AAPA member John G. Morris received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the May 10 “Infinity Awards” dinner of New York’s International Center of Photography, attended by 600. The awards honor nine members of the photographic community each year. The award for photojournalism went to the Paris-based freelance Reza. The top award to a photographer, named for ICP founder Cornell Capa, went to the black South African photographer Peter Magubane who, after enduring more than 500 days of solitary confinement in the apartheid regime, has published a dozen books and worked close to Nelson Mandela.
The award to Morris was presented by Christiane Amanpour, who has recently switched from CNN to ABC. She first introduced a short documentary film tribute, which concentrated on the major events of the 20th century which Morris covered in one way or another — D Day for Life magazine, the Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination for The New York Times, and many others, for the Times, for Life, Ladies’ Home Journal, Magnum, The Washington Post and National Geographic.
Morris, whose career in photojournalism began in 1938 as a Hollywood correspondent for Life, terminated his brief acceptance speech with “Finally, I should like to thank the President of the United States, who is restoring my faith in America.”
John was accompanied by his old friend and new companion Patricia “Pat” Trocmé, widow of the French diplomat Jean Trocmé. From New York they went on to Washington, visiting friends and museums.