FotoFest Biennial Meeting Place

So tonight I am driving down to Houston to take part in the FotoFest Biennial Meeting Place. My session takes place from Wednesday to Saturday, and I will be tweeting and blogging live about my experiences. If you aren’t already following me on Twitter, please do so at @WRRPhoto. If you aren’t familiar with FotoFest and the Meeting Place, here is a bit of a primer.

2010 will be the 13th FotoFest Biennial of Photography and Photo-Related Art. It runs from March 12-April 25 of this year, and is an amazing event. FotoFest itself turns a huge portion of Houston into one giant exhibition. Some of the best photography from around the world can be seen at FotoFest. Each FotoFest has its own theme, with the last being Chinese photography and this year’s being Contemporary U.S. Photography. There are literally dozens of exhibitions around the city dealing with this theme, and each one that I have been to has been amazing. In addition to all the amazing photography on exhibit, FotoFest also sponsors a fine art auction and a number of interesting workshops. This years workshops deal with multimedia (Featuring Brian Storm), as well as creative communication in the digital age with Mary Virginia Swanson.

Perhaps most importantly (at least to me!) is the Meeting Place. The Meeting Place gives artists the opportunity to sit down in front of some of the most influential people in photography today. Each of the four sessions has 60-70 museum curators, gallery owners, book and magazine publishers, private collectors and other photo influentials (such as the director of VII) available for portfolio reviews. These sessions are invaluable in that they can provide you with guidance on your work, exhibition and publishing opportunities, as well as the chance to sell your work. Select artists from the Meeting Place are also chosen to exhibit in the next FotoFest Biennial as a “Discovery of the Meeting Place”.

I have known a few artists who have launched their careers via FotoFest, and others who have left entirely discouraged about their prospects. I’m not entirely certain where I will come out at the end of this, but I am looking forward to it. In fact, the nerves have already kicked in and that ancy, anticipation feeling has kicked in. In other words, I’m as ready as I’m going to get and I’m eager to get started!

So follow my experience here and on Twitter, and please post comments with questions, thoughts, etc. as I would truly love to know what everyone is thinking!