ICP Infinity Awards Brings Out The A-Listers

The International Center of Photography's 21st annual Infinity Awards drew a star-studded crowd to New York City's Skylight Studio on Tuesday night.

Thanks in large part to the presence of legendary fashion photographer Bruce Weber, who received the Getty Images Lifetime Achievement Award, several luminaries from the design, fashion and acting worlds mingled with top photographers.

Isabella Rosellini, Helmut Lang and Chloë Sevigny were spotted in the crowd, while Ralph Lauren and Claire Danes made presentations from the stage. Newly minted CBS anchor and veteran newsman Bob Schieffer emceed the event and set the mood with humorous recollections about working in Vietnam with the late photojournalist Eddie Adams.

Introducing Weber, designer Ralph Lauren called the photographer “my voice” and lauded Weber for his “kindness, integrity and honesty” displayed over their 25-year working relationship. “I'm here to thank you Bruce for all your work and your incredible eye,” Lauren said. “You've changed the voice of fashion and given it integrity and an iconic sensibility.”

Before he accepted the award, Weber showed a long, sprawling film that touched on the major themes throughout his career: a love for animals, beautiful bodies, fashion and photography, and not necessarily in that order.

As Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas took the stage to accept the Cornell Capa Award, she acknowledged the award's namesake and ICP founder, who promptly received a standing ovation. A video survey of Meiselas's career showed a photographer concerned with learning from and giving back to often overlooked people, from the revolutionaries in El Salvador and Nicaragua to the persecuted and nationless Kurds of Iraq.

ICP as an institution straddles the line between photojournalism and fine art, and the award recipients alternated between the two disciplines throughout the night. Associated Press photographer Tomás Munita, originally from Chile, received the Infinity Award for Young Photographer. Fashion photographer Deborah Turbeville-whose fashion images evoke the romance of past eras-won for Applied Photography.

German photographer Loretta Lux's award for Art capped a stunning year for the 35-year-old. Lux, whose portraits of porcelain-faced children has catapulted her to the top of the art world, called her work “imaginary portraits” that lament the lost paradise of childhood. Lux was not willing to divulge the secrets of her craft, other than to say her technique combines photography, painting and digital imaging, and that she can spend up to three months on each print.

The selection of photography critic Vince Aletti for the Writing award seemed a no-brainer. The former Village Voice art editor received one of the loudest ovations of the night.

Book publisher Chris Boot accepted the Publication award for Lodz Ghetto Album: Photographs By Henryk Ross, a collection of Holocaust photography. Schieffer commented on how Ross buried the negatives and risked his life to dig them up and smuggle them out of the Lodz ghetto. Edited by Martin Parr and Timothy Prus, the book is a survey of the most extensive collection of ghetto photographs by a single author.

The decision to give the award for Photojournalism to a publication rather than an individual photographer was a first. But Schieffer explained the decision to honor The New Yorker for publication of the grisly Abu Ghraib torture photos in this way: “Those acts were unspeakable, their exposure vital.”

In his acceptance speech, New Yorker editor David Remnick thanked Seymour Hersh, the writer who broke the story, as well as editor Amy Davidson and photography and visuals editors Natasha Lunn and Elisabeth Biondi. Remnick noted that none of the senior U.S. military officials have claimed responsibility for the abuses at the prison or been held accountable. Remnick said: “How we allow these people to stay in power and not pay for their actions is beyond me, but we shall see with time what happens.”

Even at several hundred dollars a ticket, ICP's Infinity Awards continues to attract a wide swath of industry professionals. A number of past winners were in attendance as well as photo editors, agents and designers. The bold-faced names included past winners Gordon Parks, Joyce Tenneson, Eugene Richards, Elinor Carucci, Alice Rose George, Tyler Hicks, Lynsey Addario, Antonin Kratochvil, Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin and Jay Maisel. Getty co-founders Jonathan Klein and Mark Getty, the main sponsors of the event, were on hand to present the awards to Meiselas and Weber.

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