Princeton University’s Deana Lawson Is the First Photographer to Win the Hugo Boss Prize

Deana Lawson, professor of visual arts in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University in New Jersey, has been awarded the Hugo Boss Prize. Professor Lawson is the first photographer to win the award, which comes with a $100,000 prize.

Sponsored by the German fashion house Hugo Boss and presented by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the prize has been awarded biannually since 1996 and was established to “embrace today’s most innovative and critically relevant cultural currents.” The prize is considered among the most prestigious awards within the contemporary art world.

Lawson began teaching at Princeton in 2012. Earlier she taught at the California College of Arts in San Francisco, the International Center for Photography in New York, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Her photographs speak to the ways that sexuality, violence, family, and social status may be written, sometimes literally, on the body.

A native of Rochester, New York, Professor Lawson is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University. She earned a master of fine arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.