Beth Dow's 'In the Garden' Awarded Photography.Book.Now Grand Prize For Best Self-Published...

Beth Dow's 'In the Garden' Awarded Photography.Book.Now Grand Prize For Best
Self-Published Photography Book
Winners chosen from over 2,000 photography book submissions in the
competition's first year

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Beth Dow, a professional
photographer from Minneapolis, MN, was awarded the $25,000 grand prize in the
first-ever Photography.Book.Now competition for her photography book, "In the
Garden," a portfolio of large platinum-palladium prints that examine tensions
of mass, light, and perspective in highly cultivated landscapes. Ms. Dow's
work was chosen as the most creative, most innovative and finest
self-published photography book by an esteemed panel of judges led by Darius
Himes, a co-founder of Radius Books.
"I'm both humbled and thrilled by this achievement, and to have my work
recognized by such a prestigious group of judges," said Beth Dow, Grand Prize
winner, Photography.Book.Now. "This award will allow me to finish a deeply
meaningful project that I may not have otherwise had the chance to do, and I'm
profoundly grateful. Congratulations to all the photographers who submitted
their work to Photography.Book.Now."
"We were truly blown away by the range and quality of work we saw," said
Darius Himes, lead judge, Photography.Book.Now. "It wasn't easy to whittle
close to 2,000 submissions down to a single Grand Prize winner; in fact it was
brutal. The group of winners is both diverse and of exceptional quality. Ms.
Dow's photography is truly outstanding. Her elegant images of the cultivated
natural world, her devotion to a traditional photographic process, her ability
to make work that feels contemporary, and her intelligent use of the book form
to showcase that work is what ultimately separated her work from an impressive
field."
The Photography.Book.Now International Salon and Symposium is the
brainchild of Blurb, the creative publishing platform (http://www.Blurb.com).
The photography book competition celebrates self-published photography books
and the photographers behind them. Out of 2,000 submissions, the top 50 books
are acknowledged as top prize winners and Honorable Mentions. The prize
winners are listed below, and the Honorable Mentions are acknowledged on the
Photography.Book.Now website, http://www.photographybooknow.com.
-- Grand Prize: Beth Dow, In the Garden
-- Category Winner, Themed: Jonathan Smith, The Bridge Project
-- Category Winner, General: Talia Chetrit, Reading
-- First Runner-up, Themed: Cara Phillips, Singular Beauty
-- First Runner-up, General: John Lehr, Something is Happening
-- Second Runner-up, Themed: Ed Panar, Johnstown / Benjamin Lowy, Iraq
Perspectives (tie)
-- Second Runner-up, General: Michael Corridore, Roadworks

One photographer will also receive the Photography.Book.Now People's
Choice Award, which will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on September 19th
in San Francisco.
Submissions to the Photography.Book.Now competition are available for
purchase in the Blurb Bookstore (http://www.blurb.com/bookstore).
An important part of Photography.Book.Now is bringing the photographic
community together. The Photography.Book.Now International Salon and Symposium
travels to San Francisco, Cologne, London and New York with 1/2 day symposia,
opportunities to "meet-up" with peers and mentors, and a chance to view the
winning books in the traveling salon. It all kicks off in San Francisco with
the awards ceremony on September 19.
For more information on all events and meet-ups, and to RSVP, please visit
http://www.photographybooknow.com.
"We couldn't be more thrilled with the success of Photography.Book.Now in
its first year," said Eileen Gittins, Blurb's founder and CEO. "The quality
and diversity of the work and the understanding of the book form were truly
impressive. I spoke with each winner, and was moved and amazed by the stories
behind their books. A huge thank you and congratulations to our amazing
judging panel, to all our entrants, and to our generous sponsors. We hope to
see you all at our social events this fall."
About Photography.Book.Now
Be a part of the modern photography book movement. Photography.Book.Now
International Salon & Symposium celebrates the most creative, most innovative
and finest self-published photography books -- and the people behind them.
Photography.Book.Now is an international juried book competition, traveling
salon and symposium. The Photography.Book.Now International Salon and
Symposium is presented by Blurb, the creative publishing platform. Sponsors
include American Photo, Canon, Flickr, the International Photography Awards
-- The Lucies, JPG Magazine, Livebooks, the Maine Media Workshops,
MyPhotoPipe, PDN, and SmugMug. For more information, visit
http://www.photographybooknow.com.
About Blurb
Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the power
of books: making, reading, sharing, and selling them. Blurb is flexible and
smart enough to help anyone make a book -- photographers, creative
professionals, bloggers, artists, writers, travelers, everyone. Blurb's
bookstore and online marketing tools let people share, market, and sell their
books, and keep 100% of the markup. Blurb's community features empower
socially connected groups of consumers and professionals to create Blurb books
together.
Blurb won a 2008 Webby Award for Best Services website, has been
recognized as an OnMedia 100 winner by AlwaysOn in 2008, was named a Momentum
15 company by Dealmaker Media in 2007, and was the 2007 Pixel Awards Geek
Winner. Blurb was founded by Eileen Gittins in 2005 and is funded by Canaan
Partners and Anthem Venture Partners. Blurb BookSmart(TM) software is free for
Mac or PC at http://www.blurb.com.
SOURCE Blurb

Audrey Shedivy of Henry Grey PR, +1-310-770-0610, Audrey@henrygreypr.com, for
Blurb