Hi Folks,

Finally, after more than six weeks of trekking to opening receptions, lectures, screenings, dinners, lunches, brunches and other art and social engagements, the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA 2009 Photography Festival – our 15th Anniversary – has come to a close. For those of you who have not had a chance to visit, a few fine exhibits will remain on display well into November and December, and at least a couple of them will be around through the first months of of 2010. Dates and times are available in the 2009 Exhibitions & Events Schedule section of our web site.

We are very thankful for your participation and interest in FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA. It is with the collaboration, the support, and the efforts of everyone involved – exhibiting artists, institutions, private galleries and businesses, curators, the public, the media, city government, government entities of other countries, etc. – that our unique festival has become such a successful endeavor.

Defying all economy-based predictions, FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA 2009, with over seventy exhibitions and events spread out between the last week in August and the first week in October, has been one of our largest and longest festivals on record, and has also, surprisingly, generated substantial sales of photographic art. Additionally, if you browse through the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA 2009 exhibits posted in this, our SAFOTO Blog (we were able to include most of them) you will notice that the ingestibles at opening receptions (food, beverages, etc.) were copious, to say the least. This catering extravaganza, plus the the printing, mounting and framing of all the works on display, the promotional printed matter, the advertising, the signage at galleries, the bands, musicians, DJ’s and other entertainment at various venues, the flowers and decorations, gasoline and travel expenses, impulse purchases, etc., etc.; make for a very significant economic footprint, which is one of the salient sources of pride for our festival.

But ultimately, the most important aspect of the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA Festival is the personal commitment of creative capital that you – each and every one of you – bring to bear every year for the benefit of the many communities and constituencies that compose the City of San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.

We hope to see you all again in 2010, when – in partnership with the City of San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs and the Instituto Cultural de Mexico – FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA-SAFOTO will join in the commemorative celebrations for the centennial of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and the bicentennial of the 1810 Mexican Wars of Independence from Spain. The general (non-compulsory) theme suggested for participants in FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA 2010 will be An Interpretive Contemporary Approach to Revolution and Independence in Mexico: The Significance of Cultural Migration and the Social and Economic Impact of These Events in Texas. This may sound like a mouthful of academic artspeak, but it is just a general theme and the emphasis is on Interpretive and Contemporary, which allows for a wide berth of expressive options.

We wish you all good fortune and good health, and a wonderful holiday season.

Michael Mehl & Ann Kinser