Did you know...

In 2000 (while I was shooting really crappy photos) Ed was winning an "art contest."

The contest was called "Search For Art".

The whole story is pretty amazing. Ed didn't enter this contest himself. The collector who now owned the piece, Teenage Smokers, had entered him. We didn't find this out until Ed was notified that he was one of the finalists! Which meant that we were flown to Milan, Italy to hang the photos.

If I remember correctly the day we flew in, after we checked into our hotel, we went over to the venue to see what was going on. We decided right then to hang Ed's piece. I think it took us at the most 2 hours. We then had the rest of the days free to do some sightseeing.

As everyone else in the competition labored and struggled, putting lots of thought into their presentations, we were sitting atop the Duomo in Milan talking about who we thought was going to win. Ed thought for sure that Phil Frost had it in the bag. His painting was stunning.

But the judges thought otherwise. (And without sounding too bias, I think they were right!) There's another part of the story that's pretty funny. When we were picked up from the airport there was stranger in the car with us. We made some small talk, told him how Ed found out about this contest and I don't remember how this happened, but Ed started to show him his journal and a little cassette case that Ed had filled with photos. The gentleman seemed very interested with Ed's show and tell. We found out few nights later that this man was one of the judges of the art contest, Jerome Sans, and he was the director of the Palais de Tokyo, a museum in Paris. Ed was offered a show there the following year.
The photo up above was shot after Ed found out he won. He didn't know how to handle it so he hid with Phil Frost and 2 other contestants behind Phil's painting. (Another reason I love him!)