Hennessy has partnered with iconic recording studio Abbey Road for its Music Photography Awards (MPAs), celebrating music scenes across the globe. The MPAs are the first awards to recognise music photography, and will be judged by a slate of industry professionals.
Specifically, Hennessy is supporting the “Championing Scenes Award”, which “will shine a spotlight on the importance of the grassroots movements by celebrating the photographers documenting subcultural music scenes around the world.” Acclaimed photographer Simon Wheatley will feature as a guest judge on the award’s panel.
Winners will receive a trip to Cognac, France with a guided tour around the home of Hennessy, Hennessy stock to support a solo photography exhibition in the UK, the opportunity to work on an international project with Hennessy in 2023, and exposure across the brand’s global platforms and social channels.
“I’m interested not just in the music itself, but where it’s coming from,” explained Wheatley. “Subcultures emerge from cracks in society and that’s what fascinates me most. Grime reflected a youthful discontent, and when I began to hear it, I wanted to capture the place of angst and alienation from which it sprung.
“I believe that a documentarian of musical subculture should reveal the social texture of the sound, and, as a guest judge for the inaugural Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards, I’m excited to celebrate the insights of other photographers into the movements they chronicle as part of the Championing Scenes category. Grime was a great adventure – for me that’s what photography has always been about.”
Also on the judging panel for the MPAs will be photographer, publisher and director Rankin, plus creatives Moses Sumney and Shygirl, photographers Jill Furmanovsky and Dana Scruggs, Rolling Stone’s picture editor Sacha Lecca and Abbey Road MD Isabel Garvey.
Entries for the Music Photography Awards are now open, and can be entered by photographers at all stages of their career through abbeyroadmusicphotographyawards.com until March 21, 2022.
The winners of all nine MPA categories will be revealed at a ceremony on May 14, 2022, hosted at Abbey Road Studios.
Earlier this month, Hennessy partnered with architect Daniel Libeskind on a new design for one of its rarest bottlings, Richard Hennessy.