ST. PETERSBURG, FL (March 20, 2005) – Judging got underway today in the NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism 2005 contest for the Still Photography and Web Site categories at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, site of last week's BOP Television contest judging. More than 38,000 images will be judged in the Web and Still photo categories over the next six days. Judging in the Still Photography and Web Site categories will run through Friday, March 25th.
On Sunday, judges decided winners in six categories: Pictorial (PIC), Portrait & Personality (PAP), The Arts (ART), Nature & Environment (NAE), Computer Image Illustration(CII), and Conceptual Illustration (COI).
"The NPPA Best of Photojournalism contest is now in its fourth year and it has increased from 23,000 to more than 40,000 entries," said Clyde Mueller, a past president of NPPA and the director of photography for the Santa Fe New Mexican. "I would like to thank The Poynter Institute for its unwavering support of the NPPA and the Best of Photojournalism contest, and thanks also to the judges who are giving back to the photojournalism community. Judging more than 38,000 entries in just six days will be grueling."
The judges for this year's Best Of Photojournalism Still Photography categories are Victor Vaughan, assistant managing editor for presentation for The Arizona Daily Star; Gary Hershorn, news editor for pictures, the Americas, for Reuters based in Washington, DC; Bonnie Jo Mount, deputy managing editor for presentation and online for the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC; Hal Buell, retired chief editor for photography for the Associated Press; and Ruth Fremson, a staff photographer for The New York Times. NPPA executive director Greg Garneau and Mueller are on site to assist with the judging.
Keith Jenkins, photography editor of The Washington Post Magazine, is coordinator of the Best Of Photojournalism 2005’s Best of the Web contest categories and he has organized the judges for this year’s Web contest. They are: Shawn Greene, multimedia projects editor for the Miami Herald and www.miamiherald.com; Andrew DeVigal, an assistant professor at San Francisco State University who teaches visual and online journalism and who is the founder of DeVigal Design; Dan Habib, photography editor for The Concord Monitor and creator of the multi-media documentary “Teen Sexuality in a Culture of Confusion”; and Maria Bunai, the photography editor for Time magazine’s online edition, www.time.com, who formerly worked in the illustrations department for National Geographic and was a photography editor at America Online. Bunai’s been a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute, and she was one of the judges for the first Best Of Photojournalism Web competition in 2002.
The Best Of Photojournalism 2005 contest committee is chaired by Harry Walker, director of the Knight Ridder/Tribune Photo Service in Washington, DC. The contest committee has as its members Joe Elbert, the assistant managing editor for photography for The Washington Post; Kenneth F. Irby, the visual journalism group leader for The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, FL; Terry Eiler, director and co-founder of the School of Visual Communication for Ohio University in Athens, OH; Keith Jenkins, photography editor for The Washington Post Magazine; and Clyde Mueller, the director of photography for the Santa Fe New Mexican.
"The Best Of Photojournalism also includes those instincts that take over when a group of relative strangers coalesce into a team that can successfully cope with such a huge challenge," Garneau said today from St. Petersburg. "That special chemistry among the judges is now apparent as Sunday afternoon waxed into Sunday night. There are many hours of hard work ahead this week – but observers agree this panel of judges will succeed in identifying the best of the best.
"As voting ties are broken and various impasses are surmounted, one can see the wisdom of experience that is on hand and the 'institutional memory' of the contest. Elbert, Mueller, Walker, and Jenkins know when to coach, when to hold back, and most of all how to achieve a consensus with the judges. And the tempo and feel in the North Pavilion, where the Web judging takes place, is very different from the Stills contest."
Garneau said the contest would not succeed without the support of The Poynter Institute. "As in the past four years, Kenny Irby plays numerous roles as host, as sounding board, and as the resident wise man." On Sunday some technical problems threatened to overcome the judging until Dave Peirson, Poynter's information technology manager, came to the rescue.
On Friday, winners in the Best Of Photojournalism 2005 Television Photography and Editing contests were announced during a Web cast from the Poynter Institute. Corky Scholl of KUSA-TV in Denver, CO, was named the Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the year, and Brian Weister of KMGH-TV in Denver was named the Television Editor of the Year. Stations KUSA-TV of Denver, WAVE-TV of Louisville, KY, and WHO-TV of Des Moines, IA, were named Stations of the Year for the large, medium, and small television markets.
Two weeks ago at Ohio University in Athens, OH, winners were picked in the Best Of Photojournalism 2005 Picture Editing and Best Use Of Photography categories after judging at the School of Visual Communication. Last Friday the winners were announced, and a complete and updated list of the winners is online here. Pages from the winning entries can be viewed online at www.viscom.ohio.edu/BOP2005.
The Best Of Photojournalism 2005 contest consists of more than 38,000 still images, roughly 1,500 editing entries, more than 500 television entries, and approximately 150 Web site entries. Judging was spread out over three weeks and panels of judges at Ohio University and The Poynter Istitute picked winners in categories that reflect their individual areas of professionalism.
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies hosts judging of the NPPA Best Of Photojournalism contest as part of its annual sponsorship of the event. Other major sponsors include Canon, Nikon, and Olympus cameras, along with hesketh.com, ibiblio.org, MerlinOne, and Ohio University.
Stay tuned through the week as daily stories are posted on the NPPA Web site with results from the Photography and Web Site judging.
