Benjamin Antony Monn wins Hasselblad Masters Award 2008. Given in recognition of a photographer’s contribution to the art of photography, the Hasselblad Masters Award is judged on photographic ability, encompassing creativity, composition, conceptual strength and technical skill.
The team at Hasselblad began the rigorous judging process at the beginning of December, before the international jury, comprising the editors of five respected photographic magazines, selected the 10 winners from the 100 finalists, 1.700 entries and over 17.000 photographs.
The ten winners will each receive a framed diploma and the free use of a superb Hasselblad H3DII DSLR camera system for four months. During that time, they will be able to use the equipment as they wish, although they will also use it to capture images to be included in the production of a unique, high quality, photographic book, to be launched at Photokina in September 2008.
The book, a special Masters commemorative collection of photographs, will feature pictorials showing images from each winning photographer, who will be asked to interpret the theme ‘passion’ in their own style. Aware that almost every photographer dreams of having their own creative work showcased in a book, each winner will also receive 50 copies of the book. Printed in English by German publisher teNeues, the book will also be available in more than 70 countries and will retail at around €60 each.
Christian Nørgaard, Hasselblad’s newly appointed Photographer Relations Manager, says, “We have been delighted by both the large number and extremely high quality of entries. We now look forward to seeing the results of the winners’ individual interpretations of ‘passion’, using the best cameras in the world, and to choosing the finest of their images for the commemorative book.”