Focus Awards 2010

The Museum created the annual awards in 2006 to recognize individuals who have made critical contributions to the promotion of photography. The awards were created to recognize the work of those who have been instrumental in building greater awareness of the photographic arts in the general public.

New England Beacon Award, Alan Taylor

presented by Finbarr O’Reilly

Web developer Alan Taylor created the photo blog The Big Picture for The Boston Globe/Boston.com. He’s responsible for researching, designing, programming, and editing the three-day a week blog, which launched in 2008 to fantastic success. In its first 20 days of existence, The Big Picture reached almost 1.5 million page views and garnered more than 1,500 comments for just 20 entries.

Inspired by publications like LIFE magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com’s Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm’s MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery – with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories, and just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting. The majority of images come from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Getty Images. Other photos come from public domain sources like NASA, and private photographers who share them with The Big Picture for one-time use.

Taylor has been a web developer for more than ten years. Prior to The Boston Globe he worked for a number of large Internet companies, including Amazon.com, drugstore.com, Monster.com, and msnbc.com.

David Bram, Rising Star Award

presented by Mary Virginia Swanson

Based in Albuquerque, NM, Bram is editor, curator, and founder of the popular and influential Fraction Magazine, now in its sixteenth issue. The goal of the online-only magazine is to provide an alternative to the fixed gallery, and to continually examine the role that photography plays in society. Fraction aims to feature the work of new artists who have yet to get the exposure they deserve, as well as very established artists who are showing off new projects. The magazine tries to show work that fits together, and work that is both strong in concept as well as execution. It also often includes guest curators and writers such as Melanie McWhorter, Mary Goodwin, and Larissa Leclair.

link to Fraction Magazine: http://fractionmagazine.com/

James Colton, Lifetime Achievement Award

presented by Steve Fine

Colton is currently the photography editor for Sports Illustrated. He began his career in 1972 as the color picture editor for the Associated Press. Five years later he joined Newsweek as a senior photo editor for international news. In 1988, he became executive vice-president and general manager of Sipa Press in New York, before returning to Newsweek in 1992 as the director of photography.

Colton is on the Board of Directors of the Eddie Adams Workshop, and is a mentor for J Camp, a national program that recruits talented high school students of color, sponsored by the Asian American Journalists Association. He was presented with the “Golden Career Award” at FotoFusion 2004 by the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, received an International Photography Awards “Lucie” for Picture Editor of the Year in 2007, was named Magazine Picture Editor of the Year in 2008 by the National Press Photographers Association, and has been acknowledged as one of the 100 most important people in photography by American Photo.

Banafsheh Ehtemam & Jamie Rosencranz

Associate Director, Frances Jakubek, and Director of the Griffin Museum, Paula Tognarelli

A big thank you to Kevin Cummings for these photos

Photobooth @ the Griffin! check out http://shutteryou.com/events/view/4789/

Boston Photographers Meg Birnbaum, Suzanne Revy and Ellen Rennard celebrate.

Keep an eye out for more photos!