Eastman Kodak Company

Times Square KODARAMA Photo Screen to Feature Images from Award-Winning Professional Photographers This Summer

Rotating Photos by Seven Major Photographers Create Giant Contact Sheet in Midtown

Rochester, Jun 03 -- Eastman Kodak Company’s iconic Times Square KODARAMA photo screen morphed into the nation’s largest photo contact sheet as images from seven award-winning professional photographers went on display last weekend.  The Times Square Gallery display will continue through July.

      Images from the world-renowned photographers – Steve McCurry, Chris Rainier, Eric Meola, Liz Gilbert, Jonathan Torgovnik, Frederic LaGrange and Pep Bonet – will appear an estimated 90 times an hour on the 40’ by 50’ screen.  All of the photographers use Kodak Professional products in their work.

      “We’re thrilled to bring the brilliant work of these acclaimed photographers to Times Square and millions of New Yorkers and tourists this summer,” said Marianne Samenko, Director of Worldwide Marketing Services, Digital and Film Imaging Systems, Eastman Kodak Company.  “Professional photographers represent the highest form of artistry in the photo industry and the NYC Times Square KODARAMA is one unique way we can showcase their art and contributions to our lives.”

      Times Square visitors will see the upper-right corner of the KODARAMA photo screen cycle through the photographers’ names.  Each name will appear in a larger and brighter font as the photographer’s images are displayed and then fade out to highlight the next photographer’s work.  The gallery creates the effect of a virtual contact sheet.

About the Photographers

Steve McCurry – Best known for his evocative color photography, McCurry, in the finest documentary tradition, captures the essence of human struggle and joy. A member of Magnum Photos since 1986, McCurry’s many images have become modern icons, including the “Afghan girl” photo that was named the most important photograph of all time by National Geographic magazine.  He is the recipient of hundreds of awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded by the National Press Photographers Association. That same year he won an unprecedented four first prizes in the annual World Press Photo Contest. He has won the Olivier Rebbot Memorial Award twice.

Chris Rainier – Considered one of the leading documentary photographers working today, his life’s mission is to document the disappearing cultures and tribes remaining on the planet.  Chris is director of an international cultural website called Cultures on the Edge (www.culturesontheedge.org) featured as a part of the National Geographic Society’s Cultures Initiative. Chris is co-director of the team producing the Cultures Program at National Geographic. He is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler , specializing in indigenous cultures.

Eric Meola – Meola’s work has appeared in magazines such as Life, Travel & Leisure, Esquire,Time and his advertising work earned him honors including the 1986 "Advertising Photographer of the Year" award from the American Society of Media Photographers, the only photographer in Adweek magazine's 1989 national "Creative All-Star Team” and a "Clio" in 1989 for photographing the Timberland campaign.  In 1975 he photographed the cover for Bruce Springsteen's album, "Born to Run." His book, The Last Places on Earth, the culmination of 10 years of personal observations from around the world, will be published in the fall of 2004.

Liz Gilbert – She first moved to Kenya in 1991 and has worked as a photographer in Africa for more than ten years, covering news in Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan and the Congo and for five years documented the Massai tribe.   Gilbert’s photographs of conflicts and social issues in the region have appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times , Stern and Paris Match.  Her groundbreaking book, Broken Spears, with images of her years with the Massai tribe was published to rave reviews in the fall of 2003.

Jonathan Torgovnik – He began his career as a combat photographer in the Israeli army, and while a teenager, had his press pool of images published around the world.  In 1997, after winning a Kodak Professional Photographers Award, Torgovnik began documenting Bollywood for his acclaimed Bollywood Dreams book published by Phaidon in 2003.  He is based in New York City and works on assignments for American and European magazines.  His many photography awards include the International Photographic Council Award, as well as awards from Graphis, Communication Arts and Photo District News.

Frederic LaGrange – Named one of Photo District News Magazine ’s “30 Under 30” photographers in 2003, LaGrange was inspired by fashion photography of Mario Testino, who often photographed LaGrange in his modeling career.  After giving up modeling, he started in fashion photography but found his true passion with travel photography.  LaGrange currently balances his commercial assignments for international magazines, such as Travel and Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Destinations, and Vogue, with personal projects, such as his current reportage on the people and land of Mongolia.

Pep Bonet – Bonet's interest in photography started during the early 1990s when he attended an exhibition for the late, world-renowned photographer Ed van der Elsken. Bonet’s most acclaimed work to date is “Faith in Chaos,” a powerful, four-part photo essay of post-war Sierra Leone which has won him numerous awards and has been exhibited throughout Europe and Asia. This body of work reveals inspiration and hope in a country ravaged by 10 years of brutal civil war. In 2002, he was named one of Photo District News Magazine ’s “30 Under 30” and was selected by a jury of international photographers and photo editors as the Kodak Young Photographer of the Year Award in 2003.

About Eastman Kodak Company and infoimaging

Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, print and view images – for memories, for information, for entertainment.  The company is a major participant in infoimaging, a $385 billion industry composed of devices (digital cameras and flat-panel displays), infrastructure (online networks and delivery systems for images) and services & media (software, film and paper enabling people to access, analyze and print images).  With sales of $13.3 billion in 2003, the company comprises several businesses: Health, supplying the healthcare industry with traditional and digital image capture and output products and services; Graphic Communications Group, offering on-demand color printing and networking publishing systems consisting of three wholly owned subsidiaries:  Encad, Inc., NexPress Solutions, and Kodak Versamark; Commercial Imaging, offering image capture, output and storage products and services to businesses and government; Display & Components, which designs and manufactures state-of-the-art organic light-emitting diode displays as well as other specialty materials, and delivers optics and imaging sensors to original equipment manufacturers; and Digital & Film Imaging Systems, providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services.

For further information about Kodak's professional products, customers may call: 1-800-235-6325, or visit www.kodak.com/go/professional

Kodak and Kodarama are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company.

2004