New York, NY—Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Tyler Hicks received the 2019 Lucie Impact Award. The Lucie Foundation bestows this honor on a photographer whose work has made a substantial impact during this year. In addition to the other eight awardees in various photographic genres, Jay Maisel received the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award.
The awards were presented at the Lucie Awards gala, held October 22, 2019 at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall, in New York City. Moreover, acclaimed Broadway actor Alton Fitzgerald White once again hosted the gala. White is most widely known for his record-breaking 4,308 performances as King Mufasa in Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway.
2019 Lucie Impact Award
Based in Kenya, Tyler Hicks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff photographer for the New York Times. He began working for the Times as a contract photographer in Kenya in 1999, photographing news stories in East and West Africa. As a freelancer, Hicks covered the conflict in the Balkans as well as the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. After the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Hicks traveled to Afghanistan for the Times.
Previously, Hicks was a staff photographer at the Wilmington Star-News in North Carolina. His work on projects in Haiti, Albania and Kosovo inspired Hicks to pursue a career in international news.
On March 16, 2011, while covering the Libyan revolution, he and three other journalists went missing while on assignment for the Times. After six days in captivity, Hicks and his colleagues were released. Moreover, in 2013, Hicks was present during the deadly terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya. For this work, he received the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography as well as the Overseas Press Club’s Robert Capa Gold Medal.
Furthermore, in 2016, Hicks was part of a team that received the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for photographs that captured the resolve of refugees and the perils of their journeys. In addition, he received the 2001 ICP Infinity Award for Photojournalism, Pictures of the Year International’s 2006 Newspaper Photographer of the Year award, as well as other awards, including World Press and Visa Pour L’image.
2019 Lifetime Achievement Award
Jay Maisel began his career in photography in 1954. While his portfolio includes the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Miles Davis, he is best known for capturing the light, gesture and color found in everyday life. Some of his commercial accomplishments include five Sports Illustrated swimsuit covers; the first two covers of New York Magazine; the cover of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue jazz album; 12 years of advertising campaign assignments with United Technologies; and awards from ICP, ASMP, ADC, PPA and Cooper Union.
Moreover, since he stopped taking on commercial work in 1995, Maisel has continued to focus on his personal work. He also developed a reputation as an inspiring teacher. This was the result of extensive lecturing and photography workshops throughout the country. He also hosted his own workshops at his residence at 190 Bowery in New York City, instructing more than 640 students. In 2015, Maisel sold his now famous six-story building where he lived and worked for 50 years. Stephen Wilkes documented his epic move.
The Lucie Awards
The Lucie Awards celebrate photography’s greatest achievements globally. In addition, the Lucie Foundation and the global photography community recognized this year’s honorees and the winners from the 2019 International Photography Awards (IPA) juried competition. IPA is the foundation’s sister effort. The event also saw the presentation of the Lucie Support Category Awards.
