Missy Gaido Allen

Born in Houston, Texas, Allen studied Studio Art and Art History at Trinity University and at Trinity College in Rome, Italy; she also holds a Master’s in Art History from Rice University and a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Iowa. Her work can be found at Photo-eye Gallery's online Art Photo Index and at argusgallery.com. She is a former Artist-in-Residence for the National Parks Service, and select images have been licensed by Kodak, Sony, Hasselblad, and Apple. She has had solo exhibitions in conjunction with FotoFest 1998, 2000, 2016, 2018, and one forthcoming in 2026.

Ameer Barnes

Born in Sugarland, Texas in 2004, Ameer Barnes began their photography journey at 13 with a smartphone photo of a dead rose. Inspired by artists like Andrei Tarkovsky, Stephen Shore, and Danny Lyon, Ameer explored portrait, nature, and documentary photography. Driven by curiosity and self-improvement, they learned through trial and error, later studying at the Houston Center for Photography and Houston Community College. Their work was featured in HCP's Learning Curve 16. Now based in Houston, Ameer primarily works in digital formats, continually learning and refining their ability to craft powerful visual stories.

Brad Burkons

I have been making photographs on-and-off since my teens. I have been much more consistent in keeping up with my practice since 2016, mainly in street and live band photography. Professionally, I worked in video production, including 21 years at HoustonPBS, mostly as a videographer/editor on feature stories and a handful of arts documentaries.

Joe Cornett

Joe Cornett is a fine art photographer and teacher that is currently making work in the American Southwest. He earned an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from Arizona State University. His work explores manmade subjects that are out of commission but still have some life to them. He has shown his work nationally including exhibitions at the Tucson Art Museum, SF Camerawork, and has had a solo exhibition at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado. His work is inspired by Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Terry Falke and Bill Jenkins.

Arturo Corral

I am Houston based photographer whose journey first started with a film camera in 2017. I grew up reading skateboard magazines, alongside browsing hours of photo blogs late into the night. As time went on I heavily focused on taking photos of every day life, with close friends and family always in orbit. I am heavily motivated by street photography and the endless pursuit of capturing fleeting moments.

Chel Delaney

Chel Delaney is a multidisciplinary artist and writer whose artworks often employ photographic images. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, where she studied English Literature, she also earned a certificate in photography from ICP. Delaney's home base is San Antonio.

Nao Fujiwara

Nao is a Japanese photographer based in Houston, specializing in documentary-style family photography as well as everyday scenes that often go unnoticed. With a quiet, thoughtful approach, she captures the subtle beauty in the ordinary — from the tender chaos of family life to the stillness of untamed fields and busy city streets. Her work invites viewers to pause and see with fresh eyes, revealing poetry in fleeting moments and delicate details. Through her lens, even the simplest scenes become a gentle reminder that wonder is always close at hand.

Marc Furi

Marc Newsome (artist name Marc Furi) is an accomplished photographer, filmmaker, educator, and visual artist with over a decade of experience in teaching, exhibitions, and public art. He holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Practice and Emerging Forms from the University of Houston (2024). Marc currently lectures at Rice University, leading courses in Fiction Filmmaking and Documentary Production. His creative practice has garnered recognition through group exhibitions, including the Lawndale Art Center Big Show (2023), FotoFest Biennial (2021), Blaffer Museum (2024), Museum of Fine Arts Houston (2025), Marfa Invitational (2025), and the City of Houston Civic Art Collection in the IAH.

George Imirzian

George Imirzian is a photographer based in Boston.

Raquel Johnson

Raquel Johnson is a Mexican-American photographer based in San Francisco, California. Although born in San Francisco, she was raised in Nevada. After earning a degree in graphic design and working in New York, she returned to her birth city. During the pandemic, Raquel rediscovered her passion for photography. She began examining her identity as an infant adopted in the 1960s. Her current project, Mijita, traces her personal journey of self-discovery and reckoning with the complex psychological realities of adoption. Her self-portraits explore the uncertainty and emotional complexity that many adoptees face as they navigate questions of belonging and identity.

Xuan Lu

Xuan Lu is an Asian American photographer in Houston, Texas. After receiving her BA in art history from The University of Texas, she worked as an art consultant, developing healing art programs for hospitals nationwide. Currently attending the Glassell Studio School of Art, she has participated in the 2025 Student Exhibition. This project is a love letter to my boys, Drew (10) and Dylan (2). I never understood “the days are long, but the years are short” until now. From mayhem to quietness, photography allowed me to freeze time. I will cherish these moments long after the boys have grown.

Valentine Ollawa

Valentine Ollawa is a Nigerian-American photographer born in Nigeria and based in Houston, Texas. His work explores themes of identity, memory, and spirituality across the Black diaspora, bringing a depth of conversation and poetic discipline to his visual stories. Using a documentary and community-driven approach, he reimagines everyday moments as sites of resistance, beauty, and meditation, constructing compositions on both personal and community narratives to reclaim stories shaped by migration, identity, and collective memory. Ollawa was selected for the 2024 CENTER 23rd Annual Santa Fe Review Symposium and is a semi-finalist for the 2024 Print Center’s 99th Annual International Competition.

marcie omen

Born in Ft. Worth and attending the University of Houston, Marcel Omen (b. 1997) is an artist and scholar whose work focuses on the materiality of blackness.

Princewill Onyeahialam

Princewill Onyeahialam is a Nigerian-American photographer who was born and raised in the Houston area. His journey into photography started with an introductory photography class at the University of Houston, where he was studying Digital Media at the time. His passion for photography and visual communication quickly grew. Currently, he uses photography as a means of storytelling and to express different ideas and emotions.

Michelle Schoenberg

Michelle Schoenberg, a middle school teacher in Houston, TX, draws inspiration from the natural world to explore themes of connection, place, and the passage of time through her artwork. Her current work experiments with composite imagery from her neighborhood walks with the intent of creating the sense of intimacy she finds in her relationship with nature. She currently studies art and photography through courses at Houston Center of Photography and the Glassell Studio School of Art.

Trent Teinert

A visual artist from Harlingen, Texas, currently based in Houston, Texas. His work explores the complex relationship between individuals and the urban environment. Through his artistic practice, he investigates how people navigate and utilize the cityscape and the ways in which this built environment shapes our movements and behaviors. Specifically, his focus lies on instances of subversion and resistance against urban structures, with the aim of encouraging a more mindful and critical engagement with the world around us.

Ginneh Thomas

I came to photography during the pandemic, looking for a way to explore my own voice outside of performance. As an actress, I am used to interpreting other people’s stories—photography became a way to tell my own. My work blends the conceptual and the documentary, rooted in curiosity, memory, and the search for light—both literal and emotional. Black expression is part of that lens, but so is the small-town Midwest, quiet, tenderness, and wonder. I’m drawn to moments that feel ordinary but carry weight. This is how I process, question, and connect—with myself, others, and the world.