World Press Photo Awards Days 2012: Canon dinner

World Press Photo Awards Days 2012

News articles
Interviews
Canon
Ceremony

April 2012

The Oude Kerk, the oldest monument in Amsterdam, was the venue for the traditional Canon ‘prize winners dinner’ on the evening of Friday 20 April 2012, during which many of the winning photographers from the 2012 World Press Photo Contest got their first chance to see their award-winning work exhibited.

For the second year in a row Canon’s printer group produced personalised versions of the World Press Photo Yearbook for each attending 2012 World Press Photo Contest winner, featuring one of their images on the cover. The books were swiftly collected throughout the evening and many attendees also took the chance to go in front of the camera in a special Canon portrait studio situated in the choir of the Oude Kerk, after which their photos were printed out on a Canon PIXMA PRO-1 printer.

From left to right: photographers Ebrahim Noroozi (Jamejam Online), Samuel Aranda (Corbis Images) and Massoud Hossaini (AFP) discuss their personalised yearbooks from the 2012 World Press Photo Contest in the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, 20 April 2012.

After all the guests had had a chance to view the exhibition, and enjoy dinner, World Press Photo’s Managing Director Michiel Munneke welcomed the audience and noted: “It’s an evening in which we celebrate excellence in photojournalism but it’s very important for us to acknowledge the fact that World Press Photo is now, for 20 years, a partner of Canon.”

Munneke then passed the microphone to Mike Owen, European Professional imaging Communications Manager, Canon Europe, who told the audience: “The World Press Photo Contest is a huge part of the photographic calendar every year and it shows that there is still the desire for people to tell their stories in ever new, creative and imaginative ways. The work shown here highlights that photographic storytelling is still, without a doubt, going strong.”

The evening also saw Michiel Munneke announcing the 12 photographers who had been selected, from among 165 candidates from 56 countries, by an independent selection committee for the 2012 Joop Swart Masterclass. The Joop Swart Masterclass is a six-day meeting in which participating young photographers interact with six prominent experts to discuss technical, journalistic and ethical aspects of their work.

The independent selection committee was comprised of Alex Majoli (photographer, Magnum Photos), Dana Lixenberg (photographer), Maria Mann (Director for International Relations, European Pressphoto Agency), Patrick Witty (International Picture Editor, Time), and Silvia Omedes (curator and founder of Photographic Social Vision).

Mike Owen, European Professional imaging Communications Manager, Canon Europe, delivers a speech to the audience of prize-winning photographers and professional photography industry luminaries during the Canon dinner in the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, on 20 April 2012.

The committee chose the following 12 photographers – six men and six women, from 11 different countries – to participate in the 2012 Joop Swart Masterclass: Cemil Batur Gökçeer (Turkey), Maja Daniels (Sweden), Bieke Depoorter (Belgium), Ilkin Huseynov (Azerbaijan), Tatiana Ilina (Russia), Jia DaiTengFei (China), Hajime Kimura (Japan), Sofie Amalie Klougart (Denmark), Dhruv Malhotra (India), Muhammed Muheisen (Jordan), llvy Njiokiktjien (the Netherlands), and Anastasia Rudenko (Russia). All of the selected photographers will have to prepare a project on the theme of ‘Trust’.

The exhibition of prize-winning World Press Photo photography from the 2012 World Press Photo Contest will be on display at the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, until Sunday 17 June 2012 (every day, except 30 April) and it will subsequently visit almost 100 locations around the world.