We proudly award THE ArNoLd NEWMAN PrIzE For NEW dIrEc TIoNS IN
PHo TogrAPHIc Por TrAITurE to Steven Laxton. For the third year, this prize has been
awarded to a winner of the PDN Photo Annual whose work echoes Arnold Newman’s
legendary portraiture. The award is funded by The Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation
with support from the Maine Media Workshops, American Society of Media Photographers and
PDN. congratulations to Laxton who will receive a $15,000 prize.
judges
Cig Harvey’s photographs and books have been exhibited widely
and are in the permanent collections of major museums. She has shot
campaigns and features for New York magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Kate
Spade, Bloomingdales and Maine magazine. Her first solo museum show
was at The Stenersen Museum, oslo, Norway, in the spring of 2012, in
conjunction with the release of her monograph You Look At Me Like An
Emergency, (Schilt Publishing, 2012).
TimoTHy WHelan is a photography book collector and owner of
Timothy Whelan Photography Fine Photographic Prints and Books.
After falling in love with photography as a teenager, Whelan then
pursued his interests in photography at both the Maine Photographic
Workshops and the Santa Fe Workshops. Whelan runs his bookstore
in the Maine Media gallery.
© steven laxton
Steven Laxton
Steven Laxton has won this award for his work documenting small family circuses in El Salvador. These families travel
to poor, remote areas, perform and construct the tents, assemble makeshift stands, do their own makeup and make
their own costumes. El Salvador has the highest homicide rate of any country in the world, major gang violence and
a continuing drug war and these circuses are often the only cultural experiences for the locals. This year Laxton
was awarded in the Picture of the Year International Feature Story category for this project. In September,
El Salvador’s national Museum of Art will feature a major solo exhibit of the series. Laxton’s work has appeared
in The New Yorker, Elle, Philadelphia Magazine and American Lawyer. He is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.
“Contortionist Girl,”
from a personal portrait
series on nomadic
circus families in rural
el Salvador.
