Houston’s FotoFest Embraces a Global Moment At 40 — A Sprawling Exhibition and a Major Menil Moment Await

Houston Becomes the Epicenter of the International Photo World

By Catherine D. Anspon // Mar 4, 2026

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Lola Flash, "The Weight of Silence," 2026, from the series "syzygy, the vision," 2019 – ongoing, at Project Row Houses, during FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

Lalla Essaydi, "Converging Territories #24," 2004, at FotoFest (© Lalla Essaydi. Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York)

Olga Tobrelut, "Modernization" (detail), 2002, at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

André Ramos-Woodard, "GAINS," 2025, from the series "How To Be A Man," 2025, at Project Row Houses, during FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

Luis González Palma, "La Lotería [The Lottery]," 1988–1991, at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

Prince Varughese Thomas, "Wife," 1993, from the series "InterSect," at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist and Hooks-Epstein Galleries)

Dorothea Lange, “Oakland, California, March 1942 – A large sign reading, ‘I am an American’ placed in the window of a store in Downtown Oakland on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. The store was closed following orders to persons of Japanese descent to vacate from West Coast areas. The owner, a University of California graduate, will be relocated with hundreds of Japanese-Americans to a War Relocation Authority center,” 1942, at FotoFest (Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC)

Aida Muluneh, "Access, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia," from the series "Water Life," 2018, at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

Flor Garduño, "La Mujer, Juchitán," 1987, at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

Paul Shambroom, "Martin Mace Cruise Missile, Interstate 75 Exit 146, Centerville, Georgia," 2008, from the series "Shrines: Public Weapons in America," at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

Mónica Alcázar-Duarte, "Güerita," 2017, from the series Second Nature, 2017–ongoing, at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

Vik Muniz, "The Bearer (Irmã)," from "Picture of Garbage," 2008-2011, at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

Henri Cartier-Bresson, "Alicante, Spain," 1933, printed 1985, at The Menil Collection (© Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos)

Bruce Davidson, "Marcher, Selma, Alabama," 1965, at The Menil Collection

Bruce Davidson, "East 100th Street," 1966, at The Menil Collection (The Menil Collection, Houston, Anonymous gift. © Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos. Photo by Paul Hester)

Marc Riboud, "Untitled," 1967, at The Menil Collection

Samuel Montague Fasset, "Frederick Douglass," circa 1864, at The Menil Collection (Gift of Adelaide de Menil Carpenter)

Pierre Verger, "Untitled (Portrait of a Wayri Ch’unchu, Fiesta de Corpus Christi, Ocongate, Cuzco, Peru)," 1939–1945, at The Menil Collection (© Fundação Pierre Verger. Photo by Jennifer McGlinchey Sexton)

Walker Evans, "Alabama Cotton Tenant Farmer's Wife, Allie Mae Burroughs," 1936, printed before 1939, at The Menil Collection (© Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Caroline Philippone)

Brassaï, "Mask of Bread," 1936–37, at The Menil Collection (© Estate Brassaï-RMN)

Brassaï, "Girl Playing Snooker, Montmartre," 1933, printed 1973, at The Menil Collection (© Estate Brassaï-RMN)

Wendy Watriss selecting images for “Photography from the Menil Collection: Curated by Wendy Watriss,” October 20, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Hobson)

America’s longest-running and most important photographic showcase, the Houston-founded international biennial FotoFest, is set to take centerstage this Saturday, March 7 through May 10, 40 years into its run.

Considering beginning with viewing the crucial “Global Visions: FotoFest at 40” at Sawyer Yards, a sprawling and epic exhibition encompassing 450 artists. United States photographers join those from nearly 60 countries. A FotoFest’s dream team of co-founder/original artistic director Wendy Watriss, current executive director Steven Evans, and co-curators Annick Dekiouk and Madi Murphy organized this seminal retrospective

0633 Bruce Davidson, VOTE Marcher, Selma, Alabama, 1965 — Bruce Davidson’s *Marcher, Selma, Alabama,* 1965, at The Menil Collection

“Global Visions” offers the opportunity to bask in work reflecting the biennial’s expansive take on the medium. This approach encompasses classical, lens-based photography and new media alike photographers and photographic traditions beyond American shores. Memorably, the Arab world, Russia, Africa, India, Korea, China, India, Latin America, Europe, Latino Photography in the United States are featured. There is also an emphasis on environmental and activist causes (Water, Earth, the Future of the Planet, Artists Responding to Violence, If I Had a Hammer).

In my three decades on the art beat, FotoFest has been the one constant international story emanating from Houston. While you’re investigating the 2026 biennial, visit Project Row Houses, which hosts fresh FotoFest commissions for three artists: Houston-based Shavon Aja Morris and André Ramos-Woodard, and New York activist Lola Flash. The trio share a common focus on gender explored via portraiture, while Flash adds a dose of Afrofuturism to image-making: depictions of the self-portrait as a mythic, gender-fluid astronaut.

Look for myriad compelling exhibitions at participating spaces as well — with more than 80 pendant shows spun around photography overall. Our must-see relates to the reason why FotoFest’s founders, the late Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss, settled permanently in Houston. Hint: Dominique and John de Menil play an outsized role.

The Menil Collection tapped Watriss to cull through 5,500 photographs in the museum’s vaunted holdings and mount an exhibition that reveals the informed eye and social-justice stance of the de Menils via 45 featured images. In the gallery guide, Watriss writes: “John and Dominique. . . were more than collectors. The images in the museum’s photography holdings are a testament to the interconnection of art and activism, art and human history, and the many contributions the de Menils made to life in Houston and other parts of the world” — rather like FotoFest itself. The Menil exhibition runs through May 31.

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Paul Shambroom CentervilleGA 2 — Paul Shambroom, “Martin Mace Cruise Missile, Interstate 75 Exit 146, Centerville, Georgia,” 2008, from the series “Shrines: Public Weapons in America,” at FotoFest (Courtesy the artist)

The Biennial 2026 “Global Visions: FotoFest at 40” will be on view at Sawyer Yards this Saturday, March 7 through May 10. Learn more here. FotoFest Biennial Opening Night Party is set for this Saturday, March 7 from 8 pm to 10 pm, free admission. RSVP here.

“Photography from The Menil Collection: Curated by Wendy Watriss” is on view at The Menil Collection through Sunday, May 31. For more information on the museum exhibit, go here.