From (based on a true story) ©David Alan Harvey

Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey has won Best Photography Book honors in the 2013 POYi competition.

Harvey won for “(based on a true story),” an experimental book comprising a collection of images–part true, and part fictional–of a journey through Rio that “explode with color, heat, humidity, sex, more sex, danger, fear, chaos, more chaos,” according to the Burn magazine Web site.

Finalists included six other books–”Brooklyn Buzz,” by Alessandro Cosmelli & Gaia Light; “England Uncensored,” by Peter Dench; “The Invisible City,” by Irene Kung, Ludovico Pratesi, and Francine Prose; “The Wrong Side: Living on the Mexican Border,” by Jerome Sessini; “In the Car with R,” by Rafal Milach & Huldar Breidfjord; and “Violentology: A Manual of the Columbian Conflict,” by Stephen Ferry.

The jurors also gave special recognition to Marc Asnin for his book, “Uncle Charlie,” and to “Bosnia: 1992-1995,” edited by Jon Jones.

POYi jurors have been selecting winners in Editing Division categories over the last several days. Winners so far include the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which took first place in the News & Issue Story Editing category for “What Obama Didn’t See.” The story is the print version of a multimedia project titled “As I Am” by Alan Spearman, which was featured in the January 2013 issue of PDN.)

National Geographic magazine won first place in the News & Issue Story Editing–Magazine category for “Nile Journey,” a story about Egypt photographed by Alex Majoli that ran in the magazine’s May 2012 issue under the title “Egypt in the Moment.”

The Washington Post won Feature Story Editing–Newspaper for “A Siberian Pictorial,” featuring images by Sebastião Salgado.

Related:
Notable Books of 2012: Part 1 (includes a review of (Based on a True Story) by David Alan Harvey)
Picture Story: A Guided Tour of Poverty in Memphis (about Alan Spearman’s “As I Am” project)
Paolo Pellegrin Named POYi Freelance Photographer of the Year
Paul Hansen of Dagens Nyheter Wins POYi Newspaper Photographer of the Year

©Paolo Pellegrin

Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin has been named Freelance Photographer of the Year at the Picture of the Year International competition. Runners up were Tomas Munita, the second place winner, and third place winner Paolo Marchetti.

Pellegrin’s portfolio of 50 images included selections from projects that mostly explore the wrenching consequences of economic hardship and political and military tensions. The projects include a story about the underside of Miami, for which Pellegrin rode along on police patrols; a crime-ridden section of Rochester, New York (ditto);  recent political changes in Cuba, and two separate stories about Gaza–including one about the effects of the Israeli blockade, the other about the lingering consequences of Israel’s attacks on the territory in 2008 and 2009..

The portfolio is a study in the type of photography for which Pellegrin is well-known: unflinching reportage combined with layered, poetic images that blur the lines between documentary and art.

In other POYi Freelance Division categories judged last week, Javier Monzano won first place in News Picture Story–Freelance/Agency for his coverage of the siege of Aleppo, Syria.

Paolo Marchetti won first place for Issue Reporting Picture Story for his project about the deplorable conditions in juvenile prisons in Latin America.

Photographer David Chancellor won the World Understanding Award for his project called Hunters, about big game safaris in Africa. It explores “the complex relationship that exists between man and animal, the hunter and the hunted, as both struggle to adapt to our changing environments.”

Photographer Arnau Bach won the Community Awareness Award for his project called Paris Suburbs, exploring conditions behind the social unrest in the city’s poorest and most segregated suburbs.

Brett Stirton of Getty Images won the Environmental Awareness award for his story about the illegal ivory trade, including its causes and consequences.

POYi jurors will select Editing Division winners this week, and conclude with Multimedia Division winners next week.

