Focus Awards Description
The Focus Awards recognize individuals making critical contributions to the promotion, curation and presentation of photography. The award is not meant for photographers for their art making, but for individuals such as photography educators, historians, gallerists, writers, curators, inventors, conservators and administrators who have elevated the medium of photography.
Focus awardees can be a combination of local, national and international photography trendsetters and innovators. The Focus Awards recognize the hard work, dedication and enthusiasm of a select group of enthusiastic, forward thinking individuals and organizations dedicated to the art and business of photography.
In our fourteenth year, this year’s award celebrates individuals instrumental in building greater awareness of the photographic arts in the general public. We will present The Lifetime Achievement Award to Robert Klein and the Rising Star Award to Arnika Dawkins.
The Focus Awards will take place on November 13, 2020 at 7 PM as part of our auction weekend that includes an award distribution multievent and a reception. The lectures and awards’ event are virtual on the Zoom Platform and on the auction takes place on the Invaluable auction site.
As mentioned, this year Robert Klein, owner and director of the Robert Klein Gallery in Boston, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Stan Trecker, Dean Emeritus at Lesley University, will present the award to Robert Klein.
We will also present the Rising Star Award to Arnika Dawkins, owner and director of the Arnika Dawkins Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Debora Willis, curator, photographer, author and educator will present the award to Arnika Dawkins.
After both of the award recipients accept their Focus Awards, Robert Klein will talk a little about the evolution of the photo market. He will give an overview of where the photo market was in 1978 when he first became involved up to the present day impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. After, we will open up opportunity for the audience to ask questions and have dialogue.
2020 Focus Awards Press Releaseopens PDF file
Rising Star – 2020
Arnika Dawkins, Photo credit: Allen Cooley
Arnika Dawkins is the owner of her eponymous fine art photography gallery established in Atlanta in 2012. The gallerist shows work by talented emerging and mid-career artists with a specialization in showing fine art photography by African Americans and images of people from the African Diaspora. Her passion is connecting collectors to photography that is significant, inspiring, and provocative. As a fine art photographer and avid collector herself, she is a valuable resource to collectors and artists alike. She is passionate about the medium, having obtained a Master of Arts in Digital Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
opens in a new windowadawkinsgallery.com
Presented by: Deborah Willis Deborah Willis, Ph.D, is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, Africana Studies, where she teaches courses on Photography & Imaging, iconicity, and cultural histories visualizing the black body, women, and gender. Her research examines photography’s multifaceted histories, visual culture, the photographic history of Slavery and Emancipation; contemporary women photographers and beauty. She received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Willis is the author of Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present; and co-author of The Black Female Body A Photographic History; Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery; and Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs (both titles a NAACP Image Award Winner). Professor Willis’s curated exhibitions include: “In Pursuit of Beauty” at Express Newark; “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits” at the International Center of Photography and “Reframing Beauty: Intimate Moments” at Indiana University. Since 2006 she has co-organized thematic conferences exploring imaging the black body in the West such as the conference titled Black Portraiture[s] which was held in Johannesburg in 2016. She has appeared and consulted on media projects including documentary films such as Through A Lens Darkly and Question Bridge: Black Males, a transmedia project, which received the ICP Infinity Award 2015, and American Photography, PBS Documentary.
Photo credit: Alice Proujansky
Lifetime – 2020
Robert Klein photo at AIPAD © Julienne Schaer
Robert Klein is the owner and director of the Robert Klein Gallery in Boston. The gallery, established in 1980, specializes in the market for fine photographs. Robert Klein was the president of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) from 1995 – 2008 and a board member of AIPAD from 1985 – 1995. As president of AIPAD, Klein initiated long range plans to position AIPAD into the mainstream of the art market. The Robert Klein Gallery has had an international presence for over 40 years and services an international clientele. Klein received his MBA from Babson College. He attended Hobart College and received his BA from Wilkes University
opens in a new windowwww.robertkleingallery.com
Presented by: Stan Trecker Stan Trecker will present the Focus Award to Robert Klein. In his career Stan Trecker served as President of the Art Institute of Boston and Montserrat College. He also served as Dean of the Art Institute of Boston upon its merger with Lesley University in 1998. Upon his retirement, after the completion of the new home of the Lesley College of Art and Design in Porter Square, Cambridge in 2017, Stan Trecker serves as Dean Emeritus at Lesley University.
Stan Trecker earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978, after earning a Masters in Business Administration and a brief career in the financial services industry. He was the Executive Director of the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) from 1980 to 1991, assuming that role following its founding by Chris Enos in 1977. During that time, the PRC constructed its new home on the campus of Boston University. He also served on the Founding Board of the Griffin Museum of Photography and was a National Board member of the of the Society for Photographic Education. Photo Credit: Lesley University
The Focus Awards have been presented in the following categories:
- The Lifetime Achievement Award Given to an individual whose ongoing commitment to photography has created far reaching impact.
- The Rising Star Award Given to an emerging force that the photographic community is watching with great enthusiasm.
- The New England Beacon Award Given to a local individual whose work brings prominence to the local photographic scene.
- The Spotlight Award Given to an entity that consistently shines a light on photography and has created a far reaching impact in the field.
- The Scribe Award Given for excellence in writing on the subject of photographic arts.
- The Quicksilver Award Given to an individual who has made significant advances in using and exploring new technologies, as well as innovative approaches to photography utilizing nontraditional ways to showcase photography as an ever changing media.
- The Commonwealth Award Given to an entity whose work brings prominence to the local photographic scene.
- A Culture of Legacy Award Given to an individual (or entity) who demonstrates a life course philosophy with respect to photographic endeavor. A culture of legacy takes place when history informs the present and works towards a better future with conscience.
