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The Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Foundation announce the seventh annual Inge Morath Award
The annual prize of $5,000 is awarded by the Magnum Foundation to a female documentary photographer under the age of 30, to support the completion of a long-term project. One award winner and up to two finalists are selected by a jury composed of Magnum photographers.
Inge Morath was an Austrian-born photographer who was associated with Magnum Photos for nearly fifty years. After her death in 2002, the Inge Morath Foundation was established to manage Morath's estate and facilitate the study and appreciation of her contribution to photography.
Because Morath devoted much of her enthusiasm to encouraging women photographers, her colleagues at Magnum Photos established the Inge Morath Award in her honor. The Award is now given by the Magnum Foundation as part of its mission of supporting new generations of socially-conscious documentary photographers, and is administered by the Magnum Foundation in collaboration with the Inge Morath Foundation.
Past winners of the Inge Morath Award include: Emily Schiffer (US, '09) for Cheyenne River; Kathryn Cook (US, '08) for Memory Denied: Turkey and the Armenian Genocide; Olivia Arthur (UK, '07) for The Middle Distance; Jessica Dimmock (US, '06) for The Ninth Floor; Mimi Chakarova (US, '06) for Sex Trafficking in Eastern Europe; Claudia Guadarrama (MX, '05) for Before the Limit; and Ami Vitale (US, '02), for Kashmir.
Deadline:
All submissions must be postmarked or delivered by April 30th, 2010.
Form of Submission:
Images should be sent as a PDF document (no Quicktime, Powerpoint, or HTML files will be accepted). A subfolder with the individual image files must accompany the PDF file. Please do NOT format your document as a slideshow; we'll do that for you. Also, please do not password-protect your file.
All files and support materials must be submitted on a CD to the address below.
All submissions must consist of work done solely by the submitting photographer.
Image File Specifications:
- 40 - 60 images (1200 pixels on the longest side @ 150 DPI saved as a Jpeg compression at 8 minimum). In the subfolder containing individual images, please use numbered filenames indicating the image sequence, with the number coming first in the file name and then last name; for example: 01_Smith, 02_Smith, 03_Smith etc. (use only two digit numbers; 01, 02, 03, etc.). The first page of your document should show your name and the title of your project, if any.
Please label your CD with your name and contact information before sending it, and please test the CD to ensure that both it and your slideshow are functional.
Required Support Material:
- Printed project description.
- Printed Curriculum Vitae (maximum three pages) including name, telephone number, and mailing address.
- Photocopy or scan of ID clearly showing date of birth. Applicants must still be under the age of 30 before April 30th, 2010. Photographers represented by Magnum Photos and their immediate relatives are not eligible.
Return of Submissions:
Submissions that are not accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope will not be returned. Applicants waive any claims for loss of or damage to their submissions.
Announcement of Winner:
July 2010 on the web sites of the Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Foundation.
Fine Print:
Applicants grant the Magnum Foundation a license to reproduce, display and distribute their submissions solely in connection with the administration and judging of the Inge Morath Award, including on the Magnum Foundation website and the Inge Morath Foundation website.
Winners of the Inge Morath Award agree that any future publication, exhibition or display of the funded project shall credit the Inge Morath Award and the Magnum Foundation.
Upon completion of the funded project, a final (digital) copy must be provided to the Magnum Foundation. The Foundation, in furtherance of its charitable purposes, may, in the future, (1) display the project on its website and make it available for display on the website of the Inge Morath Foundation; and (2) publicly display the project (or excepts from it) in connection with exhibitions or promotional materials related to the Inge Morath Award. The Foundation will credit the artist as the author and copyright holder of her photographs.
Winners may be required to provide additional identifying information prior to receiving payment.
Send Submissions to:
Inge Morath Award
c/o The Magnum Foundation
151 West 25th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10001 USA
For Further Information:
- www.magnumfoundation.org
- www.ingemorath.org
Magnum Photographers selected for Best Books of 2009 by PhotoEye
» Jim Golberg for 'Open See'
» Peter van Agtmael for '2nd Tour, Hope I Don't Die'
» Lester B. Morrison (aka Alec Soth) for 'Lost Boy Mountain'
» Magnum Photos for 'Georgian Spring'
» Christopher Anderson for 'Capitolio'
» Martin Parr for 'Playas'
» Alec Soth for 'Last Days of W'
» Danny Lyon for 'Memories of Myself'
» Martin Parr for 'The Last Resort'
» Antoine D'Agata for 'Agonie'
Open See by Jim Goldberg: After having won the Fotofestival di Roma's International Gold Medal Book Prize, Jim Goldberg's latest book 'Open See' was selected as one of the Best Books of 2009 by photo-eye. Open See began four years ago as a Magnum commission for the Greek Olympiad in the summer of 2004. This project tells of the journeys of refugee and immigrant populations who travel from war torn and economically devastated countries, often leaving AIDS ravaged communities or totalitarian regimes to make new homes in Europe. Despite facing seemingly insurmountable difficulties, dreams of freedom and an indomitable will to survive are continual threads that tether migrants and refugees to their history and drive them forward toward a new life. Despite the harsh realities they endure, their stories are replete with hope and heroism.
2nd Tour, Hope I Don't Die by Peter van Agtmael: Peter van Agtmael's book '2nd Tour Hope I Don’t Die' is a deeply affecting look at the reality of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006-2008. Through Peter van Agtmael's lens, a delicate humanity emerges amid the chaos and brutality of combat.As an embedded photographer, van Agtmael follows the great sweep of the war with his camera – from graphic casualties, medical evacuations, and the aftermath of suicide bombings to moving portraits of young soldiers and their families recuperating, mourning, and surviving the harrowing consequences of war. Throughout, van Agtmael's diacritic narrative provides context for the horrors he witnessed, while often revealing the dark, inevitable ironies that occur in an environment where the necessities of daily life are forced to intersect with unspeakable violence and death. By turns gritty, haunting, and deeply moving, the book is a document of loss – and a cogent reminder of the costs of war.
Georgian Spring by Magnum Photographers: In 2009 Magnum Photogrpahers Antoine d'Agata, Jonas Bendiksen, Thomas Dworzak, Martine Franck, Alex Majoli, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Mark Power and Alec Soth were invited by Georgia’s Ministry of Culture to describe the country, each pursuing their own theme and working in their own way, chronicling their journey in words as well as pictures. The resulting book, Georgian Spring, has been honored by photo-eye as one of the best books of 2009. Georgian Spring is the travel journal of these ten Magnum photographers who visited Georgia during spring 2009. A 20-page chapter is devoted to each photographer’s work. The book also features a foreword by Dworzak, Magnum’s Tbilisi-based photographer; a timeline of Georgia’s history; an essay by Wendell Steavenson – who vividly renews her acquaintance with the country that she came to know while living there during the 1990s; and a chapter featuring the best of Magnum’s archive of photographs of Georgia – including Robert Capa’s 1947 photo-essay, made while visiting the Soviet Union with John Steinbeck. The book opens and closes with a series of postcards showing some of the country’s iconic attractions, old and new, chosen with Georgia’s President Mikhiel Saakashvili and Minister of Culture, Nicholas Rurua.
