The International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York has announced the winners of its annual Infinity Awards, which honor outstanding achievements in photography and the visual arts. They will be presented to the recipients at an awards ceremony that will take place at Spring Studios on April 9.
Documentary photographer Bruce Davidson was named the Lifetime Achievement awardee. In a career spanning more than half a century, Davidson is best known for his dedication to the documentation of social inequality. He attended Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as Yale University, where he studied with Josef Albers. Davidson was later drafted into the army and stationed near Paris, where he met Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the founders of the renowned cooperative photography agency Magnum Photos. After his military service, he worked as a freelance photographer for Life magazine and, in 1958, became a full member of Magnum. From 1958 to 1961, Davidson created such seminal bodies of work as “The Circus” and “Brooklyn Gang,” and in 1962, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and immersed himself in documenting the American civil rights movement. His first solo exhibition was staged by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1963.
The other honorees are multidisciplinary artist Alexandra Bell, who received the Applied Award for her current project “Counternarratives,” for which she changes New York Times articles—adding images, redacting text, and altering headlines—to reveal oppressive patterns in news reporting; writer Maurice Berger, for critical writing and research for his work for the New York Times Lens blog, which is dedicated to photography, video, and visual journalism; Amber Bracken, for documentary photographer for her coverage of indigenous communities and issues related to the effects of colonialism; Natalie Keyssar, who uses her practice to expose class inequality, youth culture, and the trauma caused by violence in the US and Latin America, for emerging photographer; the Women Photograph initiative, a project devoted to elevating the voices of female and nonbinary visual journalists that was established by Daniella Zalcman in 2017, for online platform and new media; German fine art and fashion photographer Juergen Teller, who is best known for shooting high-profile fashion campaigns for brands such as Céline, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, and Vivienne Westwood, for special presentation; and Thomson Reuters, the Canadian multinational mass media and information firm, for the trustees award.
The awardees were chosen by a selection committee composed of Isolde Brielmaier, assistant professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and executive director of arts, culture, and community at Westfield World Trade Center; Marina Chao, assistant curator of exhibitions at the ICP; James Estrin, coeditor of the Lens blog and senior staff photographer at the New York Times; and writer and critic Antwaun Sargent.
“Every year, the Infinity Awards give us a chance to highlight the significant talents of photographers, artists, and creative innovators,” said ICP executive director Mark Lubell. “These extraordinary individuals are producing work that is not just documenting the world—but helping to create change. We are excited to celebrate their vision and their impact.”