February 15, 2022
Abbey Road Studios, the world’s most famous recording studio, has announced the first Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards (MPA) – the first awards to celebrate the art of music photography.
The MPAs are associated with Hennessy and will recognize the most unforgettable, unique and overlooked musical moments of the year and the diverse and talented photographers who captured them. The winners will be revealed and celebrated at an official AMP ceremony in May 2022 (exact date to be confirmed), to be held at Abbey Road Studios.
In celebration of Abbey Road 90th Anniversary (which fell in November 2021), the GPA will honor images that capture the magic of live music, the creative process, and the exciting musical scenes and movements taking place across the world. The awards will recognize photographers of all levels – whether established, emerging or unknown – via open-entry categories as well as categories chosen by an esteemed jury of artists, photographers and influential names from the global photography industries. photography and music.
Over its 90-year history, Abbey Road Studios has been home to the legends who have defined music history and shaped popular culture. The studios have a legacy that goes beyond music, through images that have immortalized artists and producers. This may include the most iconic album cover in music history – The Beatles walking across a zebra crossing for the cover of Abbey Road. You can find out how the Abbey Road album cover was shot.
Rock legend Mick Jagger, photographed by Rankin
Entry categories
Abbey Road Studios invites professional and emerging photographers from around the world to participate in the four open-entry categories titled: Studio, Live, Champion scenes and the Unknown Photographer of the Year. The jury will choose one of these candidates for the The spirit of the times award. These categories can be entered by photographers at all stages of their career through the official website Abbey Road Music Photography Award website.
Alongside this are four guest category awards, with the nominees and winners chosen by the jury – made up of photographers, artists and experts from the music and photography industries. The official AMP Jury will nominate, debate and award these categories – each bringing to the table their own creative eye and expertise in the global music and photography industries. The invited categories are: Icon, Portrait, Editorial and artist at work.
The Jury
Lead the inauguration Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Award 2022 the jury is a photographer Rankin. Rankin has directed and shot music videos for Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora and Kelis and has done portraits of everyone from David Bowie to The Rolling Stones and The Queen.
Rankin revealed, ‘Throughout my career, it has always been very important to me to support emerging and undiscovered talent in the field of photography, so the opportunity to partner with one of the most important music brands and the most prestigious of Abbey Road Studios for this year’s first Music Photographer Of The Year Awards, is massively exciting. Music photography is an art form that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, so it’s great to celebrate those working in the field with these awards. What I always look for with photography is a connection to the subject and music has been one of my main passions for as long as I can remember so it’s a real thrill.’
Join Rankin is a music photographer and founder of Rockarchive Jill Furmanovsky. Over her unprecedented 50-year career, she has photographed many of the biggest names in rock music, including Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Blondie, The Police, Led Zeppelin, The Pretenders, Bob Dylan, Oasis and was a photographer at Abbey Road Studios. in residence from 2017 to 2018.
Music photographer Jill Furmanovsky at Abbey Road Studios, August 2018. Image: Virgilio Ponce
Groundbreaking Ghanaian-American multidisciplinary singer, writer and creator Moses Sumney is also on the panel. More recently, Moses premiered his self-directed performance feature Blackalachia at the Perez Art Museum Miami during Art Basel 2021 alongside a special presentation of self-portraits. Her first gallery exhibition, a combination of video and photo work, opened at the Nicola Vassell Gallery in February 2022.
Moses is joined by Shy girla multi-disciplinary artist hailing from the East London club scene, with a unique vision and style that goes beyond the world of music and high fashion.
American photographer and director Dana Scruggs is also part of the MPA panel. She was the first black person to photograph the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in its 50-year history, in 2019, and she has photographed renowned music stars such as Megan Thee Stallion, Janelle Monae, Mariah Carey, Travis Scott and many more.
Also on the east panel Rolling Stone assistant cinematographer and photographer Sacha Lecca. Sacha has worked with the magazine since 2007. His photography has been featured in Rolling Stone, Huck, Whalebone, Alt Citizen, The Photographic Journal, American Photography 36 and on various album covers.
The Gallagher brothers – Noel (left) and Liam (right), formerly of Oasis. Image: Rankin
The jury is completed by the general manager of Abbey Road Studios Isabelle Garveywho joined Abbey Road Studios in 2014 and was instrumental in modernizing the studios.
Garvey explained, “We are delighted to launch the first Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards. This is an important category of photography that has not been formally recognized before and I am honored to be able to make this possible with AMPs. Abbey Road’s legacy came not just from the incredible artists and records made here, but also from the iconic images that captured those seminal moments and transported them around the world.. I’m excited to work with our talented panel of judges to find and celebrate the next generation of image makers around the world who are shaping the way we see music.
Read more…
To learn more about the prizes and how to enter, visit: The Abbey Road Musical Photography Awards.
Related Articles:
How the Abbey Road album cover was shot
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Greatest Album Photography of All Time: Nirvana’s Nevermind
Best Album Photography: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Greatest Album Photograph: Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin
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