The Lucie Awards is an annual event honoring achievements in photography, founded in 2003 by Hossein Farmani.
The Lucie Awards is an annual gala ceremony presented by the Lucie Foundation (a 501 (c)3 non-profit charitable organization), honoring photographers and their achievements. The Lucies bring together photographers from all over the world and pay tribute to their colleagues. Every year, the Advisory Board nominates individuals for their contributions to photography across a variety of categories, and once the nominations are tallied, they are pre-announced months before the Lucies.
In addition to honoring photographers, the Lucie Awards also showcase the finalists and winners of the International Photography Awards (Lucie Foundation's sister-effort) annual photography competition, presenting over $22,500 in cash prizes and four distinct titles: The International Photographer of the Year (given to a professional), The Discovery of the Year (awarded to a non-professional), The Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year (awarded to either a professional or non-professional) and the Moving Image Photographer of the Year (awarded to either a professional or non-professional).
The Lucie Awards also present statues to photographers in six different categories, entitled the Support Category Awards. Those categories acknowledge those integral to crafting an image. They are Book Publisher of the Year, Print Advertising Campaign of the Year, Fashion Layout of the Year, Picture Editor of the Year, Curator/Exhibition of the Year and Photography Magazine of the Year.
In the week leading up to the Lucie Awards, there are exhibitions and artist talks in New York City, including the annual International Photography Awards “Best of Show”, which shows 45 winning images from each calendar year's competition, selected by a different curator each year.
In its 2003 inaugural year, the ceremony was held in Los Angeles, and then moved to New York City, where it has been held at the American Airlines Theatre,Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.