LONDON.- The National Media Museum has announced the 2013 First Book Award winner. Now in its second year, the First Book Award, in partnership with MACK, supports an emerging photographer by publishing their first book.

This year’s winner, Paul Salveson, was announced at the Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards at the Sony World Photography Awards on 25 April. Salveson’s book, Between the Shell, will be published by MACK later this year.

Greg Hobson, Curator of Photographs at the National Media Museum commented: ‘We are very pleased to be able to support the work of emerging photographers by providing a platform for previously unpublished work. The quality of entries for this year's Award was exceptional and it was fantastic to see such a diverse range of works, executed with creativity and confidence. Paul Salveson is a deserved winner whose work takes photography in unexpected and exciting directions.’

Salveson’s work was selected by a panel of five judges from 100 invited submissions by international photographers. The judges were: Michael Mack (MACK), Polly Fleury (Wilson Centre for Photography London), Liz Jobey (FT Weekend Magazine), Greg Hobson ( National Media Museum ) and photographer Clare Strand.

Taken in New York and Virginia between 2006- 2011, Paul Salveson’s work uses commonplace items and objects within domestic environments to construct absurdist images. Educated at Bard College , New York and the University of Southern California , Paul Salveson's work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Swiss Institute, New York , and Actual Size, LA.

Of his work, Salveson says: ‘Often my photographic process unfolds like a private performance in an empty house, or after everyone falls asleep. My engagement emerges from a perspective that precedes familiarity, disregarding the functions and cultural associations that objects are assigned. I try to process my surroundings with an alien mind.’

More information on the First Book Award and Paul Salveson can be found at www.firstbookaward.com.