The Arnold Newman Prize For New Directions in Photographic Portraiture.
The 2023 Arnold Newman Prize Winner, Finalists and Honorable Mentions have been announced
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The Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture is a $20,000 prize awarded annually to a photographer whose work demonstrates a compelling new vision in photographic portraiture. The jury will select a Top Ten, from which the winner and three finalists will be chosen. The three finalists receive a $250 stipend each. All artists recognized in the Top Ten will be included in the online exhibitions hosted by Maine Media and the Griffin Museum of Photography. The Prize is generously funded by the Arnold & Augusta Newman Foundation and proudly administered by Maine Media.
The winner, finalists, and photographers acknowledged in the Top Ten will be announced publicly during a live virtual event in October.
The Griffin Museum of Photography will host a solo exhibition of work by the winner in December 2024. There will be a reception for the exhibit in December.
The 2024 Jurors
Jurying will begin once the call for entries has closed. The 2024 jury consists of Tal-Or Ben-Choreen, Kris Graves, and Craig Easton. All submissions will be reviewed by the jurors. All jurying will be done anonymously. All decisions made by the jurors are final.
Tal-Or Ben-Choreen
Tal-Or Ben-Choreen is Curatorial Coordinator at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her areas of specialty include American and Canadian photography between 1960 and 1990, which she explores via social networks, and institutional and educational contexts. She holds a PhD in Art History from Concordia University. Ben-Choreen’s curatorial work includes Building Icons: Arnold Newman’s Magazine World, 1938 – 2000 (2023 – 2024) and The Unseen Marion Faller (2018). She has conducted research on behalf of the New York Public Library, the National Gallery of Canada, and the George Eastman House. Ben-Choreen writings have been published in Contemporary Review of the Middle East, Canadian Jewish Studies, Afterimage Online, and History of Photography.
Kris Graves
Kris Graves (b. 1982 New York, NY) is an artist and publisher based in New York and California. He received his BFA in Visual Arts from S.U.N.Y. Purchase College and has been published and exhibited globally, including Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Portrait Gallery in London, England and Aperture Gallery, New York; among others. Permanent collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Schomburg Center, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Brooklyn Museum; and The Wedge Collection, Toronto; amongst others.
Graves also sits on the board of Blue Sky Gallery: Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Portland; and The Architectural League of New York as Vice President of Photography.
Kris Graves creates artwork that deals with societal problems and aims to use art as a means to inform people about cultural issues. He also works to elevate the representation of people of color in the fine art canon; and to create opportunities for conversation about race, representation, and urban life. Graves creates photographs of landscapes and people to preserve memory.
Craig Easton
Craig Easton is a photographer whose work is deeply rooted in the documentary tradition. He shoots long-term projects exploring issues around social policy, identity, culture and community. Known for his intimate portraits and expansive landscape, his work regularly combines these elements with reportage approaches to storytelling, often working collaboratively with others to incorporate words, pictures and audio in a research-based practice that weaves a narrative between contemporary experience and history.
Easton is the recipient of the 2023 Arnold Newman Prize, the latest in a list of awards that include the prestigious title of Photographer of the Year at the SONY World Photography Awards, 2021. In 2022 he was recognised with an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in the UK.
He has published three monographs – Thatcher’s Children, GOST Books, 2023 (The Orwell Prize); Bank Top, GOST Books, 2022 (shortlisted for Aperture/Paris Photo Book Award, Les Rencontres d’Arles Book Award and Kraszna Krausz Book Award) and Fisherwomen, Ten O’Clock Books, 2020.
Easton is a regular visiting lecturer at universities and runs workshops both in the UK and internationally.
Craig recently won the 2023 Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture for the series ‘Bank Top‘.
About The Arnold Newman Prize
The Mission
Arnold Newman had an insatiable fascination with people and the physical world around him. In his work, he constantly explored the boundaries of portraiture and embodied the spirit of artistic innovation. He was also a passionate teacher–he taught at Maine Media every summer for over 30 years. In honor of Arnold’s legacy as both a photographer and mentor, The Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture recognizes excellence in a new generation of photographers by awarding $20,000 to a winning photographer and elevating the work of the winner and three finalists in the press and through an exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography. The prize, the second largest in the United States, is designed to assist the winner in continuing the pursuit of their work and to serve as a launching pad for the next phase of their careers.
