An awards gala has one moment that cannot be repeated. The statuette passes from hand to hand in a few seconds. If that shot is missing, it will never exist.
In autumn 2022 I photographed the Gala ReFarmatorzy 2021/2022 at the Auditorium Maximum of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. The organiser was the Trade Union of Pharmacy Employees, and the event was held under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Health. The room held pharmacists from across Poland, institutional representatives and trade media.
What happened
The programme combined the awards ceremony with a substantive panel section. Each of these layers requires different photos.
Presentations are work on reflex. The statuette, the certificate, the handshake, the winner’s reaction. Everything happens once and fast, so I am in position before the name is announced.
The panel discussion, in turn, is reportage work: seven experts at the microphones, an exchange of arguments, reactions from the audience. I make sure each panellist has their own photo, because after the event the organiser will need it for thank-you messages and communication with partners.
Then there is the whole setting that makes up the report: a hall filled with people, the organiser’s branding on banners, statuettes arranged before the ceremony, pins on the registration table. Marketing will look for photos for social media, PR for context and key people, partners for their presence.
What I watch for at a gala
An academic hall has its own gravitas, and that gravitas shows in the frames: the university emblem on the lectern, a full auditorium, the official setting of the ceremony. It works well in the material because it raises the standing of the event in the report.
I photograph the audience just as carefully as the stage. The moment a guest takes out their own phone to capture a speech says more about the event than many an official shot.
Result
The organiser published a report from the gala on LinkedIn, and the event received wide press coverage in trade media. The photo material documents the full course of the event: from the entrance and registration to the awards presentations.
