TIPA General Assembly 2021 and Awards Voting Session

Madrid, Spain, 17 May 2021

The Technical Image Press Association held its annual General Assembly meeting on 30 April 2021. Due to covid restrictions the assembly took place over Zoom, yet despite the inherent time differences between Australia, the United States and Europe, a full complement of editors and representative of TIPA members from around the world were in attendance.

The meeting began with a welcome from Thomas Gerwers, Chairman of the TIPA board, who noted that 2021 marked the 30th anniversary of the now worldwide organization, which began in 1991 as a nine-member European publication only group. Indeed, he was pleased to recognize that one of the original members, Giulio Forti, now Vice-Chairman of TIPA, was in attendance at that first gathering.

Thomas Gerwers also gave a brief synopsis of the state of the industry during the past year, despite a drop in sales and production he noted, “The industry’s enthusiasm for innovation remains high, evidenced by the plethora of products we considered for our TIPA World Awards nominations.” Gerwers also reported on new initiatives and testing procedures by TIPA’s affiliated testing lab, Image Engineering, a world class testing facility whose detailed reports are made available to all TIPA member publications.

In regard to member publications, two new photo magazines, from Turkey and Great Britain, were introduced and approved by members to join the association this year: Photoline and British Photographic Industry news. And due to timing issues caused by the coronavirus epidemic, TIPA’s voting for the Camera Grand Prix was handled prior to the GA by the board and technical committee, the results of which will be released soon. Thomas Gerwers also welcomed Makoto Suzuki, representative of the CJPC (Camera Journal Press Club) who attended the meeting from Tokyo. In more news, Thomas Gerwers expressed hope that the 2022 General Assembly would be in person, and announced that the meeting will take place at Leitz Park in Wetzlar, Germany, in early spring next year.

One of the main events within the meeting is the selection of the winners of the TIPA World Awards. Along with exciting cameras and lenses that cover every category, from entry level to expert to professional, TIPA World Award winners in 40 categories represent the wide range of products and services that make up the imaging industry today, including inkjet papers and printers, imaging software, still and video accessories, lighting, monitors and more.

Said Thomas Gerwers, “Each year we have more and more products and new and exciting technology that will continue to fuel growth in our industry. Given the extraordinary circumstances the world and our industry face today, and in our hope that we will overcome the current situation, we felt that we should continue with our efforts in supporting the industry by recognizing the best imaging products of 2021.

“We believe that now more than ever our support of the industry and the people who work so hard, be it in production, distribution, or marketing, deserve credit and our thanks and appreciation for their efforts to continue to develop new and exciting products that both expand imaging creativity and potential and point the way to new and exciting technologies in the future. Of course, while the process of nomination and selection of award winners had to adapt to the circumstances, we maintained our usual rigorous standards in our considerations.”

Finalists among the categories were voted on and approved, the results of which will be released through member publications and web sites on Thursday, 20 May, followed soon after by worldwide release through business journals and professional and amateur photo magazines and web sites.

The 2021 TIPA World Awards ceremony will take place at Photopia, Hamburg (Germany) which will run from 23-26 September 2021. Stay tuned for further information on this exciting event.

For a full list of the 2021 TIPA World Award winners, along with award citations and images, please visit www.tipa.com on Thursday, 20 May 2021.