LONDON.- Marc Riboud, the celebrated French photographer and former President of Magnum Photos, is to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Sony World Photography Awards.

Riboud, whose career in photography spans over half a centenary, will be honoured at a gala award ceremony which takes place on 16 April at the Palais des Festival in Cannes amongst the great and the good of the international photographic industry. The accolade has been created to honour a photographer for a lifetime of widely recognised and critically acclaimed work.

Scott Gray, Managing Director of the World Photography Awards, comments: ‘We are exceptionally proud to honour the life and work of Marc Riboud. It is fitting that the Sony World Photography Awards presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to a man who has dedicated over 50 years to capturing life in all corners of the world, from China’s cultural revolution through to everyday life in Paris.’

Elliott Erwitt, a close friend of Riboud, adds: ‘A lifetime achievement award may imply that a career is over. In the case of Marc nothing could be further from the truth. Marc continues to live and breathe photography every day with his camera permanently welded to his side he is always looking for the next picture.’

The presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award will be the climax of Sony World Photography Awards ceremony, which takes place during a week-long celebration of photography throughout the city of Cannes from 14th – 19th April 2009. A retrospective of Marc Riboud’s work, curated by Alain Genestar, the publisher of Polka Magazine and owner of Polka Gallery in Paris, as well as the former director of Paris Match, will be one of the highlights of the festival. Riboud will be in Cannes for the celebrations and will conduct a special tour of his exhibition. He will also be signing two rare, out of print, book titles. For more details, visit www.worldphotographyawards.org/festival

Alain Genestar comments: ‘Marc Riboud is the utmost French in style, in elegance, curiosity, poetry and discretion. When I was asked to set up his exhibition I agreed straight away, just to have the pleasure to dig in his wonderful archives. A trip around the world and through time! I am proud to be his friend.’

Born in 1923, Riboud was the fifth of 7 children. He first picked up a camera at the age of 14, but until the age of 27 he studied engineering. Whilst his brothers went on to become famous industrialists, he dropped his career for a life of photography. At the age of 29, after meeting Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, the founders of Magnum, he joined the agency and remained there for almost three decades. In 1958 he became vice president of Magnum for Europe. Between 1954 and 1979 Riboud travelled and lived in the Middle East and the Orient. In the 60s he spent time in Africa and the United States, before becoming president of Magnum in 1976. Three years later, Marc left Magnum to pursue a freelance career.

Since 1979, Riboud has continued to travel, at a less hectic pace, which has included frequent visits to China and Japan. He is the author of numerous books and has exhibited widely throughout the world, including major retrospectives in Paris and New York. He continues to work on new books and exhibitions.