PDN Street Photography 2016 – Winning Finalist

In 2016 I was thrilled to be a winning finalist in the PDN (Photo District News) sponsored 2016 Street Photography competition. The reason for my excitement was due to Magnum Photographer Alex Webb being a judge in the early round, and the winning finalists being selected by Colin Westerbeck, the co-author of the street photography bible, ‘Bystander: The History of Street Photography.”

Aside from a number of prizes, the main prize was to be featured in a book called Street Photography, to be published by Acuity Press based in the US.

In the foreword of the book Colin Westerbeck penned the following about me:

“I felt I was looking at what might be considered a self-selected Magnum roster…Darren Lehane’s images demonstrate in a series of shots where all the craziness is going down in the same picture plain (sic).”

However, that’s where the excitement ended and frustration took hold. A year went by and no book was published. Then another year went by and still nothing. Eventually some of the winning finalists (some seriously talented and well known street photographers amongst us) got together online and put pressure on Acuity Press to offer some kind of update.

That resulted in some drafts of the book’s design being sent out to us, with promises it would be published very soon. Sadly it never was. Acuity Press eventually disappeared altogether along with their website and despite pressure on PDN as the main sponsors and credible photography magazine publishers, they distanced themselves altogether to the point both sides threatened legal action against one another, before things just simply petered out.

I’ll never know if it was a scam or whether Acuity Press – best described as a small boutique photography publishers – just simply bit off more than they could chew, either logistically or financially.

So all I have left these days are the digital proofs of the book that never was. Oh, and of course, being chosen by Alex Webb and Colin Westerbeck and that kudos will never be taken away from me!