Marc Garanger's win came at the end of a disastrous ceremony, which ran late and was interrupted, several times, due to missing slides in the show's presentation. Halfway through the ceremony, Daniel Power and Frank Evers, co-founders of the festival, were forced to stop the proceedings as members of his staff searched for the missing parts of the ceremony's slideshow presentation. The delay led to half of the audience leaving St-Ann's Warehouse - with attendees requesting a refund for their tickets.

Sensing the public's discontent, Frank Evers took the stage to announce the last winners in the General categories, while members of the festival's staff argued loudly behind the scenes. Photographers such as Nadav Kander and André Liohn were honoured (see the full list of winners below).

However, the night's biggest winner was French photographer Marc Garanger, who received the awards' first ever Lifetime Achievement Awards. Garanger received the prize for his images of Algerian women taken during the 1960s war of independence. The images, shot for official ID cards, show women who were forced to remove their headdresses and veils against their wishes. Read BJP's interview with Marc Garanger.

Kathy Ryan, photo editor of The New York Times Magazine, presented Garanger with the award. "What could have been merely an official and aggressive act in any other photographer's hands became an act of empathy and recognition in his," said Ryan. "These depictions of humiliation, anger and defiance still speak with tremendous clarity and power of the pain felt by these victims of colonialism and coercion."

She added: "Documentary photography is always about bearing witness to history. Marc Garanger gave us a set of pictures that remains one of the most vivid rendering of colonial power ever to be had. He did it not through combat photography but through portraiture - a portraiture that transcended all the boundaries of the official identity cards it was intended for."

Upon receiving his award - and a Leica X1 camera - Garanger expressed his profound emotion at being in New York to receive his award. He also thanked Fred Ritchin, who curated his photographs at this year's New York Photo Festival.

On Saturday morning, the New York Photo Festival issued an apology on its website. It reads: "Due to an unfortunate technical malfunction on our part, and despite all of our best efforts, we were unable to properly complete the New York Photo Awards Ceremony last night. We sincerely apologize to all of the attendees, and to Marc Garanger (the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award)."