Capitolio by Christopher Anderson: Christopher Anderson's 'Capitolio', also selected by photo-eye, bears little resemblance to the scenic niceties one can find online, and indeed is not a place readily encapsulated by Google and Wikipedia. Anderson's photographs will destabilize you, as they resist overt description and consistently favor implication over explication. The graphic layout of the book reinforces the resistance to simple closure, with full-page bleeds, heavily inked and shadowy duotones, and images butted up against each other to link one perspective to others entirely separate in real space.
Best Photobooks of 2009 by photo-eye continues where they left off last year, they expanded this photo-eye tradition to include top 10 photobook lists from a group of prominent photographers, bookmakers, editors, publishers and critics.
Magnum Print Room London Announces Extended Opening Hours
The Magnum Print Room, London is delighted to announce an extension to its current gallery opening hours. From the 5th December 2009, the Print Room will now be open during exhibition periods on Saturdays from 10.00am until 1.00pm, in addition to its current opening hours of Wednesday to Friday, 11.00am until 4.30pm and our late night openings on the first Thursday of every month (in association with First Thursdays.) As well as our wide selection of fine photographs, a variety of Magnum photographer books and other material will now be available to purchase from the Print Room.
Political Landscapes by Magnum photographers opens at the Magnum Print Room on Wednesday 2nd December 2009 and runs until Friday 5th February 2010.
Alex Webb Wins the “Premio Internacional de Fotografia Alcobendas”
Alex Webb started his education in photography at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, completing his academic degree with History studies at the same university. His professional career began as a reporter. For many years, he worked for prestigious magazines such as Life, Geo and New York Times Magazine, and in 1976 he joined the prestigious agency Magnum Photos as an associate member, becoming a full member in 1979. He was elected President of the agency this past summer.
The Council of Alcobendas has awarded a prize for Alex Webb’s work, recognizing the highly humanistic and technical quality of his photographs, which show a "lyric and realistic" sense of childhood and an overall sense of being human. The winning photograph (on the left) is "Mexico. Oaxaca state. Tehuantepec. 1985. Children playing in a courtyard."
The Premio Internacional de Fotografia Alcobendas comes with 10.000 Euro, and the prizewinner must be a documentary photographer who illustrates the rights of childhood throughout his career. The work must encourage reflection on the different and fascinating questions that characterize the global situation of children.
The jury was composed by Lola Garrido, collector and independent curator; Pepe Font de Mora, director of the Foundation Foto Colectania; Carlos Perz Siquier, photographer, Natinal Prize of Photography 2003; Jose Maria Diaz-Maroto, photographer and curator of the Alcobendas’s Collection; and Eva Tomo, Culture and Childhood City Councilor of Alcobendas.
Alex Webb will receive the prize on November, 19th, 2009 at 7pm in the Cultural Center Pablo Iglesias, from the Major of Alcobendas, Ignacio Garcia de Vinuesa.
> More Information (in Spanish)
Magnum Expression Award Recipient Announced
Magnum Photos in association with HP announced Ms. Bieke Depoorter of Belgium, the recipient of the first annual Expression Photography Award. Her photographic project entitled "Oe Mania" or "With me" illustrated a deep sensibility and insight into the intimate dimensions of family. Ms. Depoorter’s essay was chosen by the jury from more than 2000 photo essays submitted by photographers in over 170 countries worldwide.
Bieke Depoorter was born in Belgium in 1986. She received both her BA and MA in photography from Kask Ghent, Belgium. She has exhibited her work throughout Belgium and the Netherlands and has had work published in De standard, Digifotopro, Digipro, and GUP. In 2009, she was the recipient of the Legaat franciscus pycke award and was nominated for the Hourlait Dapsans and Photo Academy awards.
Artist’s Statement
For three one-month intervals, I let the Trans-Siberian train guide me alongside forgotten villages, from living room to living room. Accidental encounters led me to places where I could sleep. Some Russian words, scribbled on a little piece of paper I carried with me, allowed me to communicate with the people I met. One night, I was welcomed and absorbed into one family’s warm chaos. For the Russian family, the living room is the epicenter of life, an intimate point of contact for the inhabitants. In this room, they sleep, eat, drink, and cry. For a brief moment, I was part of this. Their couch became my bed for one night. I experienced transient, but very powerful, shared moments. We communicated without words, and somehow we understood each other.
The first picture of my series shows the small paper I carried with me. A person I met in Moscow wrote this for me on the first day of my journey. The translation is:
"I am looking for a place to spend the night. Do you know people who would have a bed, or a couch? I don’t need anything in particular, and I have a sleeping-bag. I prefer not to stay in a hotel, because I don’t have a lot of money and because I want to see the way people live in Russia. Could I stay at your place, perhaps? Thank you very much for your help!"
I am really intrigued by the fact that you can have intimate contact with people you don’t know, even without language. In one night I became very close to them. I became a member of their family, without saying one Russian word.
Magnum Jury
Magnum photographers comprising the 2009 jury were: Alec Soth, Jonas Bendiksen, Paolo Pellegrin, and Susan Meiselas.
Judges statements:
"I was blown away by the quantity of high-quality, professional submissions. The process of determining the finalists was tricky. But in each case, it meant looking for work that went beyond being professional. Over time, certain projects simply bubble to the top and feel inevitable. Bieke's work emphasized the raw experience of moving through the world with open eyes."
"There is no formula for great work. Consistency and technical refinement are an asset, but the best projects separate themselves in subtle ways that are very hard to measure." Alec Soth / Magnum Photos
"In the essays, I looked for a few things - a novel concept, thematic unity, technical execution, sublimity, and emotional impact, with emphasis on the last two."
"Bieke's work had that sublime quality, particularly evoking a sense of intimacy, through seemingly discordant images. Many of the shots were indoors, in families' homes, yet I didn't feel I was an unwelcome observer. I still remember many of her images. The 'note' was a pivotal concept, without it, the images might have felt more intrusive." Mr. Louis Kim, HP Large-Format Printing Director
About the HP & Magnum Relationship
Magnum and HP were compelled to create this awards program based on the desire to illuminate and support both emerging and established photographers with vital resources. Through collaboration with Magnum’s multimedia team, feedback from jury members, and the donation of graphic arts resources, this program is unique.
Since 2005, Magnum Photos and Hewlett Packard have been engaged in a Printing and Technology relationship. As the outgrowth of previous collaborative efforts between Magnum and HP, this collaboration allows Magnum photographers to benefit from HP printers and technology while providing HP with invaluable feedback from the field.
Partner Organizations:
Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the joy of books – reading them, making them, sharing them, and selling them. Blurb’s generous support of the award will enable the chosen photographers to produce their work in book form and share their photography. PhotoShelter is the leader in online portfolio display, e-commerce and archiving tools for photographers. PhotoShelter’s platform will provide participants to the competition a streamlined submission process and a free Personal Archive starter account.
Burn Magazine wins Lucie Award for Photography Magazine of the Year
On Monday October 19th, Burn Magazine was honored at the annual Lucie Awards with the award for Photography Magazine of the Year, the first time the award has gone to an online magazine in the history of the Lucie Awards.
