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Bruce Davidson receives Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award

Bruce_Davidson_Magnum_Photos

The World Photography Organisation has just announced the recipient of this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award. The 2011 honour is going to Bruce Davidson and he’ll collect his gong at the Sony World Photography Awards on 27 April at the Odeon, Leicester Square. (Yes, if you were wondering, it did used to be called the Lifetime Achievement Award.)

Davidson has been shooting for over 50 years; he’s run away with a circus, followed a New York gang, and documented the Civil Rights movement; his work has been exhibited at MOMA in New York, the Foundation Cartier-Bresson in Paris, and the Tate Modern in London, to name just a few; he’s worked for Life magazine and is a member of Magnum Photos; and he’s directed three films. That’s a whole heap of awesome.

The Dwarf, Bruce Davidson, Magnum Photos

Some of Davidson’s favourite pictures, including those from his time with the circus, will be on display in the Terrace Rooms at Somerset House in London from 26 April to 22 May 2011. From 4 – 28 May there’ll be a retrospective of his work at Chris Beetles Fine Photographs in London, too.

For more information on the Sony World Photography Awards and on Bruce Davidson, check out worldphoto.org

(Featured image: USA. Los Angeles. 1964. © Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos)