Ottawa, October 7, 2009 – Toronto photographer Donald Weber is the winner of the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography for 2009. This prize is awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
The Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography was established by the Canadian government in 1986 through an endowment to the Canada Council of $170,000 for an annual prize in photography. The prize is given to the most outstanding visual artist working in photography, as selected from among all those awarded a Canada Council visual arts project grant in 2008. The $8,000 prize is awarded in addition to the recipient’s grant.
Mr. Weber was selected by a peer assessment committee made up of Alvin Comiter (Halifax), Patrick Coutu (Montreal), Walter Dion (Saskatoon), Denyse Thomasos (Mississauga, ON), and Rhonda Weppler (Vancouver).
Download images of Mr. Weber and his work.
Award-winning photographer Donald Weber began his career as an architect for Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In 2002, he received a Governor General’s Medal for Architecture for the Student Centre at the Centennial College in Toronto with Architects Kongats Phillips, now Kongats Architects.
Mr. Weber has exhibited widely and has shown work at galleries and festivals worldwide, including exhibits at the United Nations, the Museum of the Army at Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, and the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Human Rights with the VII Photo Agency, exhibited in over 50 cities worldwide. His work won the Grand Prize for the 2007 PHODAR Photography Biennial in Bulgaria.
He has completed assignments for such international publications as: Business Week, Der Spiegel, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Condé Nast Portfolio, Rolling Stone, Stern, Time Magazine, as well as the NGOs Doctors Without Borders, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and War Child.
The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Canada Council for the Arts grants, he has also been awarded the Lange-Taylor Documentary Prize and a World Press Award. Amongst other citations, Mr. Weber was named one of PDN’s 30 (Photo District News publication) and an Emerging Photo Pioneer by American Photo Magazine. His first book, Bastard Eden, Our Chernobyl, was released in 2008.
In addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts, the Canada Council for the Arts administers and awards many prizes and fellowships in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural and health sciences, engineering, and arts management. These prizes and fellowships recognize the achievements of outstanding Canadian artists, scholars, and administrators. The Canada Council for the Arts is committed to raising public awareness and celebration of these exceptional people and organizations on both a national and international level.
Please visit our website for a complete listing of these awards.
Carole Breton
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Grace Thrasher
Arts Promotion Coordinator
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