re/thinking photography:
Conceptual Photography from Texas

FotoFest International and the Houston Center for Photography (HCP) present re/thinking photography, an exhibition highlighting contemporary conceptual photography in Texas.

The seventh edition of the biennial Texas Series exhibition, co-curated by FotoFest and Houston Center for Photography, presents a diverse view of contemporary photography, installation, and new media art from 18 emerging and established artists from in and around Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. The collaborative approach between the two institutions provided an opportunity to survey a large and diverse pool of photographers from around the state over the course of several months. What emerged through this extensive research was a strong conceptual approach to the medium in which artists are rethinking what a photograph can look like, how it can function, and ultimately, how it can reframe our view in surprising and thoughtful ways.

Many of the artists take a self-reflexive approach to the medium that allows viewers to explore not only what we see, but also how we see by pointing to conventions of the photographic genre such as the photograph as a document, the photograph as a mirror, or the photograph as history, for instance. Through these structures we are asked to question how fact is constructed, whose identities we value, and whose histories we tell. This meta approach is not new to photography, and the exhibition points to this. One of the most established artists in the exhibition, the collaborative duo MANUAL (even their chosen name points back to the how of photography), have been constructing photographs in this vein since 1974. This formal repositioning of the medium provides an opportunity for these artists to explore normative notions of reality, meaning, history, time, family, and identity. Importantly, such repositionings allow artists to chart new paths forward for photography and our understanding and engagement with the world.

re/thinking photography is a single exhibition split between the two venues; FotoFest, at their Washington Avenue Arts District venue at Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards Street; and Houston Center for Photography’s Museum District location, 1441 West Alabama Street, adjacent to the Menil Collection.