Burn Magazine, an online magazine curated by David Alan Harvey, is an evolving journal for emerging photographers. The intent of Burn is to provide a platform for emerging photographers both online and in print. Burn is born from an educational imperative and to bring strong photographic essays and powerful text to not only photographers, but to anyone fascinated by a visual and literary interpretation of our complex planet. Interpretations may be either journalistic in nature or esoteric subjective pieces. Burn was launched as an online magazine/journal on December 21, 2008 as a spinoff of Harvey's blog “Road Trips” which he started in December of 2006.
Read David Alan Harvey's interview with PDN
Christopher Anderson and Chris Steele-Perkins Shortlisted for Prix Pictet
The 2009 Prix Pictet shortlist was announced at a special evening screening in Arles on 9 July. The screening was part of the opening events of the 40th Les Rencontres d’Arles festival. A capacity audience, of over 2,500 people, watched as the portfolios of the twelve shortlisted artists appeared before them, one after the other, on the giant screen that had been erected at the heart of Arles’ Théâtre Antique. And when it was done their cheers echoed through the warm Provençal night.
What they saw was a stunning collection of images by twelve photographers, from nine different countries. The list included some of the world’s leading artists together with some comparative newcomers. Each of them had produced outstandingly powerful work on ‘Earth’ - the theme of this years' award.
The shortlist was selected from what the Chairman of the Jury, Francis Hodgson, described as an ‘exceptional’ submission of over 300 international candidates. The shortlisted artists will now prepare for an exhibition at Passage de Retz, Paris, where the winner of this year's CHF 100,000 Prix Pictet will be announced by Kofi Annan on 22 October 2009. A further award, in the form of a commission for one of the shortlisted photographers to visit a region where Pictet & Cie are currently supporting a sustainability project, will be announced at the same time.
The shortlisted artists include:
Christopher Anderson, Canada
Chris Steele-Perkins, UK
Susan Meiselass book In History receives the 2009 Rencontres d’Arles Historical Book Award
Susan Meiselas: In History (ICP/Steidl 2008) has received the 2009 Rencontres d’Arles Historical Book Award. This prestigious award is given to the best thematic or monographic documentary work about photography or a photographer. Published in conjunction with the major exhibition at the International Center of Photography, the catalogue is the first compendium of Meiselas’s work. Edited by ICP curator Kristen Lubben, the book contains both celebrated and unpublished bodies of images and features texts by Lubben, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, David Levi Strauss, Lucy Lippard, Edmundo Desnoes, Diana Taylor, Elizabeth Edwards, Caroline Brothers, and Allan Sekula.
Best known for her work covering the political upheavals in Central America in the 1970s and ’80s, Susan Meiselas’s process has evolved in radical and challenging ways as she has grappled with pivotal questions about her relationship to her subjects, the use and circulation of her images in the media, and the relationship of images to history and memory. Her insistent engagement with these concerns has positioned her as a leading voice in the debate over the function and practice of contemporary documentary photography.
The exhibition and its catalogue are structured around three key projects, presented in their complete form, which exemplify the evolution of Meiselas’s process and approach: photographs and audio of New England carnival strippers (1972–76); photographs, films, and public installations from Nicaragua (1978–2004); and photographs and collected archival objects and video from Kurdistan (1991–present). Since the 1970s, questions of ethics raised by documentary practice have been central to debates in photography. Perhaps no other photographer has so closely and consistently represented and participated in these debates than Susan Meiselas.
The ICP/Steidl partnership, established in 2003 has produced more than two dozen books. Many have received major awards: the Deutsche Börse prize for best photo book of the year for Atta Kim: On Air; the award for best international photography book of the year at Photo Espagna for Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography; and the New England Historical Society best book of the year award for Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes. All photographic content for the ICP/Steidl titles is drawn from ICP’s exhibitions, extensive collections, educational programs, and collaborations with artists and other museums.
Mikhael Subotzky wins prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2009
The first prize in this year’s highly prestigious photographic competition, the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2009’, goes to the 28-year-old photographer Mikhael Subotzky from South Africa. His prize-winning portfolio, under the title of ‘Beaufort West’, shows scenes from the South African town of the same name.
Beaufort West is a town in South Africa with a population of 37,000. As a town, it has little to offer its residents: its chief attractions are the main road and its neighbouring municipal jail. This is amply documented in the images captured by Mikhael Subotzky. His core theme is the above-mentioned road, the N1 national road, a main route connecting Johannesburg and Cape Town. This road, or, more aptly, highway runs through Beaufort West for several kilometres and brings the residents over a million visitors in transit every year. For many of the residents, the road is not simply the most important, but also their only connection to the outside world. In addition, the busy through traffic contributes significantly to the income of the predominantly unemployed population of the community. Because, in the evening hours, many residents line the sides of the road to peddle their wares to travellers: food, refreshments, petrol and accommodation. At the same time, prostitution also plays a considerable role.
In his images, Mikhael Subotzky shows various street scenarios and captures the essence of each: people living on a refuse tip, a hospital with terminally ill patients, young prostitutes selling themselves to help eke out an existence for their families. Light-hearted and happy scenes – for instance, showing the visitors to an agricultural show – are few and far between in this portfolio. The photographer lingered a little longer at the local municipal jail. Its inmates are predominantly residents of Beaufort West who, after prolonged unemployment, have turned to crime and attacked and robbed their families and neighbours. Nothing remains for them – except the never-ending roar of the highway heard over the prison walls.
Magnum Photos 62nd Annual General Meeting, London 24-28 June 2009
BACKGROUND Magnum Photos recently held its 62nd Annual General Meeting in London; an opportunity for the agency’s shareholder photographers to meet and discuss various aspects of the business. The objectives of the AGM are twofold; firstly the members review new candidates for Nomineeship (the first stage of full membership) and secondly the agency’s finances and performance is reviewed.
MEMBERSHIP DECISIONS Magnum Photos comprises of 60 photographers who take collective decisions to determine the future direction of the agency. Becoming a full Member of Magnum Photos is a long and arduous process which takes at least four years, with candidates evolving from the status of Nominee, to Associate, to Member and each evolution in status requiring a majority vote by the existing Members. After viewing over 200 candidate portfolios, organised under the Presidency of Stuart Franklin, Magnum Photos is pleased to announce the following decisions:
MEMBER status was voted for: Cristina Garcia Rodero
ASSOCIATE status was voted for: Alessandra Sanguinetti, Mikhael Subotzky
No new NOMINEES were announced.
OFFICERS
Magnum Photos elected the 2009/2010 Magnum Photos Board, to comprise the following members:
President: Alex Webb
VP Paris: Martine Franck
VP London: Mark Power
VP New York: Bruce Gilden
VP Tokyo: Hiroji Kubota
VP Archives: Jonas Bendiksen
VP Editorial: Paolo Pellegrin
VP Education: Chien-Chi Chang
VP Finance: Chris Steele-Perkins
VP Foundation: Susan Meiselas
VP Internet: Gilles Peress
Board member at large: Richard Kalvar
INGE MORATH AWARD
This prize of $5000 is awarded annually to a female documentary photographer under the age of 30, in memory of the late Magnum photographer Inge Morath.
The 2009 winner is Emily Schiffer (USA) for her project “Cheyenne River.” Emily is the founder of a photography program for youths on Cheyene River Reservation in South Dakota, and the Award is given to continue her work with Native American children. Her images can be viewed at: www.emilyschiffer.com.
