ST. PETERSBURG, FL (March 18, 2007) – Today judges got off to a flying start and picked winners in six of the Still Photography categories in the National Press Photographers Association’s Best Of Photojournalism 2007 competition, and judging of the contest’s Web Site categories got underway as well.
Judging in Still Photography and Web Site categories will take place all week at the host site, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, and will wrap up on Friday with the announcement of the top photo awards: the Photojournalists of the Year (for Large and Small Markets), the Sports Portfolio of the Year winner, and the winner of Cliff Edom’s “New America Award.”
The Best Of Photojournalism 2007 competition is sponsored again this year by Canon and Avid.
Judging in the Picture Editing categories will begin the following week at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication (VisCom) in Athens, OH.
In the Still Photography division there are nearly 60,000 entries this year, up another 9 percent over the previous year. Six years ago when the contest was launched there were 25,000 Best Of Photojournalism still images judged, and then between 2002 and 2005 the number of Best Of Photojournalism entries in the still photography categories grew by another 66 percent.
There was another large increase this year in the number of entries in the Web site division, which grew 22 percent over last year (with nearly 500 distinct URLs entered for consideration this year). And the Still Photography Photo Editing division has seen a 15 percent growth year-to-year, and this year the division has more than 1,500 entries (representing more than 4,700 pages).
Judges in the Best Of Photojournalism 2007 Still Photography division this year are Bebeto Matthews, a staff photojournalist for the Associated Press in New York; Steve Gonzales, director of photography for the Houston Chronicle; James Colton, a photography editor for Sports Illustrated; Naomi Halperin, director of photography for The Morning Call in Allentown, PA; and Kathleen Hennessy, deputy director of photography for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Today at Poynter, NPPA’s panel of judges picked winners in the Celebrity News Single, Conceptual Photographic Illustration, Humor, Individual Sporting Competition, Team Sports Action, and Sports Enterprise categories.
In the Celebrity News Single category, first place is Diana Walker of Time magazine for a picture of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) with Felician nun Sister Johnice. Second place is Michael Macor of the San Francisco Chronicle for a photograph of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) in San Francisco, and third place is Chris Maluszynski from MOMENT for a picture of author Joan Didion in her New York City home. Honorable mentions were awarded to Damon Winter of the Los Angeles Times for a picture of Clint Eastwood; Olivier Douliery of ABACA Press for a picture of Sen. Obama during a rally; and Nigel Parry of Newsweek for a picture of Steven Speilberg, Ang Lee, George Clooney, Bennett Miller, and Paul Haggis.
“The first place image [in Celebrity News Single] is an intimate photograph of a Hillary Rodham Clinton sitting next to a nun. The body language in this photo says it all.” Halperin said. Gonzales said, “The second place photo of Barack Obama by himself in an elevator is another intimate photograph. Photographers don’t always get this kind of access to spend this kind of time with a candidate or political figure.”
In the Conceptual Photographic Illustration category, first and second place is Andrea Levy of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, OH. Third place is Jon M. Fletcher of The Florida Times Union. Honorable mentions were given to Levy, and to Kyle Green of The Roanoke Times.
About the first place image in Conceptual Photographic Illustration, Matthews said, “The image here, a flag as a 9/11 comment. As a New Yorker, we tend to block out that image. We deal with it all the time. It’s prevalent, every time we walk past Ground Zero; those two towers are no longer there. We see images from years past of what’s representing it. Like those lights pointing up to the sky. In my mind I just passed over the illustration and went through the other work and then right back to it because of the simplicity of it’s statement. The lines of the flag, the stars blowing like smoke from that fire. Those elements really represent the Twin Towers.”
In the Humor category, a new addition to the contest, first place is Dipti Vaidya of The Tennessean in Nashville, TN. Second place is Cherie Diez of the St. Petersburg Times, and third place is Algerina Perna of the Baltimore Sun. An honorable mention was given to Mark Black of the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, IL.
In the Individual Sporting Competition category, first place is Joe Cavaretta of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Second place is Marcelo del Pozo of Reuters, for Sports Illustrated, and third place is Michael Bryant of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Honorable mentions were given to Matthew Holst of the Iowa City Press Citizen, and to freelancer Matt Goins for a picture published in Sports Illustrated.
“The first place image was a great boxing image,” Colton said about the Individual Sporting Competition category. “Not only did the photographer capture the moment, there was blood, spit, and all kinds of things that are coming out here. It’s hard to get a good sharp boxing picture. Whoever took this photograph did and excellent job.”
In the Team Sports Action category, first place is Nic Bothma of EPA for Sports Illustrated. Second place is freelancer AJ Mast, and third place is Keith Birmingham of the Pasadena Star-News. Honorable mentions were awarded to Mark Gormus of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia, and freelancer John Gress for Reuters.
“The first place amputee soccer photo represents the ultimate human condition,” Halperin said about the Team Sports Action category. “It’s got a lot of power and strength to it.” Judge Bebeto Matthews said, “I simply think you can’t look at that picture and feel sorry for yourself after looking at it. It challenges the notion of what the human spirit is all about.”
In the Sports Enterprise category, first place is John (Sam) Morris of the Las Vegas Sun. Second place is Louis DeLuca of The Dallas Morning News, and third place is Michael Appleton of the New York Daily News. Honorable mentions were given to Greg Kahn of the Independent Tribune, and to Ron Jenkins of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a picture distributed by WireImage.com and published in Sports Illustrated.
About the winner in the Sports Enterprise category Gonzales said, “First place is a great photo taken after a boxing match. The emotion of the little girls (daughters) made their way into the boxing ring and they are looking at their father’s battered face. The father probably can’t even see very well after finishing the fight. He waves off a reporter’s question to talk to his daughters. He was obviously fighting for his daughters‚ pride. It’s a great photo, and I liked that it was in black & white.”
The Still Photography divisions are coordinated by Harry Walker of the McClatchy-Tribune Photo Service; Joe Elbert, assistant managing editor of photography for The Washington Post; and Clyde Mueller of The Santa Fe New Mexican, who is also an NPPA past president. Also serving on the Best Of Photojournalism contest committee are Kenneth F. Irby of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Deanne Fitzmaurice of The San Francisco Chronicle.
Web division judging is also conducted at Poynter and is coordinated by chair Keith W. Jenkins, the photography editor for The Washington Post. This years Web division judges are Andrew DeVigal, a multimedia editor for The New York Times; Regina McCombs of The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, MN; Josh Meltzer, a photojournalist for The Roanoke Times who was the 2005 Best Of Photojournalism Photojournalist of the Year for Smaller Markets; Richard Hernandez, a photojournalist for the San Jose Mercury News; and Heather Powazek Champ from Flickr.
A little over a week ago Best Of Photojournalism 2007 judges were at Poynter to pick winners in the television photography and editing categories, and Andy Shilts of KMSP-TV in Minneapolis was named the new Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year, and Joshua Shea of KCNC-TV in Denver, CO, was picked as the Video Editor of the Year. The winning Stations of the Year in Large, Medium, and Small markets were KARE-TV in Minneapolis, WYFF-TV in Greenville, SC, and KCCI-TV in Des Moines, IA.
In addition to Canon and Avid, NPPA’s Best Of Photojournalism 2007 competition is also sponsored by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, FL; Hesketh.com; Ibiblio.org; Camera Bits; Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication; Think Tank Photo; and MerlinOne.
For more information or to ask questions please eMail Best Of Photojournalism 2007 contest coordinator Thomas Kenniff, who is at the judging, at contests@nppa.org.
