“There’s a strong visual heritage in Russian, this is no secret,” comments FotoFest co-founder and co-curator Wendy Watriss, referring to the country’s Modern art history legacy stretching from pioneering abstraction to Socialist Realism, “But very little is known about the period from 1955 to the present.” This year’s FotoFest biennial, taking place in Houston, Texas, from March 16 through April 3, will remedy that post-war blind spot with its focus on the history of Russian photography, from the height of the Soviet era to Perestroika and the present day.
Watriss, along with co-curator and founder Fred Baldwin, and the help of Russian art magnate Dasha Zhukova, will continue the festival's goal of bringing underexposed eras of photography to light in a series of chronological exhibitions around the city. Past FotoFest biennials have mounted exhibitions in Houston as well as meetings, shows, and portfolio reviews all around the world, taking on themes as diverse as water, U.S. photography, contemporary Korean photography, and digital media.
In this AI Interview video, ARTINFO speaks to Watriss and Baldwin about the upcoming biennial and gets a short lesson in Russian photography, from the punchy, graphic images of Sergey Petruhin to young guns like Nikita Pirogov.
FotoFest 2012 runs March 16 through April 3 in Houston, Texas