The runner up is Jenn Ackerman (USA) for her project "Trapped: Mental Illness in America's Prisons." Ackerman’s photographs may be viewed at www.jennackerman.com.
YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE CAUCAUS
The Magnum Foundation was pleased to announce the ‘2009 Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award’. The Award was given in recognition of an outstanding documentary photography project on a matter of social importance by a young photographer (born after June 1975) living in the Caucasus region. The $5000 prize will be presented by a leading Magnum member at an award ceremony in Tbilisi, Georgia on 19th September 2009. The 2009 winner is Rena Effendi of Azerbaijan, born 1977. www.refendi.com The runners up are Daro Sulakauri of Georgia (born 1985) and Karen Mirzoyan of Armenia (born 1981).
EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHER AWARD
An award of $10,000 is given to an emerging photographer whose work is on the highest level. Funding is designed to support continuation of a photographer’s personal project, as a journalistic mission or a purely personal artistic imperative.
The Emerging Photographer Fund grant was initiated by David Alan Harvey in 2008, and is awarded by the Magnum Foundation, a non-profit created by the member photographers of Magnum Photos, Inc. Funding for the EPF has come from several private donors who have chosen to remain anonymous.
The recipient of the Emerging Photographer Grant 2009 is Alejandro Chaskielberg, with his project entitled The High Tide.
His work can be seen here: www.chaskielberg.com
Jim Goldberg wins Fotofestival di Roma's International Gold Medal Book Prize for upcoming book, 'Open See'
Photo-Eye Book Division Manager Melanie McWhorter lead the jury of Benedetta Cestelli Guidi, Marta Daho, Erik Kessels, and Michele Smargiassi judging over 180 books in the second Italian and first International book award of Fotofestival di Roma. The International Gold Medal Award was given to Steidl's upcoming titled by Jim Goldberg Open See.
The Magnum Foundation Announces "Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award"
The Magnum Foundation is pleased to announce it is now accepting submissions for the 2009 Young Photographer in the Caucasus Award. The Award, with a $5000 first prize, recognizes outstanding documentary photography on a matter of social importance by a young photographer living in the Caucasus region. Full eligibility and submission requirements are listed below.
Eligibility
The Award program is open to all photographers born after June 1, 1975, living in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Republics of the North Caucasus in the Russian Federation (Daghestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North-Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karatshaevo-Tsherkessia, and Adigey Republic) and the Russian Federation regions of Stavropol Krai and Krasnodar. Existing United Nations standards on nationality and borders will be utilized for purposes of determining eligibility. Photographers affiliated with the Magnum Foundation or Magnum Photos and their immediate families are not eligible to participate.
> More information and submission form
Susan Meiselas wins the Krasna Kraus And/Or book award for 'In History'
The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation has announced that the book Susan Meiselas: In History, edited by Associate Curator at ICP Kristen Lubben and published by ICP/Steidl, has won the 2009 And/Or Photography Book Award. The And/Or Awards are the United Kingdom's leading prizes for books published in the fields of photography and the moving image.
Susan Meiselas: In History is an in-depth look at Susan Meiselas' esteemed career in socially engaged documentary photography. An American photographer best known for her work covering the political upheavals in Central America in the 1970s and '80s, Meiselas's process has evolved in radical and challenging ways as she has grappled with pivotal questions about her relationship to her subjects, the use and circulation of her images in the media, and the relationship of images to history and memory. Her insistent engagement with these concerns has positioned her as a leading voice in the debate on contemporary documentary practice.
Mikhael Subotzky wins the 2009 Lou Stoumen Prize
The Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) in Balboa Park is pleased announce Mikhael Subotzky as the winner of the 2009 Lou Stoumen Prize. One of the most prestigious and highly acclaimed awards in photography, the Stoumen Prize includes one of the largest cash rewards available to photographers. Subotzky, known for his intimate and in-depth study of the South African prison system, will be featured along with all past Prize winners in Lou Stoumen: The Legacy on view at MoPA, February 7 – May 10, 2009.
In 1991, photographer/filmmaker Lou Stoumen established an endowed gift with the Museum of Photographic Arts to be given through the Museum to a mid-career photographer whose work related in spirit to his own humanistic style of photography. The prize was designated by Stoumen to be large enough to make a substantial difference in an artist's life and work. To date, the Lou Stoumen Award has been presented to Debbie Fleming Caffery (1996), Kenro Izu (1999), James Nachtwey (2002), and Gary Schneider (2006).
A panel of photography experts from around the world nominates artists for the award. Final selection was made by the chairman to the award, Arthur Ollman, previous Director of the Museum of Photographic Arts. The 2009 recipient, Mikhael Subotzky received widespread acclaim for his 2004 project The Four Corners, an in-depth study of the South African prison system. "A viewer is able to begin to understand the conditions endured by these people, the lack of privacy, and the constant crush of this harsh and overpopulated environment," says Ollman. A native of Cape Town, South Africa, and a Magnum photographer, Subotzky has extended his work on crime and incarceration to include photographic workshops with prisoners and a new series on ex-prisoners entitled The Outside. "There he identifies that not all is misery in this neighborhood. His subjects endure the brutality of their lives but still retain dignity and a sense of presence that communicates right through the lens and paper going directly into our bloodstream." He was the winner of numerous international awards, and is in the collections of major museums around the world.
"There is so much intimacy in this work. He has invoked the trust of people who might have little reason to be open to an outsider," says Ollman. "His images are reportage, but also much more. In the prisons and in small cramped spaces he identifies the pressing density of people who cannot afford the luxury of protective space around them. The images also indicate that one can't be alone with one's thoughts, denying any reformation of character, no opportunity to reflect on anything but the insistent present."
The new prize will be awarded at MoPA's Exhibition Opening Reception on February 6, 2009. Subotzky hopes "to be able to contribute to the photographic legacy of Lou Stoumen and the previous winners of the award." In accepting this award, Subotzky said he looks forward to "using this award to take my work further in the coming years." "I am delighted and honored to be the recipient of the Lou Stoumen Prize. I would like to sincerely thank all those involved with the award and the Museum of Photographic Arts for their recognition of my work, and for their significant support for my work through the Lou Stoumen Prize."
Two Magnum Photojournalists Receive Getty Editorial Grants
Getty Images have selected two Magnum photojournalists, Alex Majoli and Paolo Pellegrin, as recipients of the first two of five 2009 professional editorial photography grants.
Winning professional photographers receive $20,000 each. Winners in both categories also receive support from Getty Images photo editors.
Both Majoli and Pellegrin are represented by Magnum Photos. Majoli will continue his work on “Requiem in Samba,” which depicts the lives of the poor in Brazil, where warring factions, drug trafficking and the AIDS epidemic have resulted in death and devastation. Pellegrin intends to use the grant to complete “Iraqi Refugees,” which documents the people fleeing the war or displaced by ethnic cleansing.
Getty said it received a record number of proposals this year: 215 professional and 46 student applications were submitted for consideration by a judging panel that included TIME magazine chief picture editor Alice Gabriner, Aperture Magazine editor-in-chief Melissa Harris and Magnum photojournalist Susan Meiselas.
