I had the pleasure of being a presenter at the first New York Photo Festival awards on Friday night amongst some luminaries like Magnum photographer Martin Parr and New York Times Magazine’s Kathy Ryan.

I didn’t know which category I would be presenting until I arrived 30 minutes before the ceremony, but I was pleasantly surprised to be awarding the prize for Best Student Book with one of the nominees being Tiana Markova-Gold, who was a winner in our PhotoShelter Student Contest. And gosh darn it, she won at the NY Photo Festival as well.

As I’ve said before, I have huge respect for photographers who tackle a subject in the long-term, and Tiana certainly has done that in documenting the plight of sex workers in New York. All the best to her in her budding career.

See her personal website.
See her PhotoShelter Collection Portfolio.

And a huge congratulations to Frank Evers and Daniel Power for organizing the Festival. As Kathy Ryan pointed out, it’s one thing to have the idea for a festival, but another level of insanity and perseverance to actually make it come to life. DUMBO was humming this weekend with the future of contemporary photography….

 

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