MADRID.- PHotoEspaña has revealed in a press conference the names of the winners of the PHotoEspaña 2009 Awards. The PHotoEspaña Director, Claude Bussac, has made public the awards in Matadero Madrid at Naves del Español, with the presence of most of the awarded artists.

The PHotoEspaña Baume & Mercier 2009 Award has been granted to photographer Malick Sidibé (Mali, 1936). The Malian photographer receives this reward as recognition to his exceptional condition of portrait artist, his sensibility and personality. All that makes him one of the most renowned photographers of Africa. With pictures taken in its own study -Studio Malick- during the 50s and 60s, Sidibé has documented an important period of the history of Africa, a phase of emancipation, cultural changes, pride and hope in the future. His sensitive, enthusiastic, and compromised look has created simple, authentic, and full of truth images showing the special complicity between the photographer and its portrayed.

The prize, gifted with 12,000 € in purchase of work, a trophy designed in exclusive by Eduardo Arroyo and a watch of the firm Baume & Mercier, has been granted before to photographers Martin Parr, Robert Frank, Hiroshi Sugimoto, William Klein, William Egglestone, Greek Almeida, Nan Goldin, Duane Michals, Chema Madoz, Luis Gonzalez Palm and Josef Koudelka in recognition to its important role in the international photographic middle.

The Bartolome Ros Award, gifted with 12,000 €, has been granted to photographer Isabel Muñoz. The jury of the prize, formed by Rose Ros, responsible for the bequest of Bartolomé Ros; Carlos Gollonet, curator of expositions and advisor of photography of the Foundation MAPFRE; Publio Lopez Mondejar, photographer and Bartolome Ros 1999 Award; Carlos Urroz, cultural agent and Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña has wanted to recognize Muñoz by her bravery, capacity of innovation and approach to diverse cultures through his full portraits of intensity coherence.

In past editions the following artists have been awarded: Ricard Terre, Javier Vallhonrat, Marta Gili, Alejandro Castellote, Kowasa library, Joan Fontcuberta, Alberto Garcia-Alix, Juan Manuel Castro Prieto, Ramon Masats, Cristina Garcia Rodero and Publio Lopez Mondejar.

Magee Art Gallery has been awarded by the Off Festival Saab Award for the exhibition Accidents of Jin Shin. The artist recreates automobile accidents and photographs them with disturbing, mysterious and sidtressing results. He offers a reflective hyperreatist interpretation of the images theat the media insert daily in our subconscious. This award recognizes the best exhibition organized in this section of the Festival. The jury of this prize has been composed by Paula Bartolome, marketing manager of Saab; Alexandra Fonseca, artistic advisor of Banc Espirito Santo; Carlos Manzano, architect and collector; and Juan Bonet, architect and collector.

The Public M2-El Mundo Award, granted by internet users of www.phe.es and www.elmundo.es to the best exhibition of the Official Section, has been granted to the exhibition Resiliencia (Resilience), organized by the Institute Cervantes and PHotoEspaña with the contribution of Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and that can be seen in the Institute Cervantes until September 20th. The exhibition, curated by Claudi Carreras, gathers the work of 10 new photographers that have participated in Descubrimientos PHE -the seen of portfolios of the Festival- in its assemblies of Lima and Mexico City.

The prize of the Best Photography Books of the Year gathers from 1998 independent publishers and publishing houses so they can present their photography books published during the last year. The finalist books of this contest are exposed at la Central de Diseño in Matadero Madrid, until July 12th. A jury composed by Gisele Tavernier, art critic of Le Journal des Arts; Alberto Heart, Designer; Pablo Berastegui, coordinator Matadero Madrid; and Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña, has awarded the following prizes: in the national category, Paul Strand, en el principio fue Manhattan (Paul Strand, in the beginning was Manhattan), published by Foundation Pedro Barrie de la Maza. This monographic catalogue reproduces the 114 photographs of the exhibition Paul Strand. Retrospective 1915-1976, organized by the Foundation itself and includes an essay illustrated by pictures of other important American photographers like Alfred Stieglitz, Clarence White, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein and Mathew Brady. In the international category the winner book is Weegee the famous, published by M+M Auer. This catalogue, published because of the exhibition carried out in the Pavillon Populaire of Montpellier, gathers more than 400 photographs of Arthur Feelig, best known as Weegee, the great narrator of urban histories that documented the life and the death in the New York of the 30s and 40s.

