TORONTO, May 9, 2012 /CNW/ - Toronto artist Arnaud Maggs received the second annual Scotiabank Photography Award (SPA) at a ceremony held this evening at Toronto's Design Exchange.  Celebrating excellence in contemporary photography, the $50,000 award, solo Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival exhibition in 2013 and book deal with international art photography publisher Steidl, is Canada's largest prize for an established Canadian photographic artist.

"To receive this award is an honour, and it too is an honour to be named in the company of my gifted peers, Fred Herzog and Alain Paiement," said Arnaud Maggs. "Scotiabank's work over the past years both through its involvement in the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and now the Scotiabank Photography Award  is helping to raise the profile of Canadian photography and the people and stories behind the lens."

Best known for his multiple-grid, serial photographs of faces and collections, systems and historical ephemera, Arnaud began his career as an artist in the mid seventies at the age of 47, following success as a graphic designer and commercial and fashion photographer. Works, collections and exhibits include Complete Prestige 12" Jazz Catalogue, Charles Stainback's Special Collections and the Arnaud Maggs: Identification exhibition which opened at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa on May 3, 2012. Maggs is represented in Toronto by the Susan Hobbs Gallery.

"Arnaud Maggs has made a unique contribution to Canadian art and photography with his clear and original way of looking at the world around him," said Ann Thomas, Curator of Photographs Collection, National Gallery of Canada on behalf of the SPA jury. "Under his unswerving and affectionate eye, he brings to a new level of appreciation both the idea of human identity represented through the photographic portrait and the idea of cultural evidence garnered through the traces that everyday things leave behind. We are grateful to him for opening our eyes to the significance of ordinary things."

The SPA was conceived and developed by Ed Burtynsky, one of Canada's most respected photographers and Jane Nokes, Director of the Fine Art Collection and Corporate Archives at Scotiabank. Burtynsky serves as Chair of the SPA and Nokes is the Award's Executive Director. Both serve on the Board of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, the largest photography festival in the world. The SPA 2012 was sponsored by Canadian Art, CTV and the Globe and Mail.

"Arnaud is the master of the archival image," said Nokes. "His excellence as a photographic artist is a given, his extraordinary use of the ordinary is a wonder. Arnaud is all about archives, and as a professional archivist, I am in awe of his use of history to inform his work. His ability to bring the past into the present in a meaningful way makes him the archivist's hero as well as the art curator's dream."

The 2012 SPA jury:

• William Ewing, Director of Curatorial Projects, Thames & Hudson
• Karen Love, Manager of Grants and Publications and Independent Curator, Vancouver Art Gallery
• Ann Thomas, Curator of Photographs Collection, National Gallery of Canada

For more information about the prize please visit: http://www.scotiabankphotoaward.com/index.html

About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is committed to supporting the communities in which we live and work, both in Canada and abroad, through our global philanthropic program, Scotiabank Bright Future.  Recognized as a leader internationally and among Canadian corporations for our charitable donations and philanthropic activities, Scotiabank has provided on average approximately $45 million annually to community causes around the world over each of the last five years. Visit us at www.scotiabank.com.

Image with caption: "2012 Scotiabank Photography Award L-R, Anatol Von Hahn, Group Head, Canadian Banking, with SPA winner Arnaud Maggs; Janes Nokes, Exec. Dir. SPA and photographer Ed Burtynsky, Chair SPA. (CNW Group/Scotiabank)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20120509_C5996_PHOTO_EN_13522.jpg