The PDN Awards party and other ways to have fun

Saying "cheese" with my fellow awardees at the PDN Photo Annual awards bash!
A mug shot with my fellow awardees at the PDN Photo Annual awards bash!

It was a quick trip down to New York for the PDN Photo Annual Awards party. Definitely a good time was had by all, including yours truly. My book Harold Feinstein: A Retrospective received an award in the Photo Books category together with other esteemed folks. I felt particularly honored because my personal favorite book of the year (okay…other than mine!) also received an award! If you haven’t sat down withTim Flach’s astounding new book More than Human than its hard to tell you what you’re missing. Sitting with his book is an experience like none other I’ve had. Do yourself a favor and get it! The biggest disappointment for me was that he was unable to attend the event, so I’ll have to wait for another time to have him sign my book! Also missing were other members of my creative team from Boston (Jim Fitts and Jason Landry of Panopticon Gallery) and Chris Pichler from Nazraeli Press. I thank them again for what they did to produce this long-awaited book!

In addition to the various categories such as photo books, photojournalism, magazines and personal, PDN offers a number of special awards sponsored by corporations and non-profit foundations. I was particularly glad to learn about the Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture since Arnold Newman was an important person in my own life. I met him at the Photo League when I was a young man of about 18, and after returning from the Korean war, he was one of the first people I met with to help guide me in my next steps as a photographer. He sent me to W. Eugene Smith, which ended up being one of the most important relationships in my life. (For more on that see other blog postings about Gene in the links below).

Here are a few other snapshots from the party!

Here I am with old buddy Todd Weinstein and new friend Paul Arno Rose who received an award in the personal category.
Here I am with old buddy Todd Weinstein and new friend Paul Arno Rose who received an award in the personal category.

with Andrea Smith, my friend and publicist!
with Andrea Smith, my friend and publicist!
Before partying the night away at the Tribeca Rooftops overlooking the Hudson River, I had a really enjoyable morning with Sara Fishko, an executive producer and host at WNYC. In addition to her well-known and highly respected series Fishko Files Sara produced the ten-part series Jazz Loft Project Radio Series (in conjunction with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke) that included my own recollections about living in The Jazz Loft prior to turning it over to W. Eugene Smith. Now she’s engaged in co-producing a documentary on the same subject, together with Cal Skaggs of Lumiere Productions. In the end, I realized that sharing memorable stories about Gene made me miss him!

Cutting it up with Sara Fishko and Cal Skaggs at the taping for the W. Eugene Smith documentary project. Sara's husband, Robert Gill, is a great friend of mine who is the first person I called when I moved in to the Jazz Loft. I remember saying:  "Is this really music?" To which he responded simply: "Yes, Harold."
Cutting it up with Sara Fishko and Cal Skaggs at the taping for the W. Eugene Smith documentary project. Sara’s husband, Bob Gill, is a great friend of mine. He was the first person I called when I moved in to the Jazz Loft. I remember saying: “Is this really music?” To which he responded simply: “Yes, Harold.”

Our final stop on this quick trip to NYC was with our friend Sean Corcoran, curator of photography and prints at the Museum of the City of New York. Sean had moderated my event at Aperture in December and shortly afterwards we began discussing a potential Coney Island show. Soon we’re going to take a week-end to look through my boxes of Coney Island contact sheets. It will be great to have his expert eye looking through the many hundreds of photos from the 40’s and 50’s that still remain undiscovered and unprinted. But then again, I’m only 82… give me time!

Sean Corcoran and I put our heads at the Museum of the City of New York.
Sean Corcoran and I put our heads at the Museum of the City of New York.