Mumm Napa Valley Hosts Fundraising Events to Launch International Photography Program.

Business/News & Wine Editors

RUTHERFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 6, 2001

World Press Photo Director Arpad Gerecsey to Travel from Netherlands

to Announce "Cameras for Colleagues" Immediately Following a

Photography Panel Discussion

"The Future of Social Documentary Photography" will be discussed by an impressive panel of leading journalists and photographers at 6:00 p.m. on March 18, 2001 at Mumm Napa Valley in Rutherford, California.

Directly following the panel discussion, World Press Photo (WPPh) Director Arpad Gerecsey will announce a new international initiative of the World Press Photo Foundation called "Cameras for Colleagues" which places new and used professional cameras in the hands of third world photographers.

"Social documentary is an essential part of photojournalism. Helping to ensure its future is part of our mission statement," commented Gerecsey who will travel from the Netherlands for the events.

The discussion will be moderated by Michael Krasny of KQED's radio Forum and panelists include San Francisco Chronicle Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Phil Bronstein; Netherlands-based Gerecsey; Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Kim Komenich; Ken Light, author of the recent Smithsonian Institution Press book, "Witness In Our Time; Working Lives of Documentary Photographers"; documentary fine arts photographer Lara Jo Regan who recently won the 2001 World Press Photo of the Year; and photojournalist Wayne Miller who was a member of Edward Steichen's World War II U.S. Navy Combat Photo Unit.

"The face of social documentary photography has changed over the years. Now is a particularly poignant time to discuss its future - both in the U.S. and abroad," said Bronstein.

In his current role as executive editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, Bronstein brings a unique perspective to the panel, having began as an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent at the San Francisco Examiner in the 1980s.

As a foreign correspondent in 1987, Bronstein worked alongside Komenich as he documented the Philippine revolution through the camera lens. Komenich won the Pulitzer Prize in photography for this work. Additionally, Bronstein was a 1986 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his news coverage of the Philippines and went on to cover conflicts in other parts of Southeast Asia, El Salvador, Peru and the Middle East.

Tickets sold for the panel discussion - as well as a sparkling wine reception in the winery's galleries and a fundraising dinner in the Cuvee Napa Salon, which take place on the same evening - will raise initial funds for the Cameras for Colleagues campaign.

Award-winning Chef Larry Vito will create an experience of international flair to match with the global nature of the Cameras for Colleagues program. Each hors d' oeuvre and course for the fundraising dinner will fuse flavors from around the world to match with the sparkling wines of Mumm Cuvee Napa.

Tickets to the panel discussion and sparkling wine reception are $50 per person and those for the panel discussion, sparkling wine reception and three-course dinner are $125 per person. Because seating is extremely limited, tickets are available only on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations can be made by calling the Mumm Cuvee Napa reservation line at 707-942-3534 or by emailing: [e-mail].

The fundraising events take place on the closing day of the World Press Photo 1955-2000 retrospective exhibit, which has been showing at the galleries of premier sparkling wine producer Mumm Napa Valley since January. The San Francisco Chronicle has co-sponsored the Mumm Napa Valley exhibit with Canon, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Kodak Professional, a division of Eastman Kodak Company, serving as worldwide sponsors. Mumm Napa Valley is the only U.S. venue planned to host the retrospective show in 2001; the show will then travel to Warsaw, Poland and Milan, Italy.

World Press Photo Foundation, a non-profit organization based in the Netherlands, serves as the international platform for the photojournalistic community. Founded in 1955, the Foundation strives to promote the highest standards in press photography and to promote the free flow of information. Its primary programs include the annual international contest for press photographers, the World Press Photo exhibition which travels to 75 cities worldwide each year and an extensive long term seminar program in several developing countries.

Installed at Mumm Napa Valley in 1994, The Story of a Winery is a permanent exhibition of photographs by Ansel Adams depicting early California winemaking. In the adjoining winery gallery, exhibits like the retrospective World Press Photo show rotate on a quarterly basis. According to gallery curator Jim O'Shea, the retrospective exhibit is a departure for the galleries which are known for displaying noted landscape photography.

The Mumm Napa Valley Visitor Center is open daily from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and tours of the winery are given hourly from 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. For more information about the winery, call 800-686-6272 or visit www.MummNapaValley.com. To obtain more information about the panel discussion and additional fundraising events or to make a donation of professional cameras or cash to Cameras for Colleagues, please email [e-mail] or visit www.worldpressphoto.nl.

The Seagram Chateau & Estate Wines Company, a division of Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc., produces and markets the sparkling wines of Mumm Cuvee Napa and the wines of Sterling Vineyards, Sterling Vintner's Collection, Tessera, and The Monterey Vineyard. The company is the exclusive U.S. importer of G.H. Mumm and Perrier-Jouet Champagnes, San Telmo from Argentina, Barton & Guestier wines, Brancott Vineyards from New Zealand and Sandeman Ports and Sherries; and is the largest importer of classified Bordeaux in the United States. The portfolio is completed by Dominus in the Napa Valley, a collection of Burgundy estate-bottled wines, F.E. Trimbach wines from Alsace, Castello d'Albola in Chianti, and several other European wines and spirits. For more information, visit www.aboutwines.com.

Editor's note: A digital image of the exhibit is available by calling Liz Dueland at 800-709-7667.