History of the Prize
The prize was established in 2009 by the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation. Maine Media has proudly administered the prize since 2016. Beginning with the 2017 prize, three finalists are selected each year in addition to the winner. In 2018, Maine Media partnered with the Griffin Museum of Photography to host an annual exhibition of work by the winner and finalists each year.
Past Winners:
- 2010: Emily Schiffer
- 2011: Jason Larkin
- 2012: Steven Laxton
- 2013: Wayne Lawrence
- 2014: Ilona Szwarc
- 2015: Nancy Borowick
- 2016: Sian Davey
- 2017: Daniella Zalcman [Finalists: Sophie Barbasch, Daniel Coburn, Jessica Eve Rattner]
- 2018: Viktoria Sorochinski [Finalists: Juul Kraijer, Francesco Pergolesi , Donna Pinckley]
- 2019: Louie Palu [Finalists: Jess T. Dugan, Cheryle St. Onge, Bryan Thomas]
- 2020: Jon Henry [Finalists: Michael Darough, Priya Kambli, Rubén Salgado]
- 2021: Rashod Taylor [Finalists: Golden, Christian K Lee, Donavon Smallwood]
- 2022: Lisa Elmaleh [Finalists: Anna Grevenitis, Andrew Kung, Rania Matar] & Honorable Mentions.
- 2023: Craig Easton [Finalists: Dylan Hausthor, Takako Kido, Nzingah Oyo] & Honorable Mentions.
Arnold Newman and Maine Media
Arnold Newman began his relationship with Maine in the late 1970’s, traveling from his home in New York City each summer to join a host of other renowned photographers in Rockport, who were teaching at the Maine Photographic Workshops, now known as Maine Media. For Arnold, Maine was a place of inspiration and rejuvenation and the Workshops a place to see old friends, be immersed in photography and share his work and experiences through teaching. He never came to Maine for just his workshop; it was always a longer stay. For more than thirty years, Arnold and his wife Augusta were vital influences among the Workshops community.
I first met Arnold at the Workshops in the summer of 1990. On a hot summer night, I sat in the crowded Union Hall Theater to listen to his lecture and see the images illustrating his long and extraordinary life as a photographer. It was a lecture he would give every year, and each year, he would begin by asking the young photographers in the audience if they knew of the notable subjects in his photographs – always imploring that we must know our history, telling his audience, “we learn from the past.”
It would be a very long lecture. Arnold loved to tell stories. His stories are pretty hard to beat – how many people can share with you their personal account of photographing the man responsible for curing polio or, every President since Truman? Photographing Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, on the day the Anne Frank House opened to the public or nearly every artist of note in the 20th century? About spending a day with Picasso? Being with Arnold was like being with a walking, talking history book.
I, like so many others in that crowded Union Hall Theater for Arnold’s slide show, was captivated by the way each image appeared to emerge from the innermost essence of the sitter. These were not ordinary pictures of people. Rather, they evinced the spirits of individuals engaged in their various pursuits, their innermost psyches, and their most honest moments. He has provided the world some of the most memorably significant and truest depictions of important figures in the areas of politics, sciences, and of course, the arts. For many admirers of these subjects, Arnold’s are the quintessential images.
During his extended visits to the Workshops, Arnold would act as an unofficial artist in residence. Many would enjoy the company of Arnold and Augusta for meals under the dining tent, where Arnold would regale his listeners with yet more stories. After all, he had a lifetime of extraordinary experiences to share! Frequently, Arnold would ask young photographers to come sit with him and would ask to see their work. On more than one occasion, one of those informal portfolio reviews launched the career of a now well regarded photographer.
Arnold was always a teacher, when he was in the classroom, delivering a lecture, or even just sharing a meal. To learn from Arnold, was to learn from a great master of the craft, a visionary photographer and a genuinely learned man. He helped many understand, in a most profound way, what it is to be an artist. I am now a teacher. My students know that I do so love to tell “Arnold” stories, stories of my time working with him and to recount his many stories as a way to teach history. To a great extent, it was through these stories that I learned.
The life and work of Arnold Newman have had a tremendous impact on the world, on those who know him only through his photographs as well as on those who have had the great fortune to know him personally. He shared with the world his keen observations of the great figures in our history; now, he is a part of that history and an indelible part of the history of the Workshops.
~ Elizabeth Thomsen Greenberg, Maine Media Provost.
Header image by Craig Easton, 2023 Arnold Newman Prize winner. *Dates and times to be confirmed.
Register your interest below and we will let you know when the 2025 Arnold Newman Prize call for entries is open:
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact