Hasselblad H3DII-50 Named Product of the Year at Russia’s Photoforum

On April 9, the Hasselblad H3DII-50 was named Product of the Year in the Professional Photo Camera, High-End Class, when Hasselblad’s partner in Russia, Sivma-Phototechnika, attended Photoforum 2009 in Moscow.

As winner of this prestigious annual award, the Hasselblad H3DII-50 will be labeled accordingly in major retail operations, including photo specialty equipment retailers and Internet stores.

The jury panel that chose the H3DII-50, was headed by jury chairman Eugeni Uvarov, and comprised of representatives from leading industry publications in the Russian market, including Digital Camera Photo&Video, Digital Photo, Publish, Stuff, T3, Best Digital Cameras, Potrebitel: Photo Equipment and Video Cameras, Fotodelo, Photo Masterskaya, Cifrovik, Web portal http://www.prophotos.ru/, and an independent industry expert.

Held yearly since 2004, Photoforum’s Product of the Year competition recognizes the very best audio, video, photo, computer, mobile, and portable products in the Russian marketplace.

Hasselblad Foundation Names 2009 Photography Award Winner

American photographer Robert Adams from Astoria, Oregon, has been selected as the 29th winner of the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography.

The award was presented to Adams at a press conference at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, California, on April 14, 2009. Adams, born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1937, has documented the American West in black-and-white photographs for the past four decades, revealing the impact of human activity on the vestiges of wilderness and open space.
The Hasselblad Foundation presented the following citation:

“Robert Adams is one of the most important and influential photographers of the last 40 years. During that time, he has worked almost exclusively in the American West. As photography has changed and become fragmented, he has refined and reaffirmed its inherent language, adapting the legacies of 19th century and modernist photography to his own, very singular purpose. Precise and undramatic, Adams’ accumulative vision of the West now stands as a formidable document, reflecting broader, global concerns about the environment, while consistently recognizing signs of human aspiration and elements of hope, across a particular changing landscape.”

Adams was given a diploma [is this the same as the citation? If so, suggest we write, “In addition to the above citation, Adams received a gold medal and a check for SEK 500,000.”], gold medal, and a check for SEK 500,000. An exhibition of his work, Robert Adams – 2009 Hasselblad Award Winner, will open at the Hasselblad Center in Göteborg Art Museum on November 6, 2009.

The prize committee, which submitted its proposal to the Foundation’s board of directors, included: David Chandler, Chair, and director of Photoworks, Brighton, England; Catherine David, art historian, critic, and curator, Paris, France; Annica Karlsson Rixon, artist/photographer, School of Photography, University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Sunhee Kim, artistic director, Bund 18, Shanghai, China; Jorge Ribalta, art critic and curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, Spain.

Said Adams, “Art has always asked, ‘Why get up in the morning? What makes life worthwhile?’ You’re always looking for some new purchase on that very basic question. I still think photography has a social function.”

To see a complete list of award winners, go to http://www.hasselbladfoundation.org/2008-graciela-iturbide/en/