IPC Celebrates Professional Photographers Month at United Nations luncheon
Honors Professional Photographers with IPC Leadership Awards
New York, New York, May 11, 2004—The 6th annual IPC Professional Photographer Leadership Awards luncheon was held at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, May 11th, 2004 The International Photographic Council (IPC) is a non-governmental organization of the United Nations. Celebrating May as “International Professional Photographers Month,” the organization recognized four distinguished photographers with IPC Leadership Awards, and one with an IPC Lifetime Achievement Award. Karen A. Smith-Pilkington, chair and president, greater Asia region, Shanghai, China, Eastman Kodak Company delivered the keynote address.
In her speech, Ms. Smith-Pilkington, said, “Images invoke mutual experiences and emotions that cut across borders shaped by unique ethnicity, religion and politics. I especially see that when amazing professional photographers, such as those being recognized today, cause us to see the world in ways never before imaginable. Professional photographers succeed because they capture certain truths better than the rest of us ever could,”
IPC president James Chung, along with event chairperson IPC vice president Kathy Schneider and Agfa’s Stefan Aps, introduced the award winners and presented them with commemorative medals. Pure Digital’s Bob Cartwright introduced Tony Leonard, the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
In his comments to those attending, James Chung said: “Every year the IPC celebrates the month of May to honor a select group of International Photographers. Photography, as we know it today, traces its origin back almost 200 years to 1816, when a Frenchman, Niepce, developed an early form of photography. His innovations laid the foundation for countless photographers who followed, including William Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre, and ultimately lead the way for the distinguished professionals whom we recognize here today.”
Winners of the IPC Leadership Awards were:
• Wedding and portrait photographer Bambi Cantrell
• Dennis Brack, member of the Executive Board of the White House News Photographers Association
• Frank E. Cricchio, who has been called “the greatest teacher/photographer on the social scene in America today
• Stanley Rowin, photographer and two-term president of ASMP.
• Tony Leonard, considered by many as the best thoroughbred racing photographer of all time, received the IPC Lifetime Achievement Award.
The event was sponsored by Agfa Corporation, American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), Canon USA, Inc., Cygnus Business Media, Eastman Kodak, Epson America Inc., Fujifilm, Hasselblad USA, Nikon Inc., Olympus America Inc., POP/American Photo, Professional Photographers of America (PPA), Tamron USA, Inc., Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), and the White House News Photographer’s Association (WHNPA).
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The International Photographic Council (IPC) is a multinational non-governmental organization of the United Nations, comprised of representatives from every major sector of the photographic industry. Founded in 1974, it is dedicated to increasing worldwide recognition of photography as a universal means of communication through the adoption of a motto, “Peace through understanding, Understanding through Photography, the Universal Language.”