PRESS RELEASE for the £1,000 EROTIC REVIEW PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR PRIZE 2009

· Following the success of last year’s competition, the Erotic Review is pleased to announce its second erotic photography award, which features two prizes:

· The £1,000 Judges’ Prize – given by a panel of six judges
· The £250 Readers’ Prize – awarded by an Internet voting system on the ER Photo Prize website.

· For the 2008 event, nearly half a million votes were cast via the Internet for the Readers’ Prize (worth £250; winner, Guy Moberly) and a panel of experts awarded the £1,000 Judges’ Prize to Jessica Roder who went on to have a monograph of her work (Through a Glass Darkly) published by Erotic Review Books, the magazine’s book-publishing arm.

· Last year our aim for the competition was that it will be the first major internationally recognised award of its type for Erotic Photography, and this was largely achieved with entries from all over the world. More than 50 of the entrants for the 2008 prize have been featured in the ‘Book of the Competition’, now on sale at £9.95.

· This year we hope that the prize will attract even more talent.

· From the dawn of photography in the first half of the 19th century, eroticism has played a crucial part in the development of the medium we take so much for granted today.

· In the last 160 years photographers have captured, in literally millions of images, one of the most exciting and controversial aspects of the human condition. They sometimes strayed into the realm of what was then considered pornography – and more often than not paid the consequences.

· In our more liberal times, the moral strictures that applied in the days when photography was in its infancy are less inhibiting. And now digital photography, makes cameramen of us all – it’s cheap, hugely available and gratifyingly instant – the genre has mushroomed into a vast form of private observation and individual expression. A sort of Spencer Tunick (or Mass Observation) event reversed, if you will. Who hasn’t taken a photograph of their lover in a nude, or semi-nude, state to capture some shared intimacy, and then developed the theme, taken it one step further? There’s no doubt that a vast amount of talent and fascinating subject matter is currently out there – just waiting for discovery.

· The judges will appraise images by talented photographers, from the gifted amateur, or the seasoned professional – enthusiasts the world over – in order to find a single special talent that will embody the spirit of eroticism today. It will be decided by a panel of judges as well as the readership of The Erotic Review to be this year’s standard-bearer for the genre. This annual, £1,000 competition is as much to discover exceptional new talent as to revisit and re-evaluate older work that has, perhaps, lain fallow.

The six judges will be:

Nicky Akehurst is a photographers’ agent and curator. Since the 1980s during her time as a gallerist and agent, she has specialised in the Nude and the Erotic. She has curated exhibitions on the theme, written and presented a documentary and is an advocate of anti censorship in the arts.

Christopher John Ball BA (Hons) MA is a widely exhibited and published, award winning, London based, fine arts photographer, curator, playwright and lecturer. With almost 30 years experience as a photographer - his work is in public and private collections worldwide and he is the co-founder of the 'Association of Erotic Artists'. He contributes articles on photography for various publications and has acted as an external moderator for several photographic courses in London. His images have been showcased in Italian, German, Spanish, Hong Kong SAR, British and mainland Chinese publications and also displayed within the pages of several respected online galleries. He currently has work on show at the 'Erotic Heritage Museum' in Las Vegas, USA.

Mark Davis is founder and managing director of ObsessionArt.com – the specialist
erotic art retailer. Recently a judge for the UK Erotic Awards, though he comes from the more austere background of management consultancy. Mark is passionate about discovering and promoting artists and photographers whose channels to market have to date been limited by a more conservative art retail fraternity.

Jamie Maclean is founder of the Erotic Review in 1995 and now once again publisher and editor of the magazine. In 1985 he co-curated Forbidden Images, the first thematic exhibition of erotic art ever to be held in the UK, at the Maclean Gallery in London. He also runs the publishing house Erotic Review Books (formerly The Erotic Print Society).

Jessica Roder is winner of the 2008 Erotic Review Photographer of the Year Prize. She is a professional portrait, travel and fashion photographer and has only recently branched out into erotic photography. A monograph of her work Through A Glass Darkly was published earlier this year by Erotic Review Books. A single mother, living in rural England, she often takes photographs of herself due to a dearth of local models. She says, “I was absolutely delighted to win this competition, as there was a lot of really lovely work of a considerably high standard. Not only did I win a substantial cash prize but ended up with a published book as well."

Paul Woods studied at St Martins School of Art - London where he gained a BA (Fine Art) Hons. He is a widely exhibited and published, award winning artist and curator. In the late 80's he set up his own gallery ‘The Coventry Gallery’ in London where he exhibited the works of new artists' in themed group exhibitions. He is perhaps best known for running the UK's only erotic life-drawing classes. This gained the attention of the international media. 6 years ago Paul co-founded the ‘Association of Erotic Artists’ - a campaigning body for artists, photographers, film-makers, writers and sculptors who are committed to working towards the acceptance of the erotic arts within the world of the arts and media.

Public Information
The competition is open from 1 December 2008 to 31 January 2009, Deadline for Entries is 31 January 2009. Public notification of the winners will be on 14th February 2008 or as near as possible to that date.
WEBSITE: www.erphoto.org

Notes to Editors
The publicity for this Award is being co-ordinated by Nicky Akehurst, Akehurst Creative Management, Tel: 020 3012 0056 Email: na@nickyakehurst.