NYU’s Department of Photography & Imaging announces a new program in photography and human rights in partnership with the Magnum Foundation
The Department of Photography and Imaging in the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, has announced a new partnership with the Magnum Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting documentary photography, to create a new certificate program in Photography and Human Rights. The new initiative, comprising four courses offered in two successive summers, is designed to explore strategies to create effective documentary projects linked with issues of human rights.
“We are delighted to be able to partner with the Magnum Foundation to offer this important new program,” said Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of the Tisch School of the Arts. “The role of photography in the global struggle for basic human rights has never been more important than it is today. Experience demonstrates that one image can make all the difference. This program’s emphasis will be on the relevance of human rights law to documentary work, and how the photographer can develop projects that aid in the attainment of those basic rights.”
The program is aimed at intermediate and advanced students, including experienced professionals, who seek to hone their documentary and media skills in the context of human rights. Students will be taught to utilize a variety of media approaches while emphasizing new digital possibilities to create maximum social impact. Each course is four weeks in length and will be offered over two successive summers, beginning May 18, 2009. Students may choose to take the courses for credit or non credit.
Faculty for the program will include: Magnum photographers Susan Meiselas and Gilles Peress, digital media specialists Catherine Fallon and Elizabeth Kilroy, adjunct professor and human rights specialist Peter Lucas, and program director and associate chair of Photography & Imaging, Fred Ritchin, among others.
Concurrent with the program, the Magnum Foundation will organize lectures and film screenings on issues relating to documentary work and human rights that feature a variety of work, including projects by Magnum photographers.
For more information on this program, please visit http://photo.tisch.nyu.edu or call 212-998-1930. For more information about The Magnum Foundation, please visit http://www.magnumfoundation.org. To enroll in the course, please visit http://www.nyu.edu/summer/2009/summerny/enroll.html.
The Department of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts is a four-year B.F.A. program centered on the making and understanding of images. Students explore photo-based imagery as personal and cultural expression. Situated within a university, the program offers students both the intensive focus of an arts curriculum and a serious and broad grounding in the liberal arts. The faculty and staff consist of artists, professional photographers, designers, critics, historians, and scholars working from a wide range of perspectives and media.
Launched in 2007, The Magnum Foundation works to bring over half a century of historical and iconic photography to the public and to encourage the work of a new generation of independent photographers. Four pioneering photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David “Chim” Seymour, had the insight to claim their independence by retaining ownership of their copyrights. Now today’s independent photographers are seeking to build upon this pioneering legacy with a newly formed charitable organization, The Magnum Foundation.
This program has been cancelled.
Jonas Bendiksen awarded Prize for Photography 2009 from Norwegian Fagfotografers Fund
Photographer Jonas Bendiksen was awarded the prestigious Prize for Photography 2009 on Friday night.
Bendiksen is the only Norwegian photographer that is associated with Magnum Photos, a collective of internationally renowned photographers, established in 1947.
"Jonas Bendiksen is a remake of the Norwegian photo traditions, particularly in the reportage genre - even if Bendiksen easily crosses the boundaries between the press, reportage and art photography," said jury chairman Erik Fuglseth.
Photography prize is for 75,000 norwegian kroners (appr $10,000) and handed out each year by the Norwegian Fagfotografers Fund (NFF). The first recipient was Morten Krogvold in 1989.
Inge Morath Award now accepting submissions
The Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Foundation announce the sixth annual Inge Morath Award. The annual prize of $5,000 is awarded by the Magnum Foundation to a female documentary photographer under the age of 30, to support the completion of a long-term project. One award winner and up to two finalists are selected by a jury composed of Magnum photographers.
Inge Morath was an Austrian-born photographer who was associated with Magnum Photos for nearly fifty years. After her death in 2002, the Inge Morath Foundation was established to manage Morath's estate and facilitate the study and appreciation of her contribution to photography.
Because Morath devoted much of her enthusiasm to encouraging women photographers, her colleagues at Magnum Photos established the Inge Morath Award in her honor. The Award is now given by the Magnum Foundation as part of its mission of supporting new generations of socially-conscious documentary photographers, and is administered by the Magnum Foundation in collaboration with the Inge Morath Foundation.
Past winners of the Inge Morath Award include: Kathryn Cook (US, '08) for Memory Denied: Turkey and the Armenian Genocide; Olivia Arthur (UK, '07) for The Middle Distance; Jessica Dimmock (US, '06) for The Ninth Floor; Mimi Chakarova (US, '06) for Sex Trafficking in Eastern Europe; Claudia Guadarrama (MX, '05) for Before the Limit; and Ami Vitale (US, '02), for Kashmir.
View submission details on the Inge Morath Foundation website
Download PDF for more information
Marc Riboud to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award.
Marc Riboud, the celebrated French photographer and former President of Magnum Photos, is to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Sony World Photography Awards.
Riboud, whose career in photography spans over half a centenary, will be honored at a gala award ceremony which takes place on 16 April at the Palais des Festival in Cannes amongst the great and the good of the international photographic industry. The accolade has been created to honour a photographer for a lifetime of widely recognised and critically acclaimed work.
Scott Gray, Managing Director of the World Photography Awards, comments: ‘We are exceptionally proud to honour the life and work of Marc Riboud. It is fitting that the Sony World Photography Awards presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to a man who has dedicated over 50 years to capturing life in all corners of the world, from China’s cultural revolution through to everyday life in Paris.’
Elliott Erwitt, a close friend of Riboud, adds: ‘A lifetime achievement award may imply that a career is over. In the case of Marc nothing could be further from the truth. Marc continues to live and breathe photography every day with his camera permanently welded to his side he is always looking for the next picture.’
The presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award will be the climax of Sony World Photography Awards ceremony, which takes place during a week-long celebration of photography throughout the city of Cannes from 14th – 19th April 2009. A retrospective of Marc Riboud’s work, curated by Alain Genestar, the publisher of Polka Magazine and owner of Polka Gallery in Paris, as well as the former director of Paris Match, will be one of the highlights of the festival. Riboud will be in Cannes for the celebrations and will conduct a special tour of his exhibition. He will also be signing two rare, out of print, book titles.
Alain Genestar comments: ‘Marc Riboud is the utmost French in style, in elegance, curiosity, poetry and discretion. When I was asked to set up his exhibition I agreed straight away, just to have the pleasure to dig in his wonderful archives. A trip around the world and through time! I am proud to be his friend.’
Born in 1923, Riboud was the fifth of 7 children. He first picked up a camera at the age of 14, but until the age of 27 he studied engineering. Whilst his brothers went on to become famous industrialists, he dropped his career for a life of photography. At the age of 29, after meeting Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, the founders of Magnum, he joined the agency and remained there for almost three decades. In 1958 he became vice president of Magnum for Europe. Between 1954 and 1979 Riboud travelled and lived in the Middle East and the Orient. In the 60s he spent time in Africa and the United States, before becoming president of Magnum in 1976. Three years later, Marc left Magnum to pursue a freelance career.
Since 1979, Riboud has continued to travel, at a less hectic pace, which has included frequent visits to China and Japan. He is the author of numerous books and has exhibited widely throughout the world, including major retrospectives in Paris and New York. He continues to work on new books and exhibitions.
