Home > News > Press Releases > Jonathan Torgovnik to receive 2008 ASMP Arnold Newman Prize
For more information, contact:
Eugene Mopsik, Executive Director
American Society of Media Photographers
Phone (215) 451-2767
Email mopsik@asmp.org
Jonathan Torgovnik to receive 2008 Arnold Newman Prize
On May 13, 2008, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) will present the second annual ASMP Arnold Newman Prize to photographer Jonathan Torgovnik. The prize recognizes the work of a contemporary environmental portrait photographer whose imagery is grounded in the traditions and values that Newman pioneered.
Generously supported by Getty Images, Canon and Photo District News, this prize is selected from among the top scoring portrait submissions in PDN's Photography Annual Competition. ASMP executive director Eugene Mopsik and ASMP past president Barbara Bordnick, together with Aidan Sullivan of Getty Images, singled out the work of Jonathan Torgovnik from nearly 300 images submitted in the 2008 contest. He will receive a grant in the amount of $2,500 cash from Getty Images and a Canon EOS 30D camera.
Torgovnik's prize-winning series, "Intended Consequences: Genocide Mothers, Children of Rape," was initiated as part of a Newsweek assignment about the 25th anniversary of HIV/AIDS in East Africa. While photographing in Rwanda he learned of the many women who had borne children as a result of rapes they endured during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Many of these women contracted HIV at the hands of their attackers. In addition to this hardship, many of the women were cast off by their families or told they could only return without the child.
Since February 2006, Torgovnik has photographed thirty families over the course of three trips, and he has a fourth trip scheduled for June 2008. He acknowledges the difficulty in working on this series and tries to be as careful as possible about the identities of his subjects.
In the past year this series has garnered many accolades and awards, including the 2007 Photographic Portrait Prize from the National Portrait Gallery (UK), the Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography and a Documentary Photography Project Fellowship from the Open Society Institute, to support a touring exhibition of the work in universities. Future plans for this project include a multi-media piece produced by MediaStorm and an Aperture book slated for Spring 2009. Amnesty International is also developing an education curriculum guide on the consequences of genocide and sexual violence based on this work.
In tandem with the success of this work, Torgovnik is equally committed to help his photographic subjects. In February 2007, he and Jules Shell co-founded Foundation Rwanda to raise money for the mothers, fund the secondary education of their children and create awareness of the consequences of genocide and gender-based sexual violence. To view additional images from Torgovnik's project and for further details about the foundation please visit www.foundationrwanda.org.
About Arnold Newman
Arnold Newman (1918-2006) was a unique and visionary master of the art of photography, who created and took to its highest form the genre of the environmental portrait — that is, a portrait executed in the subject's usual environment, such as the home or workplace. Much of Newman's work is available for licensing through Getty Images.
Additional information about Newman is available on the ASMP website at www.asmp.org/60th/interview_arnold_newman.php and www.asmp.org/news/newslines_2006-06.php#newman.
"We don't take pictures with our cameras, we take them with our hearts and our minds."
— Arnold Newman
About ASMP
Founded in 1944, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) is the leading trade association for photographers who create images primarily for publication. ASMP promotes photographers' rights, educates photographers in better business practices, produces business publications for photographers, and helps buyers find professional photographers. It has more than 6,000 members, including many of the world's greatest photographers, in 39 chapters nationwide.