Related:
Ezra Shaw Named POYI Sports Photographer of the Year
Paul Hansen of Dagens Nyheter Wins POYi Newspaper Photographer of the Year
Associated Press Wins Top Portrait Prizes at POYi
POYi Announces Campaign, Spot News, and Feature Category Winners

Gabrielle Douglas on the beam at the 2012 Olympics in London. ©Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Ezra Shaw of Getty Images has been named Sports Photographer of the Year in the 70th annual Pictures of the Year International competition. His winning portfolio includes dramatic action and feature photos from a a wide range of sports: cycling, snow boarding, America’s Cup sailing, baseball, football, and the 2012 summer Olympics.

Quinn Rooney of Getty Images and freelancer Donald Miralle were first and second runners up, respectively, for Sports Photographer of the Year.

POYi jurors awarded first prize for Sports Editing to The New York Times, for a story titled “Their Golden Years,” a portrait-driven story about U.S. athletes who competed in the 1948 Olympics in London.

In other POYi developments, Swedish photographer Casper Hedberg won top prize in the Sports Picture Story category for a story about Afghanistan’s national sport, called buzkashi. The description accompanying Hedberg’s pictures says: “Every Friday, thousands of spectators goes to the fields north of Kabul to witness this grand spectacle in which hundreds of men on horseback [fight] for a dead calf or a carcass of a lamb…It’s crowded, sweaty and speedy.”

Judging for the POYi Reportage division began yesterday. Iwan Baan’s aerial photo of the blackout in lower Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy took first prize in the Science & Natural History category.

Other Reportage division categories will be judged through Sunday, culminating with the selection of Freelance Photographer of the Year. Judging for the Editing Division prizes begins Monday, February 18. The final round of judging–which is for the Multimedia Division prizes–begins February 22.

Here’s a re-cap of top winners for each category so far:

Newspaper Photographer of the Year: Paul Hansen of Dagens Nyheter, Sweden.
Spot News: Manu Brabo, AP
General News: Bernat Armangue, AP
Feature: Ng Han Guan, AP
Newspaper Picture Story: Kevin Sutherland, The Sunday Times, Johannesburg (unconfirmed)
Issue Reporting Picture Story: Liz O. Baylen, The Los Angeles Times
Feature Picture Story: Dave Weatherwax, The Herald, Jasper, Indiana
Campaign 2012: Carolyn Kaster, AP
Presidential Campaign 2012: Brian Snyder, Reuters
Campaign Picture Story: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
Portrait: Daniel Ochoa de Olza, AP
Portrait Series: Oded Balilty, AP
Sports Action: Jessica Hill, AP
Recreational Sports: Jessica Rinaldi, freelance
Sports Feature: Mike Roemer, AP
Olympic Action: Alberto Pizzolo, AFP
Olympic Feature: Quinn Rooney, Getty Images

Related:

Paul Hansen of Dagens Nyheter Wins POYi Newspaper Photographer of the Year

Associated Press Wins Top Portrait Prizes at POYi

POYi Announces Campaign, Spot News, and Feature Category Winners

©Associated Press/Jessica Hill

Wire service photographers are dominating the sports division prizes of POYi, as the judging moves into its second week. POYi judges selected News Division winners last week, including the top prize of Newspaper Photographer of the Year, won by Paul Hansen of Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Jessica Hill of AP won first prize in the sports action category for a photo of a foul contact between two WNBA players that shows one of the players driving the basketball into the face of the other. The image was shot last June.

Jessica Rinaldi, a Boston-based freelancer, won the top prize in the Recreational Sports category for an image of competitors helping a a woman over an wall in Vermont’s “Tough Mudder” obstacle race last July.

The top Sports Feature prize went to Mike Roemer of Associated Press for his image of Donald Driver of the Green Bay Packers celebrating a touchdown in a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars last October.

Alberto Pizzoli of AFP won first prize in the Olympic Action category for his gracefully symmetrical image of two fencers attacking each other at the women’s epee semifinal bout at the London 2012 Olympics.

Quinn Rooney of Getty Images won top prize in the Olympic Feature category for a photo of British cyclist Dani King celebrating a gold medal and world record in the women’s team pursuit track cycling event, also at the 2012 Olympics in London.

