A vision realized.
Hossein Farmani has a passion to celebrate photography and he shared that passion with a theater full of like minds on Monday night.

The crowd was huge and happy.It was truly a milestone to set the IPA-LUCIE 5th Annual awards in the prestigious venue of Lincoln Center.[photopress:SFT_0272.jpg,full,centered]
Photographer Vincent handled the Step and Repeat (the background with sponsors names) with aplomb
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The crowd easily filled the lobby and the Pilsner-Urquell, title event sponsor, was flowing.
As someone has said recently ” I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Pilsner-Urquell” Tasty stuff.

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The photo studio was set up here also. Honoree Howard Zeiff and his wife strike a pose here.

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It was a house full of photographic luminaries and celebrities. Lou Reed came to give the Lucie to his good friend Ralph Gibson. And on receiving the award Mr. Gibson said it was for ” the photographs not yet taken” as opposed to what has come before.

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Kenro Izu, The Visionary Award Winner, spoke about his mission of making photographs and selling hem to support a hospital in Cambodia. Through sales and auctions, his contribution to the the world is working. The hospital survives with a 95% Cambodian staff. The Angkor Hospital for Children opened its door in 1999 in Siem Reap , Cambodia, and treated over 420,000 children to date. The hospital is now an official medical education center of whole Cambodia, to educate the next generation of medical workers of Cambodia for the future independence of medical systems of Cambodia.

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Eugene Richards, Documentary Honoree, stayed true to form to his world view and photography’s place in it.
With a call to action he asked the audience to not just be bystanders but use the power of the medium to make a positive effect on the world. Simplified here, true but his emotional message can perhaps best be seen through his work.

Master photojournalist Phillip Jones Griffiths spoke to a similar topic although went to a global place.Not geographically, but the question of “why do we get up in the morning?, Is it to change the world?” Or are we spending more time on the dumbed down pap of the general media. His message was about the power of the medium and to remember to stay true to its use.

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Of course was the nights Lifetime Achievement award winner, and true to form, his warm witty persona was apparent not only is his fried egg boutonnière, but his choice of presenter, Mark Lubell of Magnum. We were told that his choice was due to owning a Tux (of course not true) but it set the stage to honor this master photographer.

Aperture was awarded Magazine of the Year. Powerhouse books was honored as Publisher of the Year which made great sense as the book Darfur, that they published was named Photo Book of the Year.

Many more honorees that you can learn about on the site.

Much more to come this week in NYC photography.

( and thanks Bugs Bunny, for this article’s title )

Cheers!
Damon Webster