NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism Still Photography Judging Underway

 

DURHAM, NC (April 13, 2011) – Judging has started in some of the largest Still Photography categories in NPPA's 2011 Best Of Photojournalism contest this week using new online technology developed by PhotoShelter, NPPA president Sean D. Elliot said today.

This is the first year NPPA's Still Photography categories are being reviewed online by teams of judges who are experts in specific categories and the judging is taking place virtually, instead of judges gathering together for a week or more as a group in a conference room.

Elliot said as this year's judging begins there are more judges looking at fewer categories, and the images are being given more viewing time. Once this initial stage is done, in a week or so, the the images that have been selected as finalists will be uploaded to a centralized server and a "core" judging team with gather virtually, via conference call or Skype, to judge the remaining contenders one by one and pick the top winners.

"Thanks to a partnership with PhotoShelter all of this is possible," Elliot said. "PhotoShelter founders Allen Murabayashi and Grover Sanschagrin have been working with the committee since the decision was made to do a virtual judging to adapt systems for this purpose. They’ve tested and fine-tuned to the point they’re ready to go. NPPA cannot thank them enough for this effort and looks forward to working with them as we take this system forward."

An impressive selection of photojournalists, editors, and award winners have been gathered by NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism contest committee to judge the winners in this year's Still Photography categories.

James K. Colton is the photography editor for Sports Illustrated magazine. Colton has worked for the Associated Press and was the director of photography for Newsweek. He serves on the board of directors of the Eddie Adams Workshop, and in 2008 he was NPPA's Magazine Picture Editor of the Year.

John Davidson is a partner in Creative Eye Consulting. Formerly the assistant managing editor for photography at The Dallas Morning News, he's also worked for the Rolla Daily News, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, the Palm Beach Post, the Everett Herald, and the Anchorage Daily News. Today he teaches journalism at the University of Maryland, and he's been a visiting faculty member at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies and the American Press Institute. During his 18 years in Dallas the photography staff won four Pulitzer Prizes.

Michel du Cille is director of photography for The Washington Post and he's a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his photography. A former NPPA board of directors member, du Cille is a graduate of Indiana University and has a masters degree from Ohio University's School of Visual Communication (VisCom). Before The Washington Post he was a staff photographer for the Miami Herald and before that, the Gainesville Times.

Amel Emric is an Associated Press staff photojournalist in the Sarajevo bureau. He's a veteran conflict photographer who has covered Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and he's covered refugees and ethnic violence against minorities.

James Gregg is a multimedia journalist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, and in 2009 he was NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism's Photojournalist of the Year (Smaller Markets). He's a two-time Arizona Photographer of the Year, and in 2009 he won two regional Emmy Awards for multimedia and video. Gregg has been an adjunct instructor at the University of Arizona School of Journalism and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.

Naomi Halperin is the director of photography for The News Journal in Wilmington, DE. She's a graduate of Syracuse University. For 10 years she was the photography editor for The Morning Call in Allentown, PA, and she worked at the Ocean County Observer as a staff photographer and photo assignment editor. Halperin has served as a board member for the Associated Press Photo Managers organization as well as being their conference programming chair, and for two years she was a juror for the Pulitzer Prize competition.

Kenny Irby is the Visual Journalism Group Leader for The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, FL, where he teaches photojournalism leadership, ethics, and management. While working as a photography editor and photography director at Newsday, Irby contributed to three Pulitzer Prize-winning projects, and he's the 1999 recipient of NPPA's Joseph Costa Award. Irby is a graduate of Boston University and a multicultural management fellow at the University of Missouri.

Ted Kirk is a staff photographer and photography editor for the Lincoln Journal Star in Lincoln, NE. Originally from Sioux Falls, SD, he is a University of Nebraska graduate in zoology and physiology who got into photojournalism by starting to shoot pictures for the school's student newspaper, and then later as a full-time stringer for United Press International.

Bill Luster, a staff photojournalist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, is an NPPA past president and a 1976 Pulitzer Prize winner. In Louisville he's been the chief photographer, a picture editor, and at one time the photography director. Before Louisville he was a staff photographer for the Glasgow Daily Times, his Kentucky hometown newspaper. He has covered 45 Kentucky Derby races, four political conventions, and several U.S. presidents as well as shooting stories for National Geographic magazine and National Geographic Traveler. His magazine work also includes Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Life, and The New York Times Magazine. He's been the Kentucky Photographer of the Year five times, and among his many NPPA awards in 2010 he was awarded NPPA's highest honor, the Joseph A. Sprague Award.

Melissa Lyttle is a staff photojournalist for the St. Petersburg Times and an NPPA board member. She is the founder of APhotoADay, an online photography community, and she's a graduate of the University of Florida. Before St. Petersburg she was a staff photographer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and her photography has been recognized by POYi, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, Best Of Photojournalism, the Alexia Foundation, the Casey Medal, and UNICEF.

Brad Mangin is a freelance sports photojournalist based in San Francisco and he shoots regularly for Sports Illustrated and Major League Baseball Photos. A freelancer since 1993, he formerly shot for The National Sports Daily after graduating from San Jose State University and Mangin has covered the past 11 World Series. He is a founding partner and the managing editor for SportsShooter.com.

Josh Meltzer is a photojournalist in residence at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green where he teaches photojournalism and multimedia storytelling. Formerly he was a staff photographer and multimedia journalist for The Roanoke Times before he accepted a Fulbright Scholarship in 2008 to work and teach in Mexico. In 2006 he was NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism's Photojournalist of the Year (Small Markets). Later this year he's taking a leave from WKU to go to graduate school at the University of Miami in Florida to study multimedia journalism.

Smiley N. Pool is the chief photographer and photography coach for the Houston Chronicle and a member of NPPA's board of directors. During his two-decade career he's covered Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, Pope John Paul II, seven Olympic games, Super Bowl and NBA finals, presidents, and many international news events. He was a contributor to The Dallas Morning News' coverage of Hurricane Katrina which won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, and he's a seven-time winner of NPPA's Regional Photographer of the Year honor. He's been a photographer for the Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News, Colorado Springs Gazette, and the Suburban Journal Newspapers in St. Louis.

Janet Reeves is the assistant managing editor for multimedia and photography at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. During the last decade Reeves, an NPPA member since 1984, led the photography staff of The Rocky Mountain News to three Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage of the Columbine massacre, coverage of Colorado's wildfires, and photojournalist Todd Heisler's groundbreaking "Final Salute." When the Rocky shut its doors in 2009, Reeves joined the staff of The Washington Times until owners shed the print staff and took the paper online. Since then, she's led the Star Tribune's award-winning visual journalists.

Sherman Williams is the assistant managing editor for visual journalist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel since 2000. A graduate of Ohio State University, Williams has been a staff photographer at the Ogden Standard-Examiner, and a photographer and assistant picture editor for The Hartford Courant. Before Milwaukee, he was the suburban photography editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1989 he was the Connecticut Newspaper Photographer of the Year, and he's been a guest faculty member at the American Press Institute and The Maynard Institute teaching picture editing, ethics, and covering diverse communities. He's served as the president of the Associated Press Photo Managers, and chaired the National Association of Black Journalists Task Force in 2003.

 

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.

 

 

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