We begin this report with one of FotoFest’s most unexpected and successful programs.

The Meeting Place FotoFest Beijing 2006 grew out of the trip we made in November 2005 to the LianZhou PhotoFestival in south China and the subsequent trip to FOTOFEST2006 by ten Chinese curators, photographers, journalists, and businessmen. Two of them, GAO Lei and Jimmy Chu, proposed that FotoFest collaborate in creating a Meeting Place portfolio review in Beijing. We agreed and set the conditions under which the collaboration could function.

After a long ride from Houston to Copenhagen via Newark, it was a pleasure to arrive at Copenhagen’s modern airport/train station to have a smooth and effortless train trip to Odense. I found myself on another voyage of ongoing surprises on many levels that are still swirling around in my brain after a week at the Triennale.

"Wendy and I had a remarkable introduction to Chinese photography during the week we spent at Lianzhou International Photoweek last November. The purpose of the trip was to investigate the possibilities of increasing FotoFest’s connections with Chinese photographers and photographic institutions but what we found took us way beyond the usual scope of photography."

On October 13, 2005, Wendy and I arrived in Brasilia for the fourth edition of Foto Arte, an annual citywide photo event that makes Brazil the site of at least two international photography events at this time. The other is FotoRio in Rio de Janeiro.

On September 3, 2005 FotoFest organized a follow-up trip to a memorable November 2004 visit to Paris, where we put together a tour for FotoFest Board members to Le Mois de la Photo and the Paris Photo fair. It was a great success. Prague, unlike Paris, was un-chartered territory for most of the group -- 18 Board members and FotoFest supporters.

The Berlin Photography Festival 2005 that we have all been waiting for opened on September 23, 2005. This Berlin-born festival was organized by a passionate group of curators, photographers, a photo magazine publisher, volunteers, and non-profit organizations. Wendy Watriss and Fred Baldwin were invited from FotoFest.

Portfolio Review, photo exhibitions and auction in Birmingham, UK, Rhubarb Rhubarb presented its annual international festival of the image from July 20 to August 13, 2005. The portfolio review included 152 photographers, 43 international curators, magazine and book publishers, as well as representatives from picture agencies. FotoFest co-founders Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss were invited from FotoFest.

More than 90 photographers were selected to participate in the portfolio reviews sponsored by the Santa Fe Center for Photography. FotoFest co-founders Frederick Baldwin and Wendy Watriss Center were among 50 reviewers for Photography who participated in the two-day portfolio review July 8 - 9. The reviews were followed by a day-long series of panels touting WHO'S COLLECTING WHOM - Everything you need to know to place your work in the best collections, Sunday July 10.

FotoFest visits a new photography and multi-media event in Romania. The portfolio review makes it to Bucharest with an international group of collectors, editors, museum curators, and photography festival directors. Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss were invited from FotoFest.

FotoFest Founders Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss, along with Meeting Place Coordinator Jenny Antill, attended the oldest and most prestigious of the Middle European photography festivals, Mesiac Fotografie (Month of Photography), one of the founding members of the Festival of Light network, in Bratislava, Slovakia. Report by Wendy Watriss and Fred Baldwin.

The Prague House of Photography (PHP) Founded in 1989 by photographers and curators, moves into new and spacious headquarters in 2005. The 1920s building in Downtown Prague replaces the earlier PHP headquarters damaged by August 2002 floods. FotoFest visits the new space, still under construction. Report by Wendy Watriss and Fred Baldwin.

In November 1996, FotoFest created an exhibit with Susan Meiselas from her book Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History. Opening at Houston's Menil Collection, the exhibit continued an eight year tour to exhibitions worldwide before its current and final exhibition at the Hotel de Ville in Paris. Report by Fred Baldwin.

Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss Traveled to Brasilia, Brazil in late June to review portfolios and see the two FotoFest exhibitions being presented by FotoArte, a photography festival there.