By Donald R. Winslow
© 2009 News Photographer magazine
ST. PETERSBURG, FL (March 26, 2009) – Freelance photojournalist Walter Astrada has been selected as the National Press Photographers Association's Best Of Photojournalism 2009 Photojournalist of the Year (Large Markets), and James Gregg of the Arizona Daily Star was named as the Best Of Photojournalism 2009 Photojournalist of the Year (Small Markets).
Astrada is currently based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"Using a Bgan [satellite telephone] I found out that I won. Wow!", Astrada wrote to News Photographer magazine. "As you can imagine, I'm really happy."
"It was an incredibly tough decision between two amazing portfolios containing two amazing bodies of work," Best Of Photojournalism judge Tim Rasmussen said about the Photojournalist of the Year (Large Market) category. Judges had an "intense" discussion about whether the portfolios of Astrada or runner-up Andrea Bruce of The Washington Post would finish first.
"The majority of the judges saw the first place portfolio as a series of chapters documenting the conditions and situations in Africa today. The intensity of the photography stood out. It was raw, it was immediate, but it was also very powerful and personal. We liked the fact that continuing to do stories like this keeps a light on the important topics that have existed for several years," Rasmussen said.
The choice of the two top photojournalists came at the end of the final round of judging in this year's contest, which has been hosted all week by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
The third place Best Of Photojournalism Photojournalist of the Year (Large Markets) is Kuni Takahashi of the Chicago Tribune.
Judges also picked one of Astrada's photographs of a young African boy screaming as he saw Kenyan police approaching the door of his home in Nairobi as the contest's Best Of Show photograph. The same picture also won third place in the contest's International News category.
About the Best Of Show photograph, judge Dudley Brooks said, "It sums up a lot of what went on during the elections in Kenya. Innocent people were caught up in the middle of this. it's a strong photograph and very well composed, considering the moment. The look of fear on the kid's face is compelling."
Astrada has worked as a freelancer shooting for Agence France-Press in the Dominican Republic from 2005 through 2006 and was represented by World Picture News. In 2006 he moved to Spain, and currently he's working as a freelancer in Uganda. He started his photojournalism career in 1996 as a staff photographer at La Nacion newspaper in Argentina, and in 1999 he spent a year traveling around Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru working on a personal project about "Faith." In 1999 he began shooting for the Associated Press in Bolivia and later covered stories for AP in Argentina, Paraguay, and World Cup Korea-Japan in 2002. He returned to the Caribbean in 2003 shooting for AP until he switched to AFP.
The portfolio that won Astrada the top honors in NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism competition today also won first place in Spot News in this year's World Press Photo contest, and additionally his work was recognized this year with the 2009 Alexia Foundation Grant.
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While he won the top spot this year, last year James Gregg was the first runner-up for the Photojournalist of the Year (Small Markets) title when Denny Simmons of the Evansville Courier & Press won.
"The first place portfolio [in the Small Markets category] had the strongest single images and picture story," Best Of Photojournalism judge Deanne Fitzmaurice said. "The story about a homeless man going back to school was an excellent, well-developed story with several photographs that showed important moments in the man's life. Overall the portfolio had a good range of emotion and the judges felt the pictures were strong and consistent."
"It was an interesting journey of discovery for me last year," Gregg told News Photographer magazine. "I did a lot of things I've never done before in photojournalism. A lot of it was exploring northern Mexico. I hadn't taken that jump yet. I had great support from my leaders here at the paper and the people on staff who were willing to support me, so that I could just go to Mexico for a week to see what I could find. And I found photographs that spoke to me. I was able to explore all these things that were in driving distance of Tucson but are really a whole world away. I always tried to do something different in the last year, to see what might come of it."
Gregg has been at the paper since 2006. Before that he interned at The Greeley Tribune in Colorado, and worked with a Spanish language weekly start-up (La Tribuna) where he was both a photographer and a reporter. Before that he interned with Rich Clarkson and Associates LLC in Denver for six months. In college at the University of Kansas he majored in Spanish and Latin American Studies and finished his studies at the University of Costa Rica, which his where he developed an interest in photography.
In 2008 Gregg was named the Arizona Photographer of the Year by the Arizona Press Club. He lives in Tucson, and he's been an NPPA member since 2004.
The runner-up Best Of Photojournalism Photojournalist of the Year (Small Markets) is Greg Kahn of the Naples Daily News, and third place is Mary F. Calvert of The Washington Times. (Calvert was the first place winner of this category in 2007.) Honorable mention was awarded to Michael Holahan of the Augusta Chronicle.
Today the Best Of Photojournalism judges took more than four hours to decide the winners in the Photojournalist of the Year (Small Markets) category, and about another four hours to pick the Photojournalist of the Year (Large Markets).
Two other major awards in the Best Of Photojournalism competition each year are Cliff Edom's "New America Award" and the Sports Photojournalist of the Year title.
Western Kentucky University student Carl Kiilsgaard was picked to receive Cliff Edom's "New America Award" for his long-term documentary essay on some families living in Whitesburg, KY. They are the sons and daughters of coal miners and have grown up dealing with the problems of living in impoverished eastern Kentucky, where it is growing more difficult these days to find steady work and to raise their children.
The Edom Award recognizes excellence in photographic storytelling about rural or ethnically diverse people. It honors the contributions made to photojournalism by Clifton C. Edom (1907-1991), a University of Missouri School of Journalism professor, who co-founded the Missouri Photographic Workshop with his wife, Vilia, in 1949.
Quinn Rooney of Getty Images AsiaPac was picked as the Sports Photojournalist of the Year for his portfolio of pictures that the judges selected for their "great combination of peak action, strong photographs, variety, and a strong edit." Getty Images Sports Photojournalist of the Year category with their photographers Al Bello finishing second and Cameron Spencer finishing third.
A new video about the judging of NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism 2009's still photography and Web categories at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is now available online. It was created by Maurice Rivenbark of the St. Petersburg Times.
This year 3,700 journalists from 147 countries submitted 53,000 still images, video, and Web entries in the 2009 Best Of Photojournalism competition.
Judges in the Still Photography categories used Apple's Aperture this week to view and select the winning images.
Read about the picture stories judges picked as winners earlier in the week
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This year's judges for the Best Of Photojournalism still photography categories are Dudley Brooks, the photography director for Ebony/Jet Publishing; 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winner Renée C. Byer of the Sacramento Bee; Amsterdam-based photojournalist Peter Dejong of the Associated Press; and Tim Rasmussen, the assistant managing editor of photography for The Denver Post. California-based freelance sports photojournalist Donald Miralle, who was one of the judges for the first three days of the competition, had to return home for a family emergency. He has been replaced on the judging panel by a substitute judge, 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Deanne Fitzmaurice. She is a member of NPPA's BOP Contest Committee, and was a BOP judge for the contest last year too.
Judging is also taking place in the Web categories of NPPA's 2009 Best Of Photojournalism competition this week at The Poynter Institute. Winning Web entries are being posted online as the judging progresses throughout this week.
Best Of Photojournalism judging at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, the contest's host site, has been coordinated by Thomas Kenniff, who is NPPA's director of sales and contests, and NPPA's executive director Straight, along with Poynter's Kenny Irby and Al Tompkins.
The Best Of Photojournalism competition and judging is sponsored by Apple, Canon, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, the St. Petersburg Times, and the National Press Photographers Association.
