Hasselblad announces 2009 Masters Award winners

This year’s Masters Awards was also one of the most competitive in the program’s history. Christian Nørgaard, Hasselblad’s Photographer Relations Manager, noted that “We were very pleased with the overall quality of submissions by the 2009 candidates, demonstrating the respect and recognition the Masters Awards has gained over the years.” Nørgaard goes on to say that, “Given the exceptional talents of the 100 finalists, though, it was very difficult for the international Hasselblad panel to select only 10 winners.”

In addition to being granted the distinguished title of Master, the winners will each have access to Hasselblad’s flagship camera system, the H4D, a movie camera and a script. Their work and Masters project will also be profiled on Hasselblad’s websites and in printed materials.

Hasselblad will also produce its second annual commemorative Masters book featuring the 2009 winners’ photographic interpretations of the theme “emotion.” “Last year’s book was so well-received that we felt it was important to give the 2009 Masters the same opportunity to have their images published in a beautiful, high quality format. The combination of Hasselblad H4D excellence along with the photographers’ creative visions and technical skills will certainly result in a stunning collection of images for Masters Vol. 2 – Emotion”, says Nørgaard.

Especially exciting news is that photokina Hasselblad has planned a celebration of the Masters Awards during the show. In addition to a press conference, there will be a large exhibit of the Masters’ photographs, which will be viewed by almost two hundred thousand of photokina attendees. As part of this international celebration, Masters Vol. 2—Emotion will also be released at photokina 2010.

The 2009 Hasselblad Masters Awards winners are:

Up-and-Coming: Lyle Owerko, NYC, USA

Wedding: Joao Carlos, NYC, USA

Portrait: Claudio Napolitano, Miami, USA / Caracas, Venezuela

Fashion: Dirk Rees, London, England

Product: Mark Holthusen, San Francisco, USA

Fine Art: Quentin Shih, Beijing, China

Architecture: Stephan Zirwes, Stuttgart, Germany

Landscape: Bang Peng, Hong Kong

Editorial: Nina Berman, NYC, USA

General: Mark Zibert, Toronto, Canada