Pilsner Urquell has just announced their 2008 International Photography Awards. You can click here to see the categories, winners, and the awards.  The “best of” awards will be announced at the Lucie Awards to be held in NYC in October.

Our very own former NEO, AIB alum, and current grad student, Lissa Rivera won an award. In the category of “Nonprofessional Photographer of the Year: Fine Art” she got 3rd place in the category of “other.” For those familiar with her past work documenting educational institutions, seen here and here, the category is quite apt — her new work is quite “other” and quite amazing.   You’ll be able to bid on a new piece from the new series at the PRC Benefit Auction very soon!

If you know anyone who won an award, please feel free to leave kudos in the comments.  Congrats all!

Want to know more?  See more information below from their Web site:

The Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards conducts two competitions each year–one for professional photographers and one for non-professionals. Both are open to photographers anywhere in the world.

The winners of the main categories listed below will compete for IPA’s top award of International Photographer of the Year. Those finalists will be invited to attend the Lucie Awards, presented by Pilsner Urquell, where one will be announced as the grand winner, earning the coveted Lucie and a cash prize of $10,000 provided by AtEdge. In addition, the non-professional category winners will compete for the Discovery of the Year Award, for which one will win the Lucie and $5,000 provided by Pilsner Urquell. In 2007 Pilsner Urquell launched the Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year…, where both professionals and nonprofessional will compete for that title, win the coveted Lucie and a cash prize ($5,000) sponsored by Pilsner Urquell.

LUCIE AWARDS:
Besides earning the chance to compete for the top two prizes, the category winners will each also receive two tickets to the Lucie Awards, a free copy of the Annual Awards Book and the following titles:

Advertising Photographer of the Year
Architectural Photographer of the Year
Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year
Editorial Photographer of the Year
Photography Book of the Year (professional category only)
Fine Art Photographer of the Year
Nature Photographer of the Year
People Photographer of the Year
Photographer of the Year in the Special category

BEST OF SHOW EXHIBITION:
Each year, the IPA will invite an established curator to select 40-50 images from both the professional and non-professional pools of first, second, and third place winners to be exhibited at the prestigious Farmani Gallery in Los Angeles. It will then travel to eight other countries, ensuring the greatest exposure for the winning photographs.

AWARD BOOK:
In addition, the work of all first, second and third place winners will be published in the high-quality, full-color, hardcover award winning Annual International Photography Awards Book.

The first ever New York Photo Festival is in full swing this weekend. Sadly, taking down the New England Survey exhibition and artists dropping off and overall gallery prep for EXPOSURE: 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition is keeping me close to the fold here in Boston. Neverthless, we wish them the best and have a few neat PRC/Boston overlaps to note! Congratulations all!

Our 2008 PRC juror Lesley A. Martin is one of the curators of the festival. She put together a wonderful exhibition, Ubiquitous Image, which includes Penelope Umbrico, represented locally by Bernard Toale Gallery, whom I showed most recently in the PRC exhibition Ad/Agency.

A few names of note made the inaugural NY Photo Awards list under fine art single images and series. Martin Fougeron has been getting a lot of attention as of late and will be in our upcoming juried show. Jessica Todd Harper, who was in the 2005/2006 PRC exhibition Group Portrait, makes the list as does local imagemaker (and the photographer of the Boston Superheros Project) Tanit Sakakini.

When dropping off her work for the juried show yesterday, Claire Beckett told me that she was invited by Laurel Ptak of Aperture and i heart photograph to be on an Aperture panel. She’ll speak on Sunday with photographer Nina Berman, a sort of before and after Iraq. Claire was in our 2006 PRC exhibition, DOCUMENT, and was interviewed this week in Big, Red, and Shiny.

Consider this an open invitation to add any other
connections/kudos in the comments!

For those heading to NY, have a safe trip. Please take lots of pictures and share them with us will you?