FotoFest Co-Founder Wendy Watriss Reflects on 40 Years of Photography and Activism
Wendy Watriss, a San Francisco native born in 1943, teamed up with Fred Baldwin in 1983 to establish the Houston FotoFest photography biennial after their initial meeting in 1970. Both were recognized photojournalists. Watriss attended New York University and contributed to the St. Petersburg Times and Public Broadcast Laboratory. For almost ten years, they captured American life, culminating in the 1986 publication, Coming to Terms. They relocated to Houston in 1980. Watriss’s 1982 Agent Orange project for LIFE magazine supported veterans’ healthcare legislation. The inaugural FotoFest in March 1986 showcased 62 exhibitions. Now, as FotoFest marks its 40th anniversary with Global Visions, it highlights over 450 artists. Baldwin died in 2021, while Watriss is currently archiving at the Briscoe Center.
Key facts
- Wendy Watriss co-founded Houston FotoFest with Fred Baldwin in 1983.
- The first FotoFest was held in March 1986 with 62 exhibitions and nearly 800 photographers.
- Watriss won the 1982 Leica Oskar Barnack Award for her Agent Orange project.
- FotoFest’s 2026 biennial, Global Visions: FotoFest at 40, features over 450 artists from 59 countries.
- Watriss curated a photography exhibition from The Menil Collection’s holdings of 5,500 photographs.
- Watriss and Baldwin spent nearly a decade photographing Texas communities, resulting in the 1986 book Coming to Terms.
- Fred Baldwin passed away in 2021 at the age of 92.
- Watriss’s archives are being donated to the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.
Entities
Artists
- Wendy Watriss
- Fred Baldwin
- John Biggers
- Helmut Newton
- Ikko Narahara
- Franco Fontana
- William Klein
- Larry Burrows
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Bruce Davidson
- Danny Lyons
- Charles Moore
- Myron Holly Kimball
- Martin Luther King
- James Baldwin
- Malcolm X
- Nelson Mandela
Institutions
- FotoFest
- Glasstire
- New York Times
- St. Petersburg Times
- Public Broadcast Laboratory
- Ford Foundation
- Diners Club International
- LIFE magazine
- Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles
- Mois de la Photo
- Rice University’s Institute for the Arts
- National Endowment for the Arts
- The Menil Collection
- Rothko Chapel
- Warwick Hotel
- Sawyer Yards
- Briscoe Center for American History
- University of Texas at Austin
- Texas Southern University
- Texas Observer
- Artnet
- Leica Oskar Barnack Award
Locations
- San Francisco
- United States
- Greece
- Maryland
- Madrid
- Spain
- Paris
- France
- New York City
- New York
- St. Petersburg
- Florida
- Eastern Europe
- West Africa
- Chad
- Vienna
- Austria
- Texas
- Austin
- Grimes County
- Anderson
- Fredericksburg
- New Braunfels
- German Hill Country
- Houston
- Baltimore
- Arkansas Delta
- Texarkana
- Arles
- Germany
- Japan
- Italy
- Savannah
- Georgia
- Nicaragua
- Malaysia