E-Photo
Issue #257  3/17/2023
 
Hasselblad Foundation Awards This Year's Honor to Photographer Carrie Mae Weems; Forms New Collaboration with Its Related Camera Company
Carrie Mae Weems, 2023 Hasselblad Award Laureate. Portrait © Rolex: Audoin Desforges.
Carrie Mae Weems, 2023 Hasselblad Award Laureate. Portrait © Rolex: Audoin Desforges.

Hasselblad Foundation's award committee has given the 2023 Hasselblad Award to Carrie Mae Weems "for her decades of work capturing the struggle for equality and painful history that African Americans have experienced, all under the undeniably captivating power of her photography."

Carrie Mae Weems now joins an exclusive group of previous Hasselblad Award laureates, including Ansel Adams (1981), Cindy Sherman (1994), and Hiroshi Sugimoto (2001). At an award ceremony in Gothenburg, Sweden on 13 October 2023, she will have her work displayed in exhibition, receive SEK 2 million, a gold medal, and a diploma. With the start of their long-term collaboration, Weems will receive the latest medium format camera and lenses from Gothenburg-based camera company Hasselblad.

The Hasselblad Foundation was created in 1979 to honor the philanthropic and artistic wishes of Victor and Erna Hasselblad. Its annual Hasselblad Award is one of the most prestigious honors for the photographic arts, and this year's prize announcement marks the beginning of a long-term collaboration between the Hasselblad Foundation and Hasselblad camera company.

While the iconic camera maker Hasselblad and the Hasselblad Foundation share their founder's namesake, the two organizations have not previously initiated a formal collaboration. However, with the 2022 Hasselblad Award winner Dayanita Singh receiving the Hasselblad X2D 100C and 907X 50C, the Hasselblad camera company and the Hasselblad Foundation are pleased to announce this continued tradition for all future Hasselblad Award winners.

"We are inspired by Carrie Mae Weems's impactful contributions to the art of photography," remarked Bronius Rudnickas, Marketing Manager at Hasselblad. "Today, we are honored to award Ms. Weems with her very own Hasselblad medium format cameras and lenses, and we are honored to be part of her journey moving forward. With this announcement, we are also incredibly proud to begin our extended partnership with the Hasselblad Foundation, and we look forward to the road ahead together."