AMSTERDAM.- The winner of the 2009 KLM Paul Huf Award, organised jointly by Foam_Photography Museum Amsterdam and KLM will be announced Friday evening, the 13th of March, by Willis E. Hartshorn, chairman of the jury and director of the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. In addition to the sum of 20,000 euro, the prize includes a three-week artist-in-residence programme in Amsterdam and an exhibition at Foam in September 2009.

Following the successful award in 2008, the international jury has once again been given the daunting task of selecting a winner from almost 100 entries. The jury consists of Willis Hartshorn (chairman), director of ICP in New York, Clive Kellner current curator-at-large of the Gordon Chachat Collection, Mariko Takeuchi is currently based in New York, USA, where she’s guest researcher of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Last year she was the guest curator for the country focus on Japan at ParisPhoto 2008, Julien Frydman is the director of Magnum Photos Paris and Juliette Jongma owner of gallery Julliete Jongma in Amsterdam.

With nominees from various photographic disciplines around the world, once again involved in this year’s prize, entries have been enormously diverse. Some concentrate on photojournalism, others produce autonomous photos, or work in fashion photography. The response of the nominees reveals a highly positive attitude to the award. They were honoured to be selected and submitted work enthusiastically.

This is the third KLM Paul Huf Award organised by Foam. In 2007 Mikhael Subotzky and Taryn Simon won the award. In 2008 the South African photographer Pieter Hugo was the winner. His impressive series ‘The Hyena and Other Men’ was on show at Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam from September 5th till November 2nd 2008.