Kodak Professional Awards Its 11th Crystal Eagle to Bradley Clift.

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 1999--

Hartford Courant Photographer Recognized for Images of Addiction Award

Made at 56th Pictures of the Year Ceremony,

Photojournalism's Premier Event

Kodak Professional, a division of Eastman Kodak Company, has honored photographer Bradley E. Clift with the Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism. The award recognizes his work over the years showing who, why and how people become addicted to drugs and alcohol and to explain the effects that addiction has on society.

Clift, a photographer for The Hartford Courant, received the engraved award, $2,000 cash and $1,000 worth of Kodak products. He was honored at the 56th Pictures of the Year awards ceremony at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.

The Kodak Crystal Eagle Award was established to honor photojournalists whose work has raised public awareness and changed the way people act or feel about a socially significant topic, and was first presented to Charles Moore in 1989 for his powerful coverage of the civil rights movement.

"We at Kodak are proud to help recognize Bradley Clift, who has distinguished himself and his profession by reporting his subjects with exceptional vision and skill," said Ken Marks, Kodak Professional's U.S. regional manager for Commercial Imaging. "Epitomizing the meaning of the Kodak Crystal Eagle Award, Clift's images impact the way we look at the world. Clift tells powerful stories with his images--images that affect us, forcing us to examine our own views of society."

No stranger to award ceremonies, Clift has won awards in almost every newspaper division category in Picture of the Year. He has been named Northern Photographer of the Year or runner-up six times in the past 12 years. And he was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1986, the same year he began working at The Hartford Courant.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in journalism, Clift has published 10 major photo essays and several minor stories dealing with addiction, gathering more than 200 powerful images in the process. Clift began his mission in 1986 with "Poison Path" following that in 1991 with "Streets of Despair."

The latter six-part essay made a formerly ignorant public aware that seemingly "clean," white, suburban women were prostituting themselves to support their addiction. In the process, they were risking exposure to AIDS, a disease that could also be passed to their mostly married, suburban customers. Suddenly addiction was not just "someone else's problem," but reached beyond the inner city.

"Mama Can You Save Me?," a multi-part essay, focused on the plight of children caught in the cycle of despair. Clift told the story of addicts' children, 12 to 14 years old, who themselves sold and used drugs. In his 1998 essay "Walking Wounded," Clift documented the lifelong physical and emotional scars of young survivors of gang wars.

According to John Scanlan, deputy director of photography at The Hartford Courant, Clift's work has helped remove children from abusive homes until their parents became sober. He also helped keep a hospital open for treating addicts after it was scheduled to close, and helped generate legislation that changed how addicts receive treatment in Connecticut.

In addition to his studies of addiction, Clift's work includes stories that document issues of the disadvantaged, changes in China after Tiennamen Square, small town American life in the 1990s, alcoholic veterans living in state homes, famine in Somalia, and the Midwest flooding in 1993. He has been a guest lecturer at Bradley University and a faculty member for the National Press Photographers Association Flying Short Course.

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