International Photography of the Year Awards

Photo courtesy of fotographixca on Flickr

The Lucie Foundation is the photography world’s head cheerleader. It exists to promote the visual form in its many incarnations, whether it’s honoring master photographers, discovering new talent, or reminding everyone through exhibitions and events to appreciate the eyes behind the myriad of images we see everyday. Each year the Lucie Foundation sponsors the International Photography of the Year Awards, which is a competition open to both professionals and amateurs. They highlight the year’s tip-top talent with a gala celebration to award the actual Lucie statuette. It’s all very Oscar-esque, though minus the gowns and celebrities. Well, there are celebrities of the photo community, and, oh wait, usually there’s a celebrity that hosts the entire thing. Last year it was Mario Cantone, Charlotte’s gay friend from Sex and the City, and the year before that it was Lili Taylor.

The reason I mention it is because the Lucies are this evening at Lincoln Center. Though if you can’t make the awards, Ms. Sara Rosen has curated a selection of 45 images from the competition on view at Splashlight, Soho, entitled Best of Show 2009. It’s filled with familiar photo names like Ed Kashi and Joey Lawrence and of the chosen ones, she says, “Curating is like being a stylist in a sense, selecting pieces from disparate and distinctive photographers exploring the relationship between the camera and the world—as we know it or imagine it to be.”