Since 1985, the International Center of Photography has recognized outstanding achievements in photography with its prestigious Infinity Awards. The awards ceremony is also ICP’s primary fundraising benefit, with its revenues assisting the center's various programs.

Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short film about each of the recipients to screen at the awards ceremony and to display online. The films pay tribute to the contributions of each artist to the craft and field of photography and demonstrate ICP's commitment to them.

Since 1985, the International Center of Photography has recognized outstanding achievements in photography with its prestigious Infinity Awards. The awards ceremony is also ICP’s primary fundraising benefit, with its revenues assisting the center's various programs.

As part of our annual partnership, Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short film about the award recipients. The films pay tribute to each artist and demonstrate ICP's commitment to them. Since the first presentation of the films at the 2013 gala, ICP has skyrocketed its fundraising goals and achievements. MediaStorm is humbled to have played a role in catalyzing that effort. Our work with ICP and Harbers Studios affirms that storytelling moves people to action. For MediaStorm, creating these films pays homage to our roots in photography and our aspiration for the field, that it continue being a force for change.

As is the case each year, this year’s winners have huge and significant bodies of work that are relevant to issues affecting society today. The films are commissioned for the ICP Gala, which has a strict time limitation of 5 minutes per film, but each year we develop films of longer durations to reflect a more authentic story about the photographer and his/her process. This year, we wanted to make sure to include as much about the work as possible, to create a story that truly honors the artists.

In addition, we faced one of our greatest challenges to date in film production–we lacked access to much of the honored photographer’s work and were unable to record any interviews for the narrative. This required us to create an entirely new approach for the film on Zadie Smith.

For the films, MediaStorm developed a treatment and interview process that explored not just why each work was significant, but how we would convey its intent. We also pored over relevant news items and archives to tie those back to the work. We were fortunate to capture additional b-roll of some of the honorees working in the field and when that was not possible, we sourced footage of them working to demonstrate their process.

Although we weren’t able to get an interview with Zadie Smith, we were able to read an excerpt of her work and use that as a voiceover for the film. We then sourced interesting footage to accompany the voiceover in addition to some of Deana Lawson’s stunning imagery.

The films premiered to great acclaim on April 2, 2019 at the ICP Infinity Awards. The films are a critical fundraising tool for the organization, and pay tribute to ICP’s commitment to the craft.

The films available here are the full-length pieces. We also created shorter versions to show at the awards ceremony.

As a privately funded nonprofit arts and education organization, ICP depends in large part on friends such as you for support. Your generosity is vital to ICP as it continues to grow and succeed in its mission: to present photography's extraordinary power to the public.

There are many ways to give to ICP: Donate to the Annual Fund, create a scholarship, sponsor exhibitions and education programs, contribute to the Collection, or make a planned gift.

Since 1985, the International Center of Photography has recognized outstanding achievements in photography with its prestigious Infinity Awards. The awards ceremony is also ICP’s primary fundraising benefit, with its revenues assisting the center's various programs.

Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short film about each of the recipients to screen at the awards ceremony and to display online. The films pay tribute to the contributions of each artist to the craft and field of photography and demonstrate ICP's commitment to them.