2004

Press Photographers Earn Praise

Event: AIB PPAI Gala dinner
Date: Friday, Feb. 18, 2005
Venue: Jury’s Hotel, Ballsbridge
 

Donal Forde, managing director, 
Allied Irish Bank sponsor of the PPAI Awards

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the 2004 AIB Press Photographers Association of Ireland Awards. As you know this is the third year of AIB’s sponsorship of this prestigious event and we thought we’d do something a little different this year, so we relocated to Jury’s! I’m sure you’ll all agree that the venue is magnificent tonight and I for one am looking forward to a great ceremony ahead.

As usual, the excitement and anticipation has been building since the judging weekend in January and once again, I am in awe of the level of talent amongst Irish press photographers and their distinctive ability to capture everyday emotions at any given moment in time. There were a record number of entries this year – over 1,700, I believe, and the overall quality of the photos was exemplary.

Among the many events covered in 2004 were the President Bush’s visit to Dromoland, Cian O’Connor’s controversial gold medal performance, Ireland’s Presidential and Euro elections, Ireland’s Triple Crown win, Cork and Kerry’s All-Ireland celebrations and a wide range of news, sporting and political events.

The success of these awards and accompanying exhibition speaks for itself and is a testimony to the quality and excellence of the photographs and abundance of talent in Irish press photography. In 2004, we brought the exhibition to 18 venues throughout Ireland and also to Los Angeles, Brussels and Poland, raising awareness both nationally and internationally.

With many of the exhibitions being showcased in our local AIB branches, it enabled us to display the outstanding skill of the PPAI to as wide an audience as possible and our branch managers and staff were extremely pleased with the support it received.

This year, the exhibition will open in AIB South Mall, Cork on 22nd February to coincide with the Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture celebrations and we also aim to bring the exhibition to a number of international venues over the coming months. Additional masterclasses are also planned for this year, further highlighting the fast-faced, dynamic field of press photography.

A renowned international panel of judges were selected for the 2004 Awards, headed up by the chairperson, Bride Rosney, RTE, alongside Mike Bealing, Time Magazine and Rob Taggart, Associated Press, London. I am delighted to welcome them all here tonight and extend our thanks to them for traveling to Dublin in January to complete, what must’ve been an extremely difficult task in selecting the winners for 2004.

I also must thank everyone involved in the organization of this wonderful event. If I could particularly mention Steve Humphreys, who has done a wonderful job as president of the PPAI for the second year running. No doubt he will be sad to pass on the baton to his successor next year and I’d like to thank him for his contribution and effort in the run-up to the AIB PPAI Awards and would like to wish Billy Higgins the best of luck in his forthcoming presidency. I would also like to pay tribute to Brenda Moriarty, Kathy McGarry and the team at AIB for their ongoing work and dedication throughout the year.

I’m sure you’re all as eager as I am to find out who this year’s winners are, so I would like to thank you all for coming tonight and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Comments by Stephen Humphreys, president of the Press Photographers Association of Ireland

Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, special guests and, or course, fellow photographers.

Thank you, Donal, for your kind words. As you’ve said, this, indeed, is the third year of AIB’s partnership with the PPAI, and, as always, we appreciate your generous and thoughtful support.

On behalf of the association, I welcome you and your wife Niamh here tonight, not forgetting Brenda Moriarty (head of brand management ) and Kathy Mc Garry (sponsorship manager), who we are also delighted see here. Let me also take the opportunity to express our gratitude to ALL of the AIB branch managers who made us feel SO incredibly welcome during the past year and who helped to make our latest exhibition such a great success.

So, here we are again. Tonight sees us back in the familiar embrace of Jurys Hotel, scene of some legendary award nights -- and bleary mornings -- in years gone by.

Our venue may have changed, but the sense of anticipation - as always at this time of the evening - is the same.

Happily, I can say the suffering is nearly over. We’re not far away now from the eagerly awaited announcement of the AIB/PPAI award winners for 2004.

However, I’m going too prolong the agony just a little longer.
As you know, these awards are to honor the work of Ireland’s press photographers. But there is more to our association than handing out prizes. As a group of professionals, we are passionate about our work, and strive to do it to the highest standards, often, under huge pressures.

We have an interesting, occasionally exasperating, often exhilarating job.

We go out there.
We take the pictures.
We deliver.

But our world is no longer black and white.

Recently, the work of press photographers in Ireland has come under very close scrutiny. As a body of professionals, we have come in for a lot of criticism over some aspects of our work. Sometimes, that criticism is justified.

The issue that has us in the public spotlight is the very proper question of an individual's right to privacy -- where those rights begin, and where they end?

As we all know — there is not always a straightforward answer.

Now, this isn't the appropriate occasion to get stuck into the whole discussion – but that is NOT to say we are ignoring it.

However, what strikes me about the current debate, is that while we as photographers are at the centre of it, very few commentators or politicians ever think to ask us for our views.

The fact is, we do not work in a vacuum.

Press photographers today operate in a pressured and competitive environment, sometimes struggling to satisfy demands for pictures which might once have been deemed unreasonable. We have to work under increasing restrictions on the one hand, while often facing an increasing appetite for sensational images on the other.

This does not mean we don’t have concerns about some current practices and genuine worries about the future.

I don’t think we want this debate to go on above our heads.
It is up to us to let the public and wider media know where we stand.

Because, you know with so much focus on the negative ---- a tiny, tiny, fraction of our output ---- the good work done by press photographers is in danger of being overlooked.

The reality in our business is, that the positives far, far, outweigh the negatives. To prove my point, our heartiest congratulations go to Galway’s finest , the great Joe Shaughnessy, who has just done us proud on the international stage by winning a 3rd prize in the prestigious World Press Photo competition.

Well done, Joe.

Back on the domestic front, we’ve had a record entry for our own awards this year. The pick of them will be on display here tonight.

Through the camera lens, these pictures present a record of contemporary Irish life, in all its colors and contradictions, providing both a serious and an offbeat commentary on society today. When we look at them, a reflection of ourselves shines back .

Our good moments — the not so good. Shared moments of sporting triumph – not to mention the occasional Olympian disappointment.
Walkouts and walkabouts. Standoffs and sit-ins. Tragedy and triumph. The serious and the silly. The return of Roy Keane! The arrival of I Keano!!

May Day riots that never happened, a presidential election that never materialized, a presidential visit that never budged from Dromoland Castle. We’re not saying George Bush’s trip to Ireland was a nonevent, but it says something when the highlight was a photograph of Dubya in his vest.

So thanks again to our sponsors, our chairperson Bride Rosney , our judges Rob and Mike and all the entrants. It’s time for the results, so I’ll hand you over to Sharon…

Press Photographers Association of Ireland Snaps Up AIB Awards

AIB Press Photographer of the year, Alan Betson, tells all.

The winning photographs in ten categories at the Irish Press Photographers Association of Ireland Awards 2004.