Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1516370
O ne of Houston's art entities known around the globe — joining the hallowed ranks of Rothko Chapel, Project Row Houses, and the Orange Show — is FotoFest, founded by two pioneering photojournalists, Wendy Watriss (2023 Art League Houston Lifetime Achievement in Arts Leadership honoree) and her late husband, Fred Baldwin. Since FotoFest's inaugural edition in 1986, America's first and longest running international biennial of photography and new- media art has made Houston an epicenter of the photographic world. Six weeks every other spring, international, national, and Texas photographers, curators, critics, and collectors flock for this influential, career-shaping gathering that begins at FotoFest's Sawyer Yards HQ and spills out to participating galleries and museums. We never miss FotoFest and neither should you. Begin with FotoFest's dual exhibitions: "Critical Geography," organized by executive director Steven Evans, at Silver Street Studios and Winter Street Studios, and "Ten by Ten Reviewers Select Ten Portfolios from the FotoFest Meeting Place 2022- 2023," organized by curator Max Fields w i t h e x h i b i t i o n s m a n a g e r C h r i s Wicker, at The Silos at Sawyer Yards (both March 9 – April 21). Explore the work of photographer of Texas Monthly renown John Dyer in a decades- spanning show at H e i d i Va u g h a n Fine Art, including D y e r 's m u s e u m - collected 1992 images of Selena, taken when this queen of Tejano music was just discovered (through March 30). Fresh from exhibiting in the streets and subways of Buenos Aires, Karen Navarro's unforgettable woven photographic portraits of indigenous peoples of Argentina can be experienced in "The Hidden Side of the Moon" at TANK Space, Spring Street Studios (March 15 – May 11). Finally, Art League Houston 2009 Artist of the Year, Keith Carter, presents images from his haunting new book, Ghostlight, at Redbud Arts Center (March 2 – April 27). Collectors, calendar this date: FotoFest Fine Print Auction & Gala Dinner, Thursday, March 21, at Silver Street Studios (info/tickets fotofest.org/ auction). fotofest.org, heidivaughanfineart. c o m , k a r e n n a v a r r o p h . c o m a n d @karennavarroph, redbudartscenter.com. Catherine D. Anspon From top: Karen Navarro's Florencia (Aymara), 2024, at TANK Space at Spring Street Studios. C. Rose Smith's Un+tled no.19 – Savannah Co7on Exchange 1, 2022, from the series "Scenes of Self: Redressing Patriarchy," 2022 – ongoing, in FotoFest's "Critical Geography." 82