ST. PETERSBURG, FL (March 27, 2008) - On the third full day of judging at NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism competition at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, judges picked winners in the categories Domestic News Picture Story, International News, General News, Enterprise, Natural Disaster, and Environmental Picture Story.
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In the International News category, first place is John Moore of Getty Images for his photograph from the assassination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Second place is Carlos Barria of Reuters, and third place is Paul Bronstein of Getty Images. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Balasz Gardi of Alexia Foundation/Newsweek; Evandro Inetti of ZUMA Press; and Kuni Takahashi of the Chicago Tribune.
"When you see this collection of pictures you understand what a horrible world we live in, and how much human suffering there is around us," judge Jens Kristian Soegaard said. "This great photography brings it all to our attention and it is frightening when you look at these pictures."
"This was a strong category," judge Mary F. Calvert said. "The photographs that made it to the final round of judging were the photographs that evoked strong emotion from the viewer. The first place winning entry was the run-away favorite. It had great composition, immediacy, and emotion, and was so strong. The second place winner was an arresting picture of a very strong man carrying a dead body away from a bombing scene. The emotion, anguish and body language in the third place winning entry was powerful."
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In the Domestic News Picture Story category, first place is Todd Heisler of The New York Times for an essay on the aftermath of the Virginia Tech campus shootings. Second place is Mark Zaleski of The Press-Enterprise for a picture story on children visiting their parents in California prisons, and third place is Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles Times for a story about a woman left paralyzed by a gang bullet who is raising her three young children. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Karen Ducey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and John Freidah of The Providence Journal.
“This category is the first category where the judges were in unanimous agreement on first, second, third, and honorable mention winner," Calvert said.
"The judges chose the Virginia Tech picture story as the first place winner. We saw several different Virginia Tech stories and they all suffered from the same problem: poor editing. What made this Virginia Tech picture story a first place winner was because it was beautifully edited. Every very picture has a purpose and it was photographed in a sophisticated way. The same criteria apply to the second place winning entry. The picture story about the mothers in prison being visited by their children had strong photographs and was well edited and worked as a package. The judges also liked the third place winning entry about a mother who had been paralyzed while she was pregnant and how she dealt with the ordeal. We liked the subject matter of the honorable mention winning entries. but issues with technical skills and editing kept them from placing higher in the judging.”
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In the General News category, first place is Anthony Suau shooting for Time magazine. Second place is Rich-Joseph Facun of The Virginian-Pilot, and third place is Alvaro Barrientos of the Associated Press. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Roberto Schmidt of Agence France-Presse; Emily Rasinski of The Evening Sun; and April Saul of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"The first place winning entry - of the woman grieving in room where the casket is on the opposite wall from her, and a soldier stands at attention between the woman and the casket - was an emotional photograph," judge Suzette Moyer said. "Each side of the picture draws you in, in different ways. You can feel the emotion from the woman. The pensive face of the second place photograph of the little boy waiting for his father to come out from the aircraft carrier is a photograph that you can view in 20 or 30 years and you will still be moved by it."
"It's nice to have three top photographs of such high quality, which are very strong images in this category," judge Jens Kristian Soegaard said. "First and second place photographs have emotional elements. The third place photograph is a powerful action photograph. This photograph of the bulls running is a great example of a photographer taking a photograph of a decisive moment."
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In the Enterprise category, first place is freelancer Justin Griffiths-Williams. Second place is Veronique de Viguerie of WPN, and third place is John Moore of Getty Images. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Jan Dago of Jyllands-Posten; Mario Tama of Getty Images; and Paula Bronstein of Getty Images.
"The first place winning entry of a voodoo event - the photograph has several storytelling layers. The light is beautiful," Moyer said. "The second place winning entry of the Afghanistan couple is a sweet moment."
"The second place winning entry is a photograph of a woman lying by the military grave headstone of her fiancé," judge Deanne Fitzmaurice said. "This photography is just beautiful raw emotion."
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In the Natural Disaster category, first place is Abir Abdullah of the European Pressphoto Agency. Second place is Pavel Rahman of the Associated Press, and third place is Farjana Khan Godhuly of Agence France-Presse. Honorable Mention was awarded to Javier Manzano of the Rocky Mountain News.
"The first place photograph of the woman in Bangladesh peaking up over water as she holds her belongings shows the situation of this woman's predicament as she works to get through the water," Moyer said, "and the uncertainty of her predicament provides the impact of the photograph.
"The photograph of the dead children being dug up from a mudslide is a very powerful photograph," Fitzmaurice said. "It's absolutely horrible and absolutely beautiful; it's heart renching to look at."
"The anguish in the faces of the third place winning entry, of the father holding his only surviving child, is a powerful and intimate moment," Calvert said. "It's the eyes; the eyes tell such a story of this awful thing that's happened to them.
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In the Environmental Picture Story category, first place is Andrew Biraj of New Age/Bangladesh. Second place is Wally Skalij of the Los Angeles Times, and third place is Suthep Kritsanavarin of Aktuell. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Ardiles Rante of Many magazine, and Munem Wasif of Agency VU.
"We want to tell all photographers again - as we did in earlier picture story categories - just because the rules say you can submit up to twelve images in a category does not mean you have to," judge Jens Kristian Soegaard said. "Learn how to 'kill your darlings' and make the story flow."
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Each day at 1 p.m. EST during the judging The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, in partnership with NewsU, will host a live series of Webcasts from the Best Of Photojournalism judging. By watching, you'll get an inside look at the Still Photography and Web categories as they're judged, and Poynter's host Kenneth F. Irby will conduct a 15-minute live interview and conversation with a different BOP judge each day. In case you miss the daily Web cast they will be archived on the Poynter Web site. They're free, and you can enroll in the NewsU "course" online here.
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Photographers from more than 140 countries entered this year's Best Of Photojournalism competition, which has remained a free contest with no entry fees since its beginning. More than 4,000 people entered the contest, up more than 25 percent over last year, and there are more than 21,000 entries totally over 58.000 individual items (photogrpahs, clips, and Web sites).
Winners of each day's categories will be announced daily on the NPPA Web site, and the BOP's Photojournalists of the Year and the winner of Cliff Edom's "New America Award" will be announced at the end of the week.
Judges for this year's Best Of Photojournalism still photography categories are Dudley Brooks, formerly of The Washington Post and who is now with Ebony/Jet Magazines; Suzette Moyer of the St. Petersburg Times; Jens-Kristian Soegaard, the director of photography for Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten (the main daily newspaper in Denmark); Mary F. Calvert of The Washington Times; and Deanne Fitzmaurice of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Judges of BOP's Web categories are Ellyn Angelotti, an adjunct faculty member and editor for The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, FL; Michelle Maltais, a deputy editor of business and technology for the Los Angeles Times' Web site; Irwin Thompson, the deputy director of photography for The Dallas Morning News; Seth M. Gitner, a multimedia journalist for Roanoke.com and The Roanoke Times; and Thea Breite, multimedia photography editor for The Boston Globe.
NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism judging is sponsored this year by Apple, Canon USA, NPPA, and The Poynter Institute for Media Studies. On-site Still Photography judging is powered by Aperture.
