bold, timely, and textured presentation, features hundreds of artists whose work has shaped FotoFest into a global focal point for photography and visual culture since its first Biennial in 1986.

Artist commissions
Additionally, the Biennial 2026 presents new FotoFest commissions from Lola Flash, Shavon Aja Morris, and André Ramos-Woodard, in collaboration with Project Row Houses, Houston.

Meeting Place 2026: Where connections begin
The biennial Meeting Place Portfolio Review returned to Houston from March 12 through March 16, 2026. As the largest and longest-running portfolio review program in the United States, FotoFest’s Meeting Place connects photographers and lens-based artists from around the world with a global community of curators, editors, publishers, and gallerists.

The Meeting Place provides artists with the opportunity to present their work one-on-one to many of the most influential curators, publishers, and institutional leaders in the fields of photography and new media art.

Featured programs
The FotoFest Biennial 2026 features a focused program of talks, conversations, and events extending its themes into the public sphere. It opened with a keynote address at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, by Mark Sealy, Keep on Movin’: Agency and Advocacy, Then and Now, situating contemporary photographic practice within histories of representation and resistance. Creative Conversations: Photobooks as Practice examined the photobook as an artistic form and mode of dissemination, followed by Unfiltered: Portfolio Walk, fostering direct exchange between artists and the public.

Reflections at 40, with Wendy Watriss and Steven Evans, traced the organization’s evolution. Other public programs include hosting Uncle Bob’s Photo Zine & Book Market, presenting FotoFun Family Day: Zine Making, collaborating with the Galveston Symphony Orchestra to present a newly commissioned video by Nick Bontrager for The Photographer by Philip Glass, and more. 

The FotoFest Biennials are one of the largest national platforms for cross-cultural dialogue, networking, and artistic exchange in the United States. It illuminates Houston’s role as a center for photographic and new media art. The FotoFest Biennial creates multiple entry points for every audience—seasoned followers of art and photography and new viewers alike.