British documentary photographer, Jason Larkin, is the winner of the 2011 Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture. Larkin's winning image series titled, "Past Perfect," examines how the museums of Egypt used different styles of curating to present exhibits depicting the past to contemporary audiences.
Originally trained as a photojournalist in London, Larkin has worked extensively in the Middle East, where he forged a successful career as a documentary photographer in Cairo beginning in 2007. “By deciding how the past is presented and memorialized, museums not only preserve the past, they also play an important role in the construction of our ideologies, identities and the understanding and interpretation of ourselves,” Larson writes in a caption that accompanied the picture series. "The architecture and design of many of these places, still show the influence of Egypt’s French and British colonialism. These are museums that should be in museums.”
This year’s judges for the Newman Prize included TIME Magazine deputy photo editor Paul Moakley, Susan White, Photo Director at Vanity Fair magazine and Michael K. Komanecky, chief curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine.
Larkin receives a $15,000 cash award and an exhibition of his work at the Farnsworth Art Museum from July 2 -- November 27, 2011. Sponsored by the Arnold & Augusta Newman Foundation, PDN, Maine Media Workshops and ASMP, the Newman Prize is awarded each year in conjunction with the PDN Annual.