SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 16, 2009) – Tim Hussin of the University of Florida has added another top honor to his award-winning year of photography. Hussin is this year's winner in the annual William Randolph Hearst National Photojournalism Championship, held last week in San Francisco.
Six finalist student photojournalists were flown to San Francisco during the first week of June to compete against each other in on-the-spot assignments and picture stories. His winning essay topic this year was "rituals" and his singles were relating to architecture and cable cars. After two days of shooting and editing, judges picked Hussin as the winner from the six.
The first place winner in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program receives a $5,000 prize.
Brian L. Frank of San Francisco State University finished second with a $4,000 award, and John W. Adkisson of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill finished third with a $3,000 prize.
The three other photojournalism finalists were Bryan Anselm of Western Kentucky University, Carl Kiilsgaard of WKU, and Jake Stevens of WKU. The three finalists will each receive a $1,500 award.
The semi-finalists in the photojournalism competition will each receive a $1,000 award. They are Lane Christiansen of the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale; Lauren Cowart of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Courtney Dudley of the University of Texas at Austin; Jonathan Goering of the University of Kansas; Jason Johnson of the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale; Stephen Maturen of the University of Minnesota; Nicole Tung of New York University; and Chen Wang of the University of Florida.
Hussin joined NPPA in 2006 and graduated from the University of Florida in December. While he was in school he interned at The Rocky Mountain News, the Deseret News, the Monroe Evening News, and The Gainsville Sun.
Earlier this year, Hussin won the National Press Photographers Association's 2008 College Photographer of the Year title. Last November the student photojournalist won the University of Missouri School of Journalism's College Photographer of the Year title, an honor that comes with a National Geographic magazine internship. This summer Hussin is also doing an internship at MediaStorm, and then later he'll do the internship at Geographic as well as one at Washingtonpost.com.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program for college students has been funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation for 49 years, awarding students up to $500,000 each year in scholarships, grants, and stipends.
This year the photojournalism judges were Janet Reeves, formerly of The Rocky Mountain News in Denver; Ken Geiger, a senior editor at National Geographic magazine in Washington; and Michael C. Norseng, a photography editor for Esquire magazine in New York.