Alessandra Sanguinetti wins the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship
Alessandra Sanguinetti has been awarded the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship for 2008. Established by the internationally recognized photographer, John Gutmann (1905-1998), the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship awards $5,000 to $10,000 annually to an emerging artist who exhibits professional accomplishment, serious artistic commitment, and need in the field of creative photography. The Gutmann award is determined by nomination only, and nominees are selected by jurors who were appointed by John Gutmann.
For over sixty years John Gutmann quietly made an imprint on the position as an artist and educator. His youthful enthusiasm and quest for the marvelous extravagance of life were inspiration for a generation of artists. It is in this same spirit, through philanthropy, that an annual award will be given to one or a number of photographers showing professional accomplishment, serious artistic commitment and need in the field of creative photography. Candidates for Gutmann Fellowships are nominated by an appointed jury.
Mikhael Subotzky wins the 29th annual W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography
Mikhael Subotzky was the recipient of the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for 2008 for his project, Crime and Punishment in Post-Aparthied South Africa. He was presented with the award at a ceremony at the Tishman Auditorium at Parsons, The New School for Design on the evening of October 22nd, 2008.
Crime and Punishment in Post-Aparthied South Africa will document the single most devisive issue in South Africa today - crime. Every day, over fifty people are murdered, and thousands more are raped, robbed, abused and violated. The problem of crime affects everybody who live in South Africa, stretching across color and class lines into the homes of all.
The Smith Fund was established following the death of the great American “Concerned Photographer” on October 15, 1978. For 30 years it has allowed over thirty photographers from 16 countries to undertake or complete a long-term project on issues pertaining to the human condition. Past recipients include Jane Evelyn Atwood, Sebastiao Salgado, James Nachtwey, Donna Ferrato, Eugene Richards, Graciela Iturbide, Gilles Peress, Brenda Ann Kenneally, and more recently Stanley Greene, Pep Bonet, Paolo Pellegrin and Stephen Dupont. Support from the Fund has propelled careers in documentary photography and produced work that has found wide recognition both in the broader journalistic and art worlds.
Telenor's Culture Prize awarded to Jonas Bendiksen
Jonas Bendiksen is awarded the prize of NOK 250,000 for his groundbreaking photographic art, through which he communicates an artistic experience combined with a pressing message about living conditions on the outskirts of civilisation.
Impressing and important
"We congratulate Jonas Bendiksen with Telenor's culture prize for 2008, which is being presented for the thirteenth time. Several of Telenor's companies operate in developing countries, contributing to growth and social development. Bendiksen tells stories about people living in circumstances that make a strong impact, and we are proud to support such an impressing and important artist," said President and CEO of Telenor, Jon Fredrik Baksaas.
International recognition
The jury has also this year decided on a winner with an international profile. In its statement, the jury said, "His work maintains without a doubt the highest artistic quality, while at the same time conveying a message so profoundly relevant in our time that he is rapidly gaining acknowledgement and well deserved international recognition."
Continued work
"It's a great honour to receive this year's cultural award, and one that means a lot for me and my work. In today's media landscape, it is often a challenge to direct serious attention to themes such as poverty and marginalized communities. For this reason, I appreciate the support greatly, and will use it to continue my work in these areas," said Jonas Bendiksen.
Martin Parr and Chris Steele-Perkins receive awards from The Royal Photographic Society
Martin Parr Hon FRPS, will receive The Society’s prestigious Centenary Medal for his sustained and significant contribution to photography. Parr, a member of Magnum Photos, is internationally respected for the manner in which he has broadened and developed the notion and intentions of documentary practice over the past 30 years.
Fellow member of Magnum Photos, Chris Steele-Perkins will receive the Terence Donovan Award for his major achievement in the field of editorial and commercial advertising practice.
The prestigious event, to be held at The Royal Institute of British Architects, London, on the 2nd October 2008, recognises those who have made outstanding contributions to the art of science and photography.
2008 Membership decisions
Magnum Photos comprises 60 photographers who take collective decisions to determine the future directions of the group. The Magnum Photos selection process for new members is legendary for its toughness. Becoming a full Member of Magnum Photos is a process that takes place over at least four years, with candidates evolving from the status of Nominee, to Associate, to Member, each evolution in status requiring a vote by the Magnum Photos Members.
After viewing over 200 candidate portfolios, organised under the Presidency of Stuart Franklin, Magnum Photos is pleased to announce the following decisions :
MEMBER status was voted for: Antoine d’AGATA, Jonas BENDIKSEN and Alec SOTH
Their portfolios can be consulted on www.magnumphotos.com/photographers.
The following new NOMINEES were announced :
Peter VAN AGTMAEL, 27 years old, American-Dutch: www.petervanagtmael.com
Olivia ARTHUR, 28 years old, English: www.oliviaarthur.com
The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund is open for submissions for the 2008 Grant in Humanistic Photography
The W. Eugene Smith Grant is presented annually to a photographer whose past work and proposed project, as judged by a panel of experts, follows the tradition of W. Eugene Smith's compassionate dedication exhibited during his 45-year career as a photographic essayist.
For 2008, the Smith Grant will be $30,000, with an additional $5,000 in fellowship money also to be given at the discretion of the jury. The Grant recognizes photographers who have demonstrated a commitment to documenting the human condition. The grant program is independently administered by the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and is funded in part with contributions from Digital Railroad, Getty Images, The Mona Fund, and Open Society Institute. Winners receive their awards in a ceremony held in New York City in October One of the most prestigious honors in photojournalism, the Smith Grant was established in 1978 following the death of Smith, the legendary photo essayist, by his friends Howard Chapnick, Jim Hughes and John Morris to perpetuate his work and spirit. The grant program provides photographers with the financial freedom to envision and carry out major photographic studies.
Applicants must include a written proposal, which should be, concise, journalistically realizable, visually translatable and humanistically driven.
Applicants are also asked to provide a resumé of educational and professional qualifications along with evidence of photographic ability in the form of photographic workprints (8"x10" prints preferred, and no more than 40), and/or photocopies, duplicate transparencies, contact sheets and clippings of published stories. Digital images will be considered only if delivered as low-resolution jpegs on a CD or DVD (no RAW files, TIFF files, or on-line applications).
The Smith Fund's executive committee appoints a three-person jury each year to review the applications and proposals. The jury meets twice, first to select finalists. The finalists are then asked to submit a comprehensive photographic portfolio, to write a more details and focused proposal and to answer questions about the project.
At their second meeting, the jury reviews the new material and selects the grant recipient and the recipient of the additional fellowship. The recipient must warrant that the project in progress is ongoing, and agree to provide the Fund with a set of photographs when the project is completed. The photographs will be housed as part of the permanent W. Eugene Smith Legacy Collection at the ICP.
There is no entry fee. The application advises that preliminary material will be returned only when accompanied by appropriate packaging and sufficient U.S. postage or its equivalent in U.S. dollars or prepaid return Delivery Form by courier. The Fund is not responsible for loss or damage.
Please send all submissions to:
W. Eugene Smith Fund c/o ICP
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036 USA
For any and all questions please email:
Board of Trustees: Robert Pledge, President; Marcel Saba, Vice-President; Sue Brisk, Secretary; Robert Stevens, Treasurer; Jim Balog; Phillip S. Block; Rich Clarkson; Frank Evers; Donna Ferrato; David Friend; W.M. Hunt; Yukiko Launois; Helen Marcus, President Emerita; John G. Morris; Marcel Saba; Aaron Schindler; Robert Stevens; and David Wolf, counsel.
