News

ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS FROM THIS YEAR’S INAUGURAL MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

• 16th May 2022

Abbey Road Studios, the world’s most famous recording studio has tonight confirmed the winners from its inaugural Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards 2022 in association with Hennessy, following a glittering awards ceremony at the studios this evening. As well as a celebration of the shortlisted and winning imagery hosted by Matt Everitt, the evening also saw a series of fantastic live performances from Mysie, The Clockworks and Hak Baker.

In the awards’ open categories, the winner of Championing Scenes supported by Hennessy, is Northern Irish photographer Megan Doherty, best known for her debut book ‘Stoned In Melanchol’ which documents her adolescence in Derry, while the winner in the Live category supported by Philips, is John Lyons with an image of David Mrakpor playing with Ruben Fox. In Studio Photography, supported by Bowers & Wilkins, Jack McKain wins with a shot of Pink Siifu, while Chris Suspect wins with a shot of metal band Darkest Hour in the Zeitgeist category and Joe Puxley‘s shot of Arlo Parks wins in Undiscovered, supported by adidas.

In the invited categories, the winner for Artist At Work is the black music specialist, Greg Noire for a live shot of KennyHoopla, while Samuel Trotter wins in Editorial for a picture of Polo G and his son, with Yana Yatsuk‘s image of King Princess winning the Portrait category.

Speaking about the winners of this year’s MPAs, Abbey Road’s MD Isabel Garvey says:

‘Everyone at Abbey Road Studios is thrilled with the quality of the entries and winners in our first Music Photography Awards.  More broadly, we’re also incredibly encouraged by the way in which the MPAs has been embraced across the arts and creative landscape.  It’s been brilliant to create a platform to recognise emerging and established talent in this important field, and we’re already looking forward to doing it all again in 2023!‘

List of full winners and nominees below

* bold denotes the winner

Championing Scenes (category supported by Hennessy) –

Megan Doherty

Above Ground

Rob Jones

Chris Suspect

Cicely Ellison

Live (category supported by Philips) –

John Lyons

Anthony Harrison

Gary Mather

Jérôme Brunet
 

Studio (category supported by Bowers & Wilkins) –

Jack McKain

Natalie Michele

Indy Brewer

Neelam Khan Vela

Aysia Marotta

Zeitgeist –

Chris Suspect

Riccardo Piccirillo

DeShaun Craddock

Alec Castillo

Jason Sheldon

Undiscovered (category supported by adidas) –

Joe Puxley

Jada & David Parrish

Oscar Hetherington

Hana Kovacs

Thomas Weidenhuapt

Artist At Work –

Greg Noire

Jack McKain

Jennifer McCord

CJ Harvey

Dean Chalkley

Above Ground

Editorial –

Samuel Trotter

Yana Yatsuk

Craig McDean

David LaChapelle

Fernando Aceves

Paul Sepuya

Portrait –

Yana Yatsuk

Aidan Zamiri

Vicky Grout

Lucas Garrido

Nicholas O’Donnell

Josiah Rundles

Earlier this month, the MPAs announced the recipient of this year’s Icon Award as Eric Johnson. Best known for his work documenting the US music culture of the late ’90s and early 2000s, his photos of Biggie Smalls, Nas, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill and the late Aaliyah defined an era of US music photography. His more recent work with the likes of Doja Cat and MPAs judge Shygirl places him at the heart of contemporary pop music culture in 2022.

The inaugural Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards 2022 judging panel was made up of world-famous photographer, publisher and film director Rankin, legendary photographer Jill Furmanovsky, groundbreaking Ghanaian-American singer, writer and multidisciplinary creative Moses Sumney and history-making American photographer and director Dana Scruggs. Rolling Stone’s Deputy Photo Director and photographer Sacha Lecca and Abbey Road Studios’ very own MD, Isabel Garvey were also on the panel, while revered music photographer and Abbey Road Studio photographer-in-residence Simon Wheatley joined the judges for the ‘Championing Scenes’ category.