News Division category winners announced at the end of last week included:

General News: Bernat Armangue of the Associated Press, for his photograph of a Palestinian man kissing the hand of a dead relative in the morgue of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 18, 2012.

News Picture Story (Newspaper): The winning entry, a series of images showing the police massacre of striking miners last summer at South Africa’s Lonmin Marikana platinum mine, appears to have been shot by Kevin Sutherland of the Johannesburg Sunday Times. PDN has not been able to confirm the photographer’s identity, however. (POYi posts the winning entries, but will not announce the names of the winners until all the judging is completed at the end of February.)

Issue Reporting Picture Story: Liz O. Baylen of the Los Angeles Times won first price for “Life Changing Dose,” about the overuse and abuse of prescription painkillers, and its consequences for people’s lives.

Feature Picture Story: Dave Weatherwax of the Jasper Herald won first prize for a story about an Indiana family’s hog butchering tradition.

Winning images are posted on the POYi web site.

http://poyi.org/70/

Related:
Associated Press Wins Top Portrait Prizes at POYi

POYi Announces Campaign, Spot News, and Feature Category Winners

POYi Portrait winner ©Associate Press/Daniel Ochoa de Olza

Associated Press has picked up two first prize awards in the Portrait and Portrait Series categories of the 70th annual POYi competition. The wire service now has 5 first prize awards after three days of POYI judging.

AP photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza won top prize in the Portrait category for a very pirate-like image of Spanish bullfighter Juan Jose Padilla, made just before the matador’s ritual entrance to the bullring in Brihuega, Spain last April. Second prize went to freelance photographer Louie Palu. PDN has not yet been able to identify the third place winner. (POYi posts winning images, but does not announce the photographers’ names until all judging is completed at the end of February.)

AP photographer Oded Balilty won first prize in the Portrait Series category for his photographs of Palestinian stone throwers–men who use slingshots against Israeli soldiers. Balilty, who is based in Tel Aviv, was able to get the images because of his extensive knowledge of the region, and network of local contacts.

Second and third prize in the Portrait Series category went to photographer Magnus Wennman, a staff photographer at the Aftonbladet newspaper in Sweden, and Polish freelance photographer Maciek Nabrdalik, respectively.

Earlier this week, AP won top prizes in the Spot News, Campaign 2012, and Feature image categories.

All contest categories, with links to winning entries so far, are on the POYi Web site.

Related:
POYi Announces Campaign, Spot News, and Feature Category Winners

©Associated Press/Ng Han Guan

Manu Brabo of Associated Press (AP) won first prize in the Spot News category of the Pictures of the Year International competition, as POYi’s judging marathon got under way this week. Brian Snyder of Reuters, Carolyn Kaster of AP, and Chip Somodevilla of Getty Images, all won top prizes in campaign photography categories. Ng Han Guan (AP) won the top prize for Feature image.

Those categories are all part of the POYi News Division. The remaining News Division categories,  including Newspaper Photographer of the Year, will be judged this week. Categories for the Sports and Reportage divisions will be judged next week, while Editing Division and Multimedia division categories will be judged between February 18 and February 26.

Pictures from the war in Syria dominated the Spot News category.  Brabo won the top prize for his photograph of a grieving man cradling the body of his son, who was killed in an attack by the Syrian army in Aleppo on October 3. Second and third prize winners were Goran Tomasevic of Reuters and and Narciso Contreras, who is represented by Polaris. Both won for images from Syria.

Somodevilla won the top prize in the Campaign Picture Story category for a portfolio titled “The Last Campaign,” featuring images that captured the spirit and energy of President Barack Obama’s last weeks on the campaign trail before the November 2012 election. Runners up were Adam Dean of Panos Pictures and Brian Snyder of Reuters. (POYi posts the winning images, but does not announce names of winners until all judging is completed.)

Snyder won first prize in the Presidential Campaign 2012 category for a single image of Mitt Romney and his aids reflected in a window at a campaign event in North Canton, Ohio. The image shows Romney looking isolated and pensive, with his campaign staffers swirling about him. Runners up in the category were Callie Shell and Damon Winter.