Past grant recipients: Marc Asnin, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Letizia Battaglia, Ernesto Bazan, Ellen Binder, Pep Bonet, Chien-Chi Chang, Stephen Dupont, Carl DeKeyzer, Donna Ferrato, Maya Goded, Paul Graham, Stanley Greene, Graciela Iturbide, Alain Keler, Brenda Ann Kenneally, Gideon Mendel, Dario Mitidieri, James Nachtwey, Trent Parke, Paolo Pellegrin, Gilles Peress, Eli Reed, Eugene Richards, Cristina Garcia Rodero, Milton Rogovin, Sebastião Salgado, Vladimir Syomin, John Vink and Kai Wiedenhöfer.
Application deadline for the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography is July 15, 2008. Photographers interested in applying may download an application at: www.smithfund.org
Martin Parr wins prestigious PhotoEspana prize
British photographer, Martin Parr, has won the top prize at PhotoEspana, Spain’s largest international photography festival.
He was awarded the Baumer and Mercier Award in recognition of his professional career in, and aesthetic influence on, contemporary photography. Unabashed satire of modern consumerist society is a key element of Parr's work commented Claude Bussac, the director of the festival, adding that this images, plus his contribution to numerous film and publishing projects, make him one of the most important photographers of the latter half of the 20th Century. PhotoEspana has committed to buying €12,000 of Parr’s works.
PhotoEspana has developed into one of the largest photography festivals in the world since its inauguration in 1998. Visit www.phedigital.com, for more details.
Access to Life Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Magnum Photos and The Global Fund have teamed up in a historic partnership to chronicle the revolutionary effect free antiretroviral treatment is having on AIDS patients across the world. The exhibition, Access to Life, was photographed by Jonas Bendiksen, Jim Goldberg, Alex Majoli, Steve McCurry, Paolo Pellegrin, Gilles Peress, Eli Reed, and Larry Towell. Visit the website
Read Press Release below:
British Royal Mail commissions Peter Marlow to produce 6 stamps
Inspired by the 300th anniversary of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, the British Royal Mail has issued a set of stamps featuring photographs by Peter Marlow. It is the second time in three years that Peter Marlow has been allotted the prestigious role of producing images for stamps available across Great Britain.
Six stamps are being issued in this set, featuring the interiors of six cathedrals from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This will be the first time that cathedral interiors have been featured on stamps issued in the four countries.
Jacob Aue Sobol has been awarded the 2008 Leica European Publishers Award
The Jury for the 2008 LEICA EUROPEAN PUBLISHERS AWARD FOR PHOTOGRAPHY met May 1st to 4th in Manchester to decide this year's winner.
The winner of this year’s award is Jacob Aue Sobol (Denmark) for his project on Tokyo. The formal presentation will be made at the Rencontres d’Arles during the opening week in July and the book will be published this autumn.
The Leica European Publishers Award for Photography is a major initiative to encourage the publication of contemporary photography.
Open to photographers world-wide, the competition is a unique collaboration between seven European Publishers – Actes Sud (France), Apeiron (Greece), Dewi Lewis Publishing (Great Britain), Edition Braus (Germany), Lunwerg Editores (Spain), Mets & Schilt (The Netherlands) and Peliti Associati (Italy).
The competition requires the submission of a substantial, completed and unpublished photographic book project. The winning project is then published in book form simultaneously by each of the publishers in their own country resulting in perhaps the most extensive cultural collaboration currently existing in Europe.
Mikhael Subotsky awarded ICP Young Photographer Infinity Award
A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Mikhael Subotzky received widespread acclaim for his 2004 project Die Vier Hoeke (“The Four Corners”), an in-depth study of the South African prison system. Subotzky has extended his work on crime and incarceration to include photographic workshops with prisoners and a new series on ex-prisoners entitled Umjiegwana (“The Outside”). He was the winner of the Special Jurors Award at the 2005 Les Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie, the 2006 F25 Award for Concerned Photography, the 2007 KLM Paul Huff Award, and most recently, the 2007 City of Perpignan Young Reporter Award.
ICP’s ongoing mission is to present and champion the rich diversity of the photographic experience. The Infinity Awards were created to reflect a commitment to celebrating the contributions of influential photographers and emerging young talent, and have become widely respected and recognized around the world as this country’s leading honor for excellence in photography. Recipients are decided by a jury of selectors from the submissions compiled by an international nominating committee, both of whose members change each year.
New film by Raymond Dépardon at the Cannes Festival 2008
The new film by Raymond Dépardon 'Modern Life' will be presented on May 18 at the Cannes Festival 2008, official selection Un Certain Regard.
Through a series of portraits, Raymond Depardon becomes a witness to farmers' lives, values, and family stories: all that binds them to the land, and its legacy. He questions what will become of these 'people of the land.'
Modern Life
La vie moderne
A film by Raymond Depardon
2008 - France - Documentary
Cannes 2008 - Official Selection - Un Certain Regard
Jonas Bendiksen wins National Geographic Grant.
The second annual National Geographic magazine photography grant has been awarded to Jonas Bendiksen, a Magnum photographer who is working to document urban population growth.
The grant offers a documentary photographer $50,000 to work on a long-term project. Bendiksen proposed to document the population explosion in Chongqing, a city in western China that is considered the fastest growing metropolis in the world.
Magnum Founders and Paolo Pellegrin winners of the Sixty-Fifth Annual Pictures of the Year International Competition.
A special honor was created this year for a remarkable and unique submission to POYi. The judges and director conferred the first "Distinguished Leadership in Photojournalism Award" in recognition of "Magnum Founders: In Celebration of 60 Years" and the member photographers who have guided the development of photojournalism since the founding of Magnum. The distinction honors the publishing house of Verso Limited Editions, the photo agency of Magnum Photos, and the preeminent photojournalists Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David Seymour.
View the Magnum Founders Platinum Portfolio.
David Alan Harvey announces the Emerging Photographer’s Award.
The first recipient of this annual award is Sean Gallagher, a Beijing-based British photographer, born in Scotland in 1979 and graduated in Zoology BSc.) from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2002. He moved to China in 2006 to begin working as a photographer. His subsequent work on environmental and social issues have appeared in publications including Die Zeit, The Globe and Mail and The British Journal of Photography. His long-term projects aim to focus on the environmental and social issues created by China's recent rapid growth.
See more at David Alan Harvey's Website
Lost Robert Capa, David Seymour and Gerda Taro negatives discovered.
The International Center of Photography announced the discovery of a cache of over 3,500 negatives of the Spanish Civil War by Magnum Photographers and Founders, Robert Capa, David Seymour and Capa’s former partner Gerda Taro, three of the most significant war photographers of the twentieth century.
World Press Photo Awards to Christopher Anderson and Cristina Garcia Rodero.
Christopher Anderson has won third place in the daily life stories section for a story on Israel/Palestine for National Geographic. View the World Press Photo site for more information.
Cristina Garcia Rodero has been awarded 3rd prize in the arts + entertainment stories section, with her work on Maria Lionza. View the World Press Photo site for more information.
