Best of Show

SUSAN BARAZ

IPA 2023 BEST OF SHOW CURATOR

Here I am. Twenty years have passed since the idea of having an “International Photo Awards” as an adjunct to the Lucie Awards.

From Zanzibar to Timbuktu, it was breath-taking to see the response from photographers who shared their vision with us – first by mail, in all kinds of envelopes, even cloth and wrapped in textiles, they flooded an office in LA. Boxes, upon boxes filled to the brim with photographs taking over the room. Every photo was looked at, by hand, with jurors, based in LA. The winners were selected, known photo icons now, and so it began, “The IPA”.

Today, this prestigious competition has a pool of 80 top jurors from around the globe, who evaluate works that are submitted online and what wasn’t possible in a photo 20 years ago, is now commonplace, in technique and execution. What hasn’t changed, but only grown, is the incredible level of brilliance in all these submissions. Judging is a much harder task. Eyes have been honed, along with new technical availability, to produce closer to what the mind conceives. Pros and non-pros overlap in abilities. These “Best of Show” images are proof of an art at its highest point, and it’s not exclusive to one part of the world, but truly is international in its scope.

For 20 years I’ve been transported, front and centre, to places, to events, to tragedies, to joy, to familiarities, to unseen microscopic intricacies and humbling vastness of space. I am awed and grateful to continue to be a witness. Thank you to all those thousands upon thousands of remarkable photographers who have been a part of IPA, and these photographers whose works have been selected for its 20th anniversary year.

Photography has only grown in its power to captivate, to expose, literally, the good and the evil, and in one captured moment, speak to us more loudly than ever before.

Happy 20th, IPA!