Carolyn Kaster won first prize in the Campaign 2012 category, for an image of a female biker flirting at an Ohio diner with Vice President Joe Biden. The biker, who sidled up to Biden, appears to be sitting in Biden’s lap (though she actually wasn’t). As she and Biden whisper to each other, her two companions sit nearby, looking askance at each other. Second place prize went to Andrew Harnik of the Washington Times. Third place went to Allison Joyce of Getty Images.

Ng Han Guan won the Feature image prize for a photograph of glum-looking North Korean commuters, photographed through the window of a city bus in the capital, Pyongyang. (AP has had unprecedented access to North Korea since it set up a bureau there more than a year ago.) Andrew Biraj of Reuters won second place, while Aaron Huey took third place.

Portrait and Portrait Series categories will be judged today.

©Liz Hingley

Photographer Liz Hingley has won the 2012 PhotoPhilanthropy Activist Award in the professional category, organizers of the competition announced last week. She will receive $15,000 for a story she shot for Save The Children about a UK family living in their first house after residing for three generations in caravans.

“This series of photographs was taken during two years of close collaboration” with the family of two parents and seven children, Hingley explained on her entry form. “I formed a trusting relationship….in order to develop a more subtle visual language, which provides new ways of representing the stories of both struggle and resilience.” The photographer noted that it was the first time Save the Children “was able to use real peoples’ stories to communicate the meaning and experience of genuine deprivation in a wealthy country.”

The PhotoPhilanthropy Activist Awards is an annual competition to recognize bodies of work by photographers who collaborate with non-profit organizations to affect social change. Runners up in the professional category this year were Gwenn  Dubourthoumieuon, who shot a story about copper mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo for The Carter Center; and Sara Anjargolian, who shot a story about poverty in Armenia on behalf  of Tufenkian Foundations.

Other 2012 Activist Award winners included Kai Löffelbein, who won in the student category for work he shot for Society for Community Organization; and Natasha Kharlamova in the amateur category for work she completed for Our Sunny World. Löffelbein and Kharlamova will receive $2,000 each.

The judges for the competition included documentary photographers Phil Borges and John Isaac; Denise Wolff, photo book editor for Aperture; Alexa Dilworth, publishing director and senior editor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; and Margaret Aguirre, global communications director for International Medical Corps.

See more information about the 2012 contest and winners. See a slideshow of Hingley’s entry here.

A still from “Too Young to Wed,” by Stephanie Sinclair and Jessica Dimmock, both of VII Photo.

Stephanie Sinclair and Jessica Dimmock won first place in the Online Feature category of the 2013 World Press Photo Multimedia Contest for “Too Young to Wed.” The documentary multimedia project was produced for the Web and featured Sinclair’s images with motion work by Dimmock. It explores the cultural practice of allowing older men to marry girls under the age of 18 in countries like Ethiopia, Yemen and Afghanistan.

The World Press Photo organization announced its multimedia awards in three categories today in Amsterdam. All first-place winners for the 2013 Multimedia Contest will receive a cash award of 1,500 euros. Second and third place winners will receive a Golden Eye Award and a diploma.

The Too Young to Wed website is a partnership between the United Nations Population Fund and VII Photo. Other winners in the Online Feature category were Liz O. Baylen of the Los Angeles Times for “Dying for Relief: Bitter Pills,” which focuses on overcoming addiction to prescription pills; and Yang Enze of Southern Metropolis Daily for “Dreams on Freewheels” about seven members of China’s Disabled Track Cycling Team, who competed in the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

World Press Photo awarded Pep Bonet of Noor Images first place in the Online Short category for “Into the Shadows.” The online film focuses on the struggles of immigrants living in Johannesburg. Second place in this category went to Arkasha Stevenson of the Los Angeles Times for “Living with a Secret,” which explores gender identity in children. Jérôme Sessini of Magnum Photos won third place for his online short “Aleppo Battleground” about members of the Free Syria Army.