View Cristina Garcia Rodero's award winning work (PDF format)
Earthlings by Richard Kalvar wins Best Photo Books of 2007.
"Funny photographs are rarely great photographs. Their visual punch line kills the qualities we associate with a deeply meaningful or provocative image. Engaging as they are, the funniest pictures made by Elliott Erwitt or Garry Winogrand are almost never the photographer's best images. Neither has created more than a few pictures that make you laugh but still say something important, or interesting, about human experience.
"Richard Kalvar seems constitutionally able to do so. A member of Magnum since 1977, he has somehow flown below the radar. But Kalvar's first-ever monograph, Earthlings, makes abundantly clear that his best pictures are his funniest ones. These pictures are not one-liners, instead veering comfortably into surrealism. They bring to mind the Surrealists' favorite sentence from their favorite novel, Les Chants de Maldoror, in which a character is called "as beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella." Or a popsicle and a harmonica.
"Of course the chance meetings depicted in Kalvar's photographs, which were exhibited in a spring retrospective at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (Kalvar's main base), are methodically sought out. Like subatomic particles, they don't exist until observed. And they are often unsettling in their humor. Here, two orally fixated Greenwich Villagers seem oblivious to what might be a Brobdingnabian corpse laid out on a gurney. The leg's owner is apparently napping on the roof rack of a car, perhaps his home -- like his fellow Earthlings, just doing what it takes to be human."[via PopPhoto]
Cristina Garcia Rodera awarded the inaugural prize of the Asociacion Periodistas Graficos Europeos.
At a ceremony held last Wednesday evening in Madrid, Cristina Garcia Rodera was awarded the inaugural prize of the Asociacion Periodistas Graficos Europeos (APGE, or European Visual Journalists’ Association).
The event was presided over by Spanish Vice-President Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega who gave a particularly elogious speech about Cristina’s work and her status as the first Spanish woman to enter Magnum Photos.
Read the press release (in Spanish)
Inge Morath, The Road to Reno book has been awarded the most beautiful book in Germany 2007
The Inge Morath, The Road to Reno book has been awarded the Stiftung Buchkunst as Die schönsten deutschen Bücher 2007 (the most beautiful book in Germany in 2007).
Please take a look at their website for more details Stiftung-Buchkunst (in German)
Inauguration of the Magnum Gallery, Paris
On Saturday 17th November, Magnum Photos in Paris opened its first gallery, MAGNUM GALLERY, a light-filled space of 200 m2 on the ground floor of Magnum Photos’ Parisian bureau in the city's 18th arrondissement. Over 300 buyers, photographers and VIPs braved transport strikes, chaotic traffic conditions and sub-zero temperatures to discover the new space and its inaugural exhibition.The Magnum Gallery will regularly organise private viewings of a selection of vintages from the photographers’ archives, as well as contemporary prints of more recent work.
The inaugural exhibition is a double bill that both pays tribute to Leonard Freed, deceased last year aged 77, and presents the work of the young American photographer Alec Soth, author of the recent, prestigious ‘Fashion Magazine’, published in May this year.
« Tribute to Leonard Freed » : a selection of rare vintages, that cover the most important periods in the photographers’ body of work : the Jewish community in New York in the fifties, « Black in America », and Harlem of the sixties ; « Police Work » in the seventies…
« Fashion Magazine by Alec Soth » : following the success of the Fashion magazine by Martin Parr in 2005, and by Bruce Gilden in 2006, the 2007 opus was realised by the well-known American photographer Alec Soth. The collector’s edition was first presented at a one-night evening at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, in June this year. Entitled ‘Paris-Minnesota’, Alec’s work confronts two different approaches to beauty : that of Parisien haute couture, and that of the photographer himself, with his portraits of Minnesota teenagers in their local temples ; malls, churches, sports centres… The exhibition is composed of a selection of large-format prints chosen by the photographer himself.
MAGNUM GALLERY
19 rue Hégésippe Moreau
75018 Paris
Inaugural exhibition from 14 November to 23 December 2007
Visit by appointment only
Contact : Anna Planas
planas@magnumphotos.fr
Paolo Pellegrin receives German Fotobook Award 2008
Paolo Pellegrin's new book, 'As I Was Dying', winner of the 2007 Leica European Publishers' Award and currently being launched in 7 European countries, has just received the German photobook award, the Deutscher Fotobuchpreis.
For more information visit Deutscher Fotobuchpries (in German)
Jacob Aue Sobol receives Fogtdals Fotopriser Award
Jacob Aue Sobol has been awarded the Fogtdals Fotopriser by the Danish publishing, Fogtdal. Each year they give $50,000 for lifetime achievement in photography along with several awards of $10,000 to young photographers to support further development of their talent. Jacob Aue Sobol not only challenges himself and his own view on life, he also challenges the opinion of the viewer and the way we look at photography. It takes great skills to unfold the private universe without causing embarrassment. Sobol has the ability to make the intimate common, to involve us in other people's inner and private universe For more information read the Press Release (in Danish)
Paolo Pellegrin receives Antonio Russo National Award
Paolo Pellegrin has won the photography section of the 6th edition of the ‘Antonio Russo’ national award for war reporting, one of the most prestigious journalistic awards in Italy. The event was organized by the Antonio Russo Foudation. Russo, a journalist of the Italian radio "Radio Radicale", was killed in Georgia in October 2000 whilst covering the war in Chechnya.
For more information visit RadioRadicale.it (in Italian)
Larry Towell receives Achievement in Filmmaking Award
The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (NYIIFVF) known as "the voice of indie film" announced the winners from their successful summer film extravaganza that took place in New York. Larry Towell’s short film “Indecisive Moments” has won an Achievement in Filmmaking for a Documentary (Short). “Indecisive Moments” was filmed while completing the book project for “No Man’s Land” and features Larry’s original songwriting and poetry.
Magnum awarded prestigious Clarion Award
Magnum Photos has been awarded a Clarion Award for Exposed! Climate Change in Britain’s Back Yard, a National Trust assignment with photography by Stuart Franklin, Mark Power, Chris Steele-Perkins and Ian Berry, and curated by Maggie Gowan. The Clarion Awards, now in their 5th year, are awarded by the prestigious IVCA (International Visual Communication Association) for “recognizing excellence in the communication of Social Inclusion, CRS, Sustainable Development and Ethical debate. According to the International Visual Communications Association, "Beauty, sophistication, innovation and impact are what make this well conceived and implemented initiative a worthy winner. By applying the fine art of photography to illustrate how a global challenge is having a damaging local impact, the National Trust not only brings climate change to life for its own visitors and members but also to a wider arts community."
Mikhael Subotzky awarded The City of Perpignan Young Reporter Award
Picture editors from international magazines chose Mikhael Subotzky as the best young reporter for the City of Perpignan. The award was presented at the evening show on Friday, September 7. The award winning images, Mikhael Subotzky's photographs on crime and prisons in South Africa, are on exhibit at Visa pour l’Image. The award is being presented for the second time. The members of the jury select the young photographer who, in their opinion, has produced the best report in 2006/2007, either published or unpublished. The prize is given in recognition of talent and is designed to help young photographers complete projects. The City of Perpignan sponsors the 8000 euros prize. View Subotzky's images from Beaufort West