Likewise, the jury of the prize of the Best Photography Books of the Year has granted four mentions of honour. In national category: Helena Almeida. Tela rosa para vestir (Pink Fabric for Dressing), published by Fundacion Telefonica and Constelación (Constellation), by Carmela Garcia, published by MUSAC/Turner. In international category: Looking in Robert Frank's The Americans, published by National Gallery of Art/Steidl and Boarding House, by Roger Ballen published by Phaidon Press.

The Outstanding Publishing House of the Year Award is for Errata Editions, for this project Book on Books. The books that integrate this series reproduces faithfully the integral content, page by page, of rare or out-of-print books of photography. This way, Errata Editions has published mythical books like Photographe de Paris by Atget or American Photographs by Walter Evans. Errata Editions is a small independent North American publishing house created in 2008 by Valerie Sonnenthal, Jeffrey Ladd and Ed Grazda.

The winner of the Prize Descubrimientos PHE Epson to the best portfolio of the Festival has been the Mexican photographer Alejandra Laviada (Mexico, 1980) for her work Photo Sculptures. In it Laviada takes photographs of ephemeral sculptures created with objects found in spaces abandoned that try to alter our conception of the routine things and to register places that will be demolished or transformed. The jury of the Prize Descubrimientos PHE Epson has been composed by Susan Kismaric, curator of the photography department of the MoMA in New York; Colette Olof, curator of Foam_ Fotografiemuseum in Amsterdam; and Lesley A. Martin, executive publisher of the Aperture Foundation in New York. The prize will allow Alejandra Laviada to exhibit her work individually in PHotoEspaña 2010. In past editions, the following have been awarded Yann Gross, Harri Palviranta, Stanislas Guigui, Vesselina Nikolaeva, Comenius Röthlisberger, Pedro Alvarez, Tanit Plana, Sophie Dubosc, Juan de la Cruz Megias, Paula Luttringer and Matias Costa.

The Room Mate Hotels Revelation Award has been granted to the artist Carlos Sanva as recognition of this work, which is a splendid example of integration of the image like artistic vehicle to its higher aesthetic and conceptual level with photography of impeccable formal bill. The jury of the prize was formed by Enrique Sarasola, President of Room Matt Hotels; Alberto Chinchon, Professor of the Area of Art of the European University of Madrid and artist; and German Gomez, photographer. The prize, gifted with 6,000 € in purchase of work, recognizes the work of a Spanish artist less than 35 years old whose work or publication have noticeable during the last year. This prize has been previously granted to German Gomez, NOPHOTO, Bleda y Rosa, Joan Morey, Lucia Arjona, Paco Gomez, Carmela Garcia, Isabel Flores, David Jimenez and Xavier Rivas.

Lastly, PHotoEspaña has granted the PHotoEspaña OjodePez Award for Human Values, which is given to photographic works highlighting values like solidarity, the effort, ethics or justice. The prize, gifted with 6,000 €, corresponds the photographer Simona Ghizzoni by her work Odd days, a work on alimentary disorders and its long process of recovery. Alimentary disorders affect to a high percentage of women and it is the first cause of mortality in women between 12 to 25 years old in occidental countries. Photos have been taken in clinics that treat this type of long-term illnesses. The jury has been composed by Joanna Mister, photography editor of The New York Times Magazine; Rod Slemmons, director of Museum of Contemporary Photography of Columbia University; Anne Tellgren, photography curator of Moderna Museet of Estocolmo; Sergio Mah, general curator of PHotoEspaña and Arianna Rinaldo, editor in chief of OjodePez. The previous winner of the Prize was Olivia Arthur, by the portfolio Beyond the Veil, in 2007.