National Press Photographers Association

Three Time Winner: Darren Durlach Named Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer Of The Year

 

NORMAN, OK (March 16, 2011) – Judges for the Television Photography categories of NPPA's 2011 Best Of Photojournalism contest today picked Darren Durlach as this year's Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year.

This is the third year in a row Durlach has won the top honor, a feat that's only been done once before.

When he realized he was the Ernie Crisp winner the photojournalist responded, "I owe this all to the Workshop. It all started here."

Durlach's winning stories were shot when he worked for WBFF-TV in Baltimore. Durlach moved to The Boston Globe in December 2010 where today he is a Senior Multimedia Producer.

Only John C.P. Goheen has won the Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year honor three times in a row: in 1989, 1990, and in 1991 when he worked first for KOMO-TV in Seattle then for KMGH-TV in Denver. While there are several two-time winners, no one else has won it three.

Durlach won all three of his photographer of the year titles while working for WBFF-TV's News Director, Scott Livingston.

"He's an outstanding talent," Livingston told News Photographer magazine today.

"He inspires others to do their best. What separates him from everyone else is his ability to connection with people. He understands moments and he understands what's compelling. He's a bright guy."

"That is fantastic! I'm so thrilled to have him here at the Globe," Durlach's new boss, Thea Breite, the Senior Multimedia Editor for video for The Boston Globe, said today.

"This was a great hire! I feel so lucky to have gotten him. When I checked his references someone said 'He's the whole pacakge,' and not only is he a great photojournalist he's a pleasure to work with. We are looking forward to really great work from him – and he's already improved our video tremendously. We're all learning from him and he's learning from us."

Breite said when she started searching for someone to fill the new job at the Globe, she was looking around to see if there was someone out there who had television news experience but also has the eye and heart of a newspaper photojournalist.

"I was looking for someone who really wants to tell the kinds of stories we tell," she said today, "and I found Darren because I started looking online to see who's doing something good on TV and I saw that his work was head and tails above anything else out there. I saw a video where he talked about how he shoots spot news, and right there I could see his work ethic and knew that this was the kind of guy we wanted to hire."

Contest judge Darren Brown said there were several deserving TV POY candidates this year. "However, the one picked to reign as 2011 POY we felt clearly stood out above the rest. It's easy to look at spot news as 'have-to' assignments when we'd much rather be shooting cool long form features, but the winner saw spot news events as opportunities. The spot news entries were crisp, and the features drew us in and made us want to meet the subjects ourselves. Storytelling at its finest. Nicely done."

Matt Mrozinski is this year's runner-up to Durlach. His winning stories were shot when he worked for WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, VA. Since then he's moved and today he shoots for KING-TV in Seattle. Mrozinski is a six-year veteran of television news, and in 2009 he led WAVY-TV to their first-ever Station of the Year (Medium Markets) title. He's already accumulated more than 30 regional awards and he is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow award winner.

The other finalists for this year's Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year title were:

During his career Durlach has also won 11 Emmy's, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and AP and SPJ honors. He came to WBFF-TV after a "career changing" NPPA workshop, the NewsVideo Workshop in Norman where he was on faculty today when he learned of his third win. Before Baltimore, Durlach was chief photographer for WVIR-TV in Charlottesville, VA, where his career started as a production assistant after graduating from college at Radford University.

(Watch a video of the winner announcement here.)

 

Other Winners

Also today judges announced winners in other Television Photography categories.

In the Solo Video Journalist story category, first place is Michelle Michael of American Forces Network Europe (AFNE) for "Painter in the Park." Second place is Greg Bledsoe of KNSD-TV, and third place is also Bledsoe.

In the Team category, first place is KARE-TV for "Reclaiming Their Heritage." Second place is the staff of WBFF-TV in Baltimore for "Blizzard Hell," and third place is WAVY-TV's Matt Mrozinski and Aaron Kurtz for "Earl." An honorable mention was awarded to KUSA-TV's Tom Cole, Eric Kehe, Byron Reed, Ben McKee, and Bazi Kanani for "Gift Of Sight."

In the In-Depth category, first place is Jonathan Malat of KARE-TV in Minneapolis for "Welcoming Back Their Angeles." Second place is Rob Collett of KTUL-TV in Tulsa, OK, for "Animal ER," and third place is Collett for "Miracle Bear." Honorable mentions were awarded to Doug Burgess of KING-TV in Seattle for "A More Complete Picture," and to Corky Scholl of KUSA-TV in Denver for "Circle of Death."

In the Sports Feature category, first place is Darren Durlach of WBFF-TV in Baltimore for "The Country Boy." Second place is Anne Herbst of KUSA-TV in Denver for "Kyle Kasper," and third place is Andy Sugden of WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, MI, for "Survival by Polo." Honorable mentions were awarded to Michael DelGiudice of WNBC-TV in New York for "Absolutely No Prayer," and to Sugden for "One Tough Mother."

The winner of NPPA's Photojournalism Award for Reporting this year is Boyd Huppert of KARE-TV in Minneapolis. It's the fifth time Huppert has won the honor since it was established in 2006. Peter Rosen is the only other winner, in 2008.

The runner-up for NPPA's Photojournalism Award for Reporting this year is Chris Vanderveen of KUSA-TV in Denver. The finalists included Jeff Abel of WBFF-TV in Baltimore; Nelson Garcia of KUSA-TV in Denver; and John Sharify of KING-TV in Seattle.

The 2011 Best Of Photojournalism competition is sponsored this year by Canon as well as by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, ibiblio, Camera Bits, Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, and the St. Petersburg Times.

Read about earlier winners in other categories

 

 

 

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