WASHINGTON, DC (January 28, 2007) – Photojournalist Michael Robinson-Chavez was named Photographer of the Year and Chip Somodevilla won Political Photo of the Year today in the White House News Photographers Association’s 2007 Eyes of History contest judged over the weekend at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC.
A full list of all the still photography winners is online here.
The television competition will be judged February 10 and 11, also at National Geographic.
Robinson-Chavez has been a photojournalist for The Washington Post (he is moving to the Los Angeles Times), and Somodevilla shoots for Getty Images. It’s the second time Robinson-Chavez has won WHNPA’s top honor, winning for the first time in 2004.
WHNPA president Dennis Brack said that Robinson-Chavez’s first place in the picture story-international news category was an account of the brutal month long conflict in Southern Lebanon in July 2006. Robinson-Chavez also won first place in the International News category with a dramatic image taken in the morgue of Beith Hanoun hospital in Lebanon, and an award of excellence in the Picture Story /Feature category for a story titled “La Violencia: San Salvador’s Plague.”
The Political Photo of the Year was awarded to Somodevilla for his image of U.S. House of Representatives majority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reflected through a plastic podium while addressing supporters on last November’s election day.
“The White House News Photographers Association contest brings the best images of the president, political leaders, and major domestic and international news stories of the year to be judged by the finest photographers and directors of photography in the news business,” Brack said in the release announcing the contest’s winners. “The best of the best have been selected and we are extremely proud of the excellent images and intelligent choices of the judges.”
This years judges were 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winner Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times, senior editor of photography and illustrations David Griffin from National Geographic, and Janet Reeves, director of photography for The Rocky Mountain News.
WHNPA contest chairman Pete Souza reported that judges Cole and Reeves made "incredibly riveting presentations" on Friday night during a session at National Geographic, and that Reeves presented the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Todd Heisler and his essay, "Final Salute," including presenting to the audience in person U.S. Marine Corps Major Steve Beck (who was the subject of many of Heisler's photographs).
Souza also said that during the judging special "guest judges" helped out with certain categories. Retired Washington Post photojournalist Frank Johnston, who has published a book he shot on the White House during the Gerald R. Ford administration, helped judge the categories on the recent Ford funeral. Maryland-based photojournalist John Francis Ficara helped to pick winners in the Portrait and Insiders Washington categories. And Michele Delaney, an associate photographer and curator at the Smithsonian Museum of American history, joined the judging during the Feature and Feature Picture Story categories.
The contest’s top winners will be honored at the annual Eyes of History Gala on April 28, 2007, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington. The winning images can be seen online at www.whnpa.org. The contest is sponsored in part by the Nikon Spirit Initiative, the Tiffen/Domke Company, Digital Railroad, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Design.