The third category of the World Press Photo Multimedia Contest was Interactive Documentary, which recognizes interactive online projects that feature a “combination of photography and/or film, with animation, graphics, illustrations, sound or text.” First place was awarded to Miquel Dewever-Plana and Isabelle Fougère for “Alma, a Tale of Violence” about gang violence in Guatemala. Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison won second place for “Bear 71” about a female grizzly bear; and Claire O’Neill, photo editor at National Public Radio (NPR) won third place for “Lost and Found: Discover a Black-and-White Era in Full Color” about a photo historian who found a collection of photos taken in the 1930s in the trash. An honorable mention in this category went to Jake Price for “UnknownSpring,” which chronicles a Japanese community recovering from the tsunami.

The jury members for this year’s World Press Photo Multimedia Contest were Keith W. Jenkins of NPR, photojournalists Samuel Bollendorff and Susan Meiselas, Kang Kyung-ran of Frontline News Service, writer and poet Patrick Mudekereza, Bjarke Myrthu of Storyplanet.com, Caspar Sonnen of IDFA DocLab and Alan Stoga of Zemi Communications.

This is the third year that World Press Photo, a non-profit which supports visual journalism through educational programs, grants and awards, has honored multimedia storytelling. Michiel Munneke, managing director of World Press Photo, noted that “with the multimedia competition we are trying to do justice to what we see happening in the field. Our ambition is to inspire photographers to move forward and explore new territories.”

To see a complete list of winners and to view the winning projects, visit www.worldpressphoto.org.

Related Articles:

Samuel Aranda Wins 2012 World Press Photo of the Year

World Press Photo Multimedia Winners Announced

Stanley Greene has won the 2013 Aftermath Grant for his proposal to create a new project, “The Rise of Islam in the Caucasus,” The Aftermath Project organization announced today. The Aftermath Grant, worth $20,000 in 2013, supports photographers whose work addresses the legacy of conflict.

In making the announcement, The Aftermath Project noted that Greene is the first “conflict photographer,” as Greene is widely known, to win an Aftermath Project grant. Greene is a member of the photographer collective NOOR Images.

Finalists for the grant include Gwenn Dubourthoumieu, who is pursuing an ongoing project about sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Boryana Katsarova, who is working in post-conflict Kosovo, concentrating on the city of Kosovska Mitrovia; Isabel Kiesewetter, who is working on a project that investigates how former military bases in East and West Germany are presently being utilized; and Martino Lombezzi, whose project examines the impact of the border fence between Lebanon and Israel has on local populations.

Greene’s proposal and those of the finalists were selected from 234 entries from around the world.

The first round of judging for the grant was completed by Aftermath Project Founder Sara Terry and Aperture editor Denise Wolff. Terry and photographers Nina Berman and Eros Hoagland selected the winner and finalists.

The 2013 Aftermath Project grant is supported by The Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Related: Anatomy of a Successful Grant Application
$20,000 Aftermath Project Grant for 2012 Awarded to Andrew Lichtenstein
Look3 Report: Stanley Greene on Luck, Film and Supporting Young Photographers
Eros Hoagland Wins $20K Grant for Conflict Photographers

The five publishers responsible for the European Publisher’s Award for Photography are now accepting submissions for their 2013 competition. The award, which gives one photographer the opportunity to publish a book with publishers in France, Spain, Great Britain, Germany and Italy, celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2013.

Past winners include Bruce Gilden, Simon Norfolk, Paolo Pellegrin, Jacob Aue Sobol, Davide Monteleone and, most recently, Alessandro Imbriaco.

The five publishers who give the award are: Actes Sud (France), Blume (Spain), Dewi Lewis Publishing (Great Britain), Kehrer Verlag (Germany) and Peliti Associati (Italy).

The competition is open to photographers worldwide. The deadline for submissions January 31, 2013. For rules and entry instructions see Dewi Lewis Publishing’s site here.