The FotoFest Biennial — among the world's most significant photography events — has announced the theme of the 2012 biennial: Contemporary Russian Photography: Post-war Avant-garde to Today. The theme will be probed through five photography, video and multi-media exhibitions of works by contemporary Russian artists.

The realm of Russian photography to be exhibited (that of the Soviet era and beyond) has the appeal of relative obscurity for many art audiences. But the rise of strong cultural forces in contemporary Russia makes the theme timely, as well as relevant to Houston's identity as a boom town with overflowing art offerings.

"Houston is very much an entrepreneurial city," says Wendy Watriss, co-founder and co-creative director of FotoFest International. "Individuals have created the symphony, opera, the Menil. The phenomenon you see occurring in the new wealth countries like Russia is what Houston experienced 30 years ago," she says. "It's a real interesting connection."

Biennial organizers are also planning a symposium exploring the phenomenon of private support in the cultural sector of Russia.

"A significant number of Russian businessmen have become a part of the international business sphere," Watriss says. "Once they become established and have a relatively fixed set of assets, they turn their attention to other kinds of things beyond making money. Very often, it's 'giving back' or investing in things that aren't necessarily money making, but quality of life enhancing."

Watriss cites Roman Abramovich (currently ranked the 50th wealthiest person in the world) as among this class of Russian culture barons, many of whom share a fascination with photography. Abramovich's recent art endeavors have come largely at the behest of wife Daria Zhukova, founder of the celebrated Garage Center for Contemporary Culture.

He balances his business pursuits and ownership of London's Chelsea soccer team with such pursuits as attending the Houston-based FotoFest Biennial, where his daughter participated in the lauded Meeting Place portfolio review. In 2006, he sponsored an exhibition of photographs of Uzbekistan by renowned Soviet photographer Max Penson, organized by the Moscow House of Photography and displayed at the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House in London. He also backed the 2005 exhibition Quiet Resistance: Russian Pictorial Photography 1900s-1930s, displayed at the same venue.

In 2000, Watriss and FotoFest co-founder and co-creative director Frederick Baldwin were taken by two Russian curators and photo historians to see a private collection of this same movement of Russian photography. "It was a very exciting collection with beautiful work, all part of the history of visual culture in Russia," recounts Watriss. The trip resulted in a 2002 exhibition in conjunction with the ninth FotoFest Biennial. Since then, FotoFest curators have already brought the work of Houston photographers to venues in Moscow, and vice versa.

A decade since the 2002 biennial, the forces of Houston and Moscow are reconvening. Watriss and Baldwin will collaborate with internationally known independent curators Evgeny Berezner, deputy director general in charge of photography and multi-media projects of the ROSIZO State Museum and Exhibition Center of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, and Irina Tchmyreva, a senior researcher of photography at the Department of Russian Art of the 20th Century in the State Research Institute of Art History of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts.

Together, the team will explore the state of Russian photography through five photography, video and multimedia exhibitions that will shed light on the strong creative movements that emerged almost immediately under Perestroika in the 1980s and 90s. The biennial's theme follows what Waitriss describes as a "long interest and involvement with Russian curators and photographers."

"We have seen quite a bit of contemporary Russian work that is simply unknown," says Watriss. "Over the past decade, the attention has been shifted by the art market from Russia to Asia, particularly to China," she explains, concluding, "We're making an attempt to go ahead of the curve and put artists of high quality back on the visual radar."

The FotoFest 2012 Biennial will take place March 16 - April 23, 2012 at more than 100 galleries, non-profit spaces, and commercial venues in the Houston area.