photoxelsWinners Announced for 25th And/or Book Awards for the Best Photography and Best Moving Image Books of 2009
Thursday 29 April 2010
Oil by Edward Burtynsky (Steidl) and Eisenstein on the Audiovisual by Robert Robertson (I. B. Tauris) have won the 25th And/or Book Awards, the UK’s leading prizes for books published in the fields of photography and the moving image.
Best Photography Book (£5,000 prize)
Oil by Edward Burtynsky (Steidl)
Philippe Garner, chair of the Photography judging panel comments: “Edward Burtinsky’s Oil is ambitious in scale and message. He tells the social, political and ecological story of how oil has fuelled the mechanisation, and threatens the destruction of our world. The theme is highly topical; its telling is magisterial, haunting and highly effective. This is an important book.”
Best Moving Image Book (£5,000 prize)
Eisenstein on the Audiovisual by Robert Robertson (I. B. Tauris)
Francine Stock, chair of the Moving Image judging panel comments: “We had no hesitation in choosing the winner. Composer and filmmaker Robert Robertson achieves the near-impossible, shedding fresh light on Eisenstein without loading him with ideology. Like the work it describes, this book is symphonic; it draws together strong influences and forces around Eisenstein into a compelling and cogent narrative – at once enjoyable, provocative.”
Oscar-winning film producer and educationalist David Puttnam announced the winners during an awards ceremony at the BFI Southbank on Thursday 29 April. Each author received a £5,000 prize cheque from the Krazsna-Krausz Foundation, the charitable organisation which runs the awards. The evening marked a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the awards, founded in 1985 by the influential Hungarian writer and publisher Andor Kraszna-Krausz.
The shortlisted titles for the Best Photography Book were:
- Oil by Edward Burtynsky (Steidl)
- Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans by Robert Frank, edited by Sarah Greenough (Steidl)
- Paul Graham by Paul Graham (Steidl)
- Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s by Ryūichi Kaneko and Ivan Vartanian (Aperture Foundation)
The shortlisted titles for the Best Moving Image Book were:
- The Tactile Eye by Jennifer M. Barker (University of California Press)
- Being Hal Ashby: The Life of a Hollywood Rebel by Nick Dawson (The University Press of Kentucky)
- Eisenstein on the Audiovisual by Robert Robertson (I. B. Tauris)
- The New Yorker Theater by Toby Talbot (Columbia University Press)
- Michael Haneke’s Cinema by Catherine Wheatley (Berghahn Books)
The winners were chosen by two different judging panels, one for each category, chaired by Head of Photographs at Christie’s, Philippe Garner (Photography) and the writer and broadcaster, Francine Stock (Moving Image). The judges were looking for books which make a significant contribution to the understanding of photography and/or the moving image, and which use photographs and film stills as more than a means of illustration. Over 150 titles published in 2009 were submitted for the awards across the two categories.
For more information please visit: www.andorbookawards.org
