International upstart
FotoFest hits the City of Lights: Houston's Meeting Place portfolio reviewarrives in Paris
The signature event of Houston's internationally renowned FotoFest Biennial, the Meeting Place portfolio review, is crossing the pond. For three days in November, FotoFest International is collaborating with Paris-based online photography magazine Lens Culture to present the first large-scale internationally organized portfolio review in Paris.
"What stands out most is the degree of diversity," Meeting Place coordinator Marta Sánchez Philippe tells CultureMap of the event's participants. All together, Lens Culture FotoFest Paris 2010 will cull 170 photographers and 48 reviewers from 32 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America. A long waiting list accompanies the event's inaugural year.
The review's arrival reflects the transcontinental nature of today's art realm, and the success of FotoFest's Meeting Place formula. Established in 1986 with the early Les Recontres d'Arles as its muse, the Meeting Place began a system of modern portfolio reviews in the United States that has been mimicked by over 50 events around the world.
Taking place at Spéos Paris Photographic Institute on Nov. 15-17, the event has attracted seasoned reviewers from such institutions as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Carnegie Museum of Art, The New York Times, Berlin's Kehrer Verlag Publishers and London's The Photographer's Gallery. The mix of curators, publishers, gallery owners, festival directors, agency representatives and art directors will proffer expert feedback, and in the process ink a chance editorial assignment, book publication contract, art gallery representation or a feature article in a magazine, both online and in print.
Not coincidentally, the Paris Meeting Place coincides with Mois de la Photo and Paris Photo — "considered the preeminent photography fair," says Sánchez Philippe.
"This November, without doubt, Paris will be the world capital of photography," notes Jim Casper, founder and editor of Lens Culture.
Casper initially encountered the organizers of FotoFest at the Houston biennial, and the idea for a Paris event came about quite naturally. The director of Spéos Institute, Pierre Yves Mahe, was already familiar with the lionized FotoFest program, and had organized photography workshops in Houston.
This isn't the first time FotoFest has taken its portfolio review outside of the Bayou City — in 2006, the Meeting Place made its mark in Beijing.