Here Ed Burtynsky and friends announce the second annual Scotiabank Photography Awards. Burtynsky talks of the prize as the “search for excellence” in Canadian photography and his desire to find the “best Canadian photography” they can find. This year’s finalists are Fred Herzog from Vancouver (althogh he is outed as a Montrealer in the video), Arnaud Maggs of Toronto, and Alain Paiement from Montreal. The 2011 winner was Lynne Cohen and Roy Arden and Robin Collyer. The winner receives a $50,000 prize, a book of their work published and a curated exhibition of their work at Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.
I look forward to the announcement of the winner May 2012 but I also look forward to next year’s finalist list. In the first two years of the award there have been six finalists five of whom are male and all six hail from either Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal. The selection process for the award is pretty standard. A diverse group of nominators from across the country choose up to three candidates each and then a group of three jurors with Burtynsky choose the finalists. If there is any fuss about the diversity of the finalists Scotiabank can point to the process as a “Canada-wide peer driven search.” But if the trend continues the competition could be seen as promoting the idea that as a group established white artists create “the best Canadian photography.”
