Lucie Awards, the Oscars of photography

Monday night the 20th of October was one of the most exciting nights of my life. The build up for it was intense, but honestly I didn’t really have an idea how big of a deal I had gotten myself into until I went to New York and got to see it for myself. I entered my “I am Elvis” series, I was extremely proud of into a competition online after showing it in the Contact 2008 in Toronto with fantastic success. A lot of people came on the opening night and celebrated with performances by seven of the Elvises I had photographed for this show, a lot of people saw my work later on, during the month and a lot of others had seen it on TV and read about it in the news.

But on this Monday night, I was in New York City stepping out of a taxi and heading to the Lincoln Center for the Oscars of photography, that I had been nominated for. The International Photography Awards organizes a competition that has taken place in New York six times so far. My mind was racing, this was so exciting! The giants of photography were invited and being honored and then there was me. I have to smile as I think of this, for a young photographer there can hardly be a bigger honor than be in the same room with people like Herman Leonard, Erwin Olaf, Patrick Demarchelier, Jim Marshall, Platon and the list goes on.

The place was packed. Everyone wore black tie and white starched shirts, women were in dresses with their bare arms and backs showing and everyone was in black. I was so nervous! I started thinking, maybe I was expected to wear funeral black too, but then Jacob Witzenhausen laughed it off and said my little gold Marilyn cocktail dress was perfect, it fit in with my Elvii. Jacob was there to support Erwin Olaf, one of the artists the Witzenhausen Gallery represents. And introduced me to one of the photographers about to be honored for his achievements in advertising work

My nomination was in the Deeper Perspective category. Interestingly enough all the other entries were about some very serious issues, street kids in Vietnam, crack-heads in Vancouver, African tribes and dealing with residual violence after serving in the army. And then there were my Elvii.
The night was fantastic, Pilsner Urquell was flowing, it also helps that it’s my favorite beer and was one of the reasons why I decided to enter the competition in the first place. I thought, beer from my home country sponsoring a photo competition? I’m signing up!
Tony Bennett may have been the highlight of the night for most people, but I was more excited to see some of the best photographers in the World accept the little sculpture of Lucie. It was just too bad that Josef Koudelka could not be there, I would have liked to shake his hand.

Platon, the new New Yorker staff photographer was there. Have you seen the Inauguration portfolio he shot recently for the magazine? I got to meet him and went to a seminar he gave later on that week. The man is such a darling! I met Jim Marshall, the man and the legend as well, that was a blast! The guy kept pinching my cheeks! I finally got to meet and congratulate Mark Ziebert too, he won the first place in the advertising category.
I didn’t win the trophy this time, but all the hard work I did for a year was paid off way more than I would have expected. The invitation to have my work presented in front of a room full of some of the best photographers from around the world was worth it all!
You can read more about the evening on the PDN site.

Youngest Elvis