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.
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.
Since 2013, Harbers Studios has commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short films 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.
Special Thanks
Blue Sky Days was created with the support of: Harper’s Magazine, the Pulitzer Center, TIME Magazine, the Getty Images Grant, the Aaron Siskind Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the ACLU and National Geographic.
This film was made possible with the generous support of Harbers Studios.
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 later remain online. The films serve as an introduction of the recipients to the audience as well as a showcase of their work, highlighting the motivations for honoring them with Infinity Awards.
We had twelve weeks to create seven films. In this short time we had to arrange in-person interviews with each photographer, collect all of their photography and find their stories.
There were many points during production when, despite the limited time, we had to wait for resources—whether a photographer was unable to fly to New York for a scheduled interview or unable to provide us with images we needed.
Despite the short timeline, we believed it was important to share the pieces we created with the photographers in advance of the awards ceremony. We didn't want any surprises for them, especially right before delivering their acceptance speeches. Yet, when we showed the films to the photographers, they were critical—as most good artists are—of themselves and the pieces we created. We had to find a balance between making sure the subjects were comfortable with how they were portrayed, while staying true to the narrative we thought was most important for the viewer.
In some cases, we never received the content we truly wanted. As a result, we had to find creative solutions to work around missing pieces so we could make our deadline.
As storytellers, we have to remember who our audience is and why we are telling each story. In this situation, these pieces were created for the subject of the film, the ICP Infinity Award Ceremony and a wider online audience. Balancing between what we felt unrelated viewers needed to connect to the stories and staying true to what the subjects believed encapsulated them was no easy negotiation. However, walking this thin line was necessary to create the best possible films in this context and, in most cases, the photographers collaborated well on the edit and allowed us to create the stories we felt needed to be told.
The films were shown on April 30, 2015 at the 2015 International Center of Photography’s Infinity Awards in New York and launched online on May 1, 2015.
The films available here are the full-length pieces. We also created shorter versions to show at the awards ceremony.
The films were shown on April 30, 2015 at the 2015 International Center of Photography’s Infinity Awards in New York and launched online on May 1, 2015.
The films available here are the full-length pieces. We also created shorter versions to show at the awards ceremony.
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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.