Global Visions

This book is a visual journey and history through one of the world’s oldest and most respected international photography events, the FotoFest Biennial of Photography and New Media, 1986-2026.

Global Visions celebrates forty years of FotoFest, the pioneering international photography biennial started in Houston in 1986 with a belief in images as a shared, democratic language.

Drawing from twenty FotoFest Biennials, this volume brings together more than 350 pages of photographs spanning over a century and a half – from early analog practices to today’s expanded and digital forms. The works reflect artists’ responses to their worlds, engaging themes of identity, migration, memory, conflict, environment, and everyday life across cultures and geographies.

Essays by FotoFest cofounder Wendy Watriss, curator and professor Mark Sealy, and FotoFest executive director Steven Evans frame the book’s images through personal reflection, critical inquiry, and institutional history.

Together with a concise historical overview, Global Visions invites readers to look closely, think generously, and consider photography’s enduring power to connect us.