Ten years of the BarTur Award – an accolade celebrating impactful photography capturing global social issues – was commemorated last weekend on the North Fork.
On June 14, from 3 to 5:30 p.m. the North Fork Arts Center at the Sapan Greenport Theatre (211 Front St., Greenport) transformed into an elite photography exhibition titled The BarTur Award: A Decade of Celebrating the Power of Photography.
Works from past BarTar Award winning photographers from across 23 countries were shown. These included photos from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an arts festival in French Polynesia, scenes from the 2012 Olympics as well as the New York City subway.
Attendees were treated to panelists Kate Bubacz, former senior photo editor at the Wall Street Journal and James Wellford, senior photo editor for global issues at National Geographic, discussing what makes an award-winning photograph.
Amnon Bar-Tur, founder of the award and professional photographer, spent the last six years on the North Fork at his home in Orient.
He fell in love with the NFAC upon his first steps into the theater where he met Tony Spiridakis, founder and executive director of the center.
“I really think that Anthony’s effort in building the art center is wonderful,” says Bar-Tur.
The feeling was mutual between the two. Spiridakis immediately knew he wanted to do something involving the award.
Bar-Tur founded the award after attending University of the Arts London.
As an already accredited photographer attending an arts school, he had a much different experience than younger students beginning their professional career. The award was a way for him to give back to this community, which he felt had given him so much during his education.
The award, created to honor students work, took on a separate life within three years. He decided to shift it to encompass professional photojournalists work.
“The BarTur award really focuses on what I thought is important and what’s really great about photography: the power of photography to deliver and explain and communicate without words,” says Bar-Tur. “You can affect anyone in the world, any language, any culture.”
This year, the award was presented as a $30,000 grant, funding a photographer’s project of their choice intended to generate positive change.
Bar-Tur collaborated with the organization Cortona on the Move, an Italian photography festival to create the new grant model.
Annually, over 3,000 photographers from 86 different countries submit work to the competition.
One top grant recipient and two smaller grant recipients will be announced on July 19. Funded photographers must pitch their story within nine months of notification, and their work will be shown in the Cortana on the Move Festival held in Cortana, Italy starting July 17.
“What spoke to me about the BarTur Award was the breaking down of barriers, where instead of collapsing ourselves and being nativists, we’re all about closing our borders, it seems,” says Spiridakis. “This kind of photography, starts to just remind you that there is a world out there that’s made up of the same humans as us.”
