March 16 - April 3, 2012

2012 Meeting Place Portfolio Review. Photo by Hall Puckett

FotoFest is in a league of its own. It is something not to be missed by photographers in any stage of their careers.

Judy Haberl, Boston, Massachusetts Meeting Place Registrant

ABOUT THE
PORTFOLIO REVIEW

The 2012 FotoFest Meeting Place Portfolio Review Program brought together over 165 arts professionals and 500 artists.

Reviewers selected by FotoFest came from 24 countries and 21 states in the U.S.  Reviewers came from 31 Museums, commercial Art Galleries and Non-Profit Art Spaces; 26 Publishing Houses and Magazines; 10 Photography Festivals, six Photo Agencies and two Online Photography Platforms. There were 21 Independent Curators and collectors, and six Art Consultants.  View the list of 2012 Reviewers here.

 

2012 Meeting Place Portfolio Review.  Photo by Hall Puckett

 Registered artists came from 34 countries and 37 states in the U.S. The portfolio was held for sixteen days, March 16 – April 3, 2012.  In late April and May 2012, FotoFest will begin updating its Successes of the Meeting Place web page to feature the many new opportunities that artists and reviewers have gained from participating in the 2012 Meeting Place

A favorite program at the Meeting Place is the Evenings with the Artists – Open Portfolio Nights. A free event that is offered to all registrants of the Meeting Place, Evenings with the Artists are designed to connect artists with the broader art-loving public and collectors outside the formal portfolio reviews. It allows reviewers to look at the work of all participating artists. Exhibiting artists in FotoFest’s own Biennial exhibitions and those from Participating Spaces may also show work at Evenings with the Artists.

All 2012 Meeting Place artists took part in the Evenings with Artists. Seven hundred viewers attended the four Evenings, one for each portfolio review session. Artists sold work, engaged viewers in lively conversations about their art. The general public had a first-hand encounter with over 500 artists and their art works

An important and increasingly important educational component of the Meeting Place is the Student Observation Program. This year, 90 students from eleven university and college art departments participated in FotoFest's 2012 Student Observation Program. The faculty-selected students experienced day-long portfolio reviews, sitting in with reviewers and observing the dialogue between artists and professional curators, gallery owners, publishers, editors, directors of photo agencies and festivals.

2012 Meeting Place Portfolio Review. Photo by Fred Baldwin

2012 Meeting Place Portfolio Review. Photo by Fred Baldwin

 In 2012, FotoFest gave Meeting Place Scholarships to 10 artists from Mexico, Russia, Korea, the U.S., Argentina, Ukraine, Dominican Republic, and Brazil. FotoFest’s scholarship program to the Meeting Place is based on selections made by FotoFest’s curatorial team attending other photo events worldwide and through special exchange programs with photographic arts institutions like the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City and En Foco in New York City.

In conjunction with the Meeting Place, FotoFest held three Workshops with 130 participants. The workshops were presented by ASMP, Mary Virginia Swanson and Stephen Mayes. Topics ranged from practical advice on copyright and digital image storage strategies, to book publishing world, art and commerce, and expanding opportunities for artists in the field of media communication.

Photography bookstores from photo-eye (Santa Fe, New Mexico) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston participated in the Meeting Place event. The portfolio reviews featured 12 artist book signings and four artist- curator dialogues on Russian photography. Reviewers and registrants shared evening trips to FotoFest’s Biennial exhibitions and presentations at Participating Spaces, with curatorial tours and artist talks throughout Houston.

 

The 2012 Discoveries of the Meeting Place exhibition, featured ten artists from FotoFest’s 2010 portfolio reviews in a dramatic corporate space adjacent to the Meeting Place.

TOP:  2012 Meeting Place Portfolio Review. Photo by Fred Baldwin  MIDDLE: 2012 Evenings with the Artists. Photo by Fred Baldwin    RIGHT: 2012 Meeting Place Portfolio Review.  Photo by Hall Puckett

The 2012 Meeting Place was located in downtown Houston at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Houston Downtown, 400 Dallas Street, Houston, TX 77002.