New York, NY – On Wednesday, April 10, photographers, artists, business leaders, philanthropists, fans andfriends of the International Center of Photography (ICP) gathered at The Shed for a sold out event to celebrate five pioneering women for their creativity, leadership and contributions to photography as an art and a discipline. ICP’s 40th Annual Infinity Awards, sponsored by HEARST and Kering, honored Lynsey Addario, Renell Medrano, Shirin Neshat, Wendy Red Star, and Caryl S. Englander–the first time ICP’s Infinity Awards has awarded five women for their achievements.
Hosted by Vincent J. Musi, the 40th Annual Infinity Awards included a live and silent auction featuring fine art prints by notable contemporary practitioners, including Annie Leibovitz, Mickalene Thomas, Cindy Sherman, Sebastião Salgado and others. During the event, each awardee was accompanied by a short film, telling the powerful and often personal story of their journey in photography. Following the main program, a more informal “Nightcap” cocktail hour welcomed a festive crowd to mingle with Infinity Award honorees, gala guests, and colleagues.
“We’re thrilled that the New York City cultural, civic, and philanthropic communities continue to support our work at ICP, especially during our 50th anniversary year which is a special milestone for the institution.” Bob Jeffrey, Chief Executive Officer of ICP, said. “This year’s Infinity Award honorees personify what it means to embody ICP’s mission in their work and in the world. More women are at the helm of guiding photography in practice, behind the lens, and in shaping the institutional and academic conversations about photography as an art and mass medium. We’re proud that ICP continues to be at the center of advancing those discussions and to invest in those who steer them into the future.”
The evening surpassed a goal of raising $1.2 million for ICP’s initiatives that will support exhibition programming and its growing education offerings that reach thousands of students across the world annually.
2024 Infinity Award Categories and Recipients:
Trustees Award: Caryl S. Englander
Lifetime Achievement: Shirin Neshat
Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism: Lynsey Addario
Contemporary Photography and New Media: Wendy Red Star
Commercial and Editorial Photography: Renell Medrano
Guests for the 2024 Infinity Awards evening included:
Hugh Jackman
Linda Evangelista
Kathy Ryan
Caryl Englander
Renell Medrano
Lynsey Addario
Wendy Red Star
Shirin Neshat
Honor Brodie
Nina Garcia
Samira Nasr
Jodi Cobb
Tip Dunham
Laurie Simmons
Callie Shell
Rosalind Fox Solomon
Alfredo Jaar
Chirag Chotalia
Katherine Chia
Michael Clinton
Jane Corkin
Adam Fuss
Renee Harbers Liddell
Uzodinma Iweala
Almudena Legorreta
Jan Mulder
Jessical Nagle
Ken Nicholson
Stefano Tonchi
Jeffrey Rosen
Pat Schoenfeld
Susan Meiselas
David Friend
Myles Loftin
Isolde Brielmaier
David Maupin
Samantha Bass
Heidi Lee
Dominique Levy
Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn
Elodie and Richard Taittinger
2024 Infinity Award Recipient Biographies:
Caryl S. Englander is an accomplished documentary and portrait photographer. She has served as Chair of the International Center of Photography since 2008, having joined the Board a decade earlier. Her exceptional leadership has guided ICP through a period of tremendous growth and international recognition. Among her many contributions to the success of the institution today is securing ICP’s exciting new location on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, housing the school and museum in one integrated space. In recognition of this accomplishment, the structure has been named The Caryl S.Englander Building. A graduate of the ICP/NYU Master’s program, Ms. Englander’s photographs have formed the core of several exhibitions, including “Acts of Charity, Deeds of Kindness” for theMetropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in 2005, and “Through the Lens of Faith,” installed at theAuschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in 2019 in collaboration with the Studio Libeskind. In addition to her leadership positions, she has served on ICP’s Exhibitions, Acquisitions, and Education Committees, and is a fierce advocate for their programming and community engagement.
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist and filmmaker living in New York. Neshat works and continues to experiment with the mediums of photography, video, and film, which she imbues with highly poetic and politically charged images and narratives that question issues of power, religion, race, gender and the relationship between the past and present, East and West, individual and collective through the lens of her personal experience as an Iranian woman living in exile.
Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist, who has been covering conflict, humanitarian crises, and women’s issues around the Middle East and Africa on assignment for The New York Times and National Geographic for more than two decades. Since September 11, 2001, Addario has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Darfur, South Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Syria, and ongoing war in Ukraine.
Wendy Red Star lives and works in Portland, OR. Red Star has exhibited in the United States and abroad at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY), both of which have her works in their permanent collections; Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contempora in (Paris, France), Domaine de Kerguéhennec (Bignan, France), Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), Hood Art Museum (Hanover, NH), St. Louis Art Museum (St. Louis, MO), Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, MN), the Frost Art Museum (Miami, FL), among others.
Renell Medrano is a Dominican-American photographer and director from The Bronx, New York, whose work focuses on finding vulnerability in her subjects, drawing inspiration from New York City and her motherland of the Dominican Republic. She graduated from Parsons School of Design | The New School with a degree in Photography.
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About the Infinity Awards
Sponsored by Hearst and Kering, the 40th annual ICP Infinity Awards will draw attendees from the worlds of art, business, entertainment, fashion, philanthropy, and photography. Past honorees include Berenice Abbott, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Roy DeCarava, Elliott Erwitt, Harold Evans, LaToya Ruby Frazier, William Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Mary Ellen Mark,Susan Meiselas, Daidō Moriyama, Zanele Muholi, Gordon Parks, Sebastião Salgado, Malick Sidibé, Lorna Simpson, Cindy Sherman, among others.
About the International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is the world’s leading institution dedicated to photography and visual culture. Cornell Capa founded ICP in 1974 to champion “concerned photography”—socially and politically minded images that can educate and change the world. Through exhibitions, education programs, community outreach, and public programs, ICP offers an open forum for dialogue about the power of the image. Since its inception, ICP has presented more than 700 exhibitions, provided thousands of classes, and hosted a wide variety of public programs. ICP launch ed its new integrated center on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in January 2020. Located at 79 Essex Street, ICP is the cultural anchor of Essex Crossing, one of the most highly anticipated and expansive mixed-use developments in New York City. ICP pays respect to the original stewards of this land, the Lenape people, and other Indigenous communities. Visit icp.org to learn more about the museum and its programs.
