My server is running PHP 4.8 which doesn't support the mysql_set_charset() function. For ZenphotoPress to display images in the widget, and show albums in the box where I type in my posts, I had to comment line 436 in zenphoto_bridge.php:
mysql_set_charset('utf8', $zp_db_link);
change it to:
// mysql_set_charset('utf8', $zp_db_link);
now ZenphotoPress works perfectly--although I'm not aware of the side-effects of the change; my database is in english. ZenphotoPress rocks! Thanks for the great work!