Greg Lovett of The Palm Beach Post won first place and two Florida Press Club members, Jim and Susan Tiller of the Daytona Beach News-Journal, won honorable mentions in the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Photo of the Year contest. Here is the press release:
Greg Lovett of the Palm Beach Post was awarded first place in the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation Photo of the Year contest for his photo of a woman’s despair at the destruction of her home during Hurricane Ivan. Contest winners were announced Tuesday morning at the SNPA Annual Convention at The Breakers.
The photo contest recognizes and rewards excellence in photography at newspapers throughout the South. In its fourth year, the contest attracted 504 photos.
Lovett’s photo was judged to be the best because of its technical quality, originality and overall aesthetics. He received a $1,000 prize and a plaque.
Judges said, “The power of the photo is the expression on her [the woman’s] face which screams to us the depth of her loss. The viewer doesn’t need a caption to understand the disaster.”
Jim Mahoney of The Dallas (Texas) Morning News was awarded second place, a $500 prize and a plaque for his photo of a Pearl Harbor survivor overcome with emotion as he embraces an Iraq War veteran at a Veterans Day ceremony. Smiley Pool of The Dallas Morning News won third place, a $200 prize and a plaque for his photograph of the body of Pope John Paul II as it was carried through a crowd of mourners.
Photographs from eight photographers were awarded honorable mentions. They are:
- Dean Hoffmeyer of the Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va. – for a photograph of U.S. soldiers carrying a wounded comrade moments after an insurgent suicide bombing in a dining facility on a base in Iraq. Twenty-two people were killed in the blast.
- Ken Ruinard of the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail – for a photo of a Clemson University running back kicking a South Carolina player in the head while a state trooper jumps in. The brawl spanned 60 yards of the field.
- Eva Russo of the Times-Dispatch in Richmond – for a photograph taken at a housing project in Richmond’s East End. Judges said, “The family scene has many points of interest. Each person has their own body language. Though this is probably part of a larger story, the image is successful at capturing a moment in their life.”
- Jim Tiller of the Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal – for a photo of a great blue heron taking flight. Judges commented on the beautiful light and composition that shows the elegance of the bird, catching the morning’s first rays of sun.
- Susan Tiller of the Daytona Beach News-Journal – for a photograph taken at Daytona International Speedway. Tiller responded quickly to photograph a wreck in pit row when ordinarily everyone would be looking at the track.
- Bernard Troncale of the Birmingham (Ala.) News – for a photo taken during a funeral for a Zambian man who died from AIDS. Judges said, “The hands reaching out of the grave to receive the casket are so symbolic of the earth taking the victims of AIDS in Africa.”
- Walt Unks of the Durham Herald-Sun – for a photo of water flying off the shoes of a high school quarterback as he scores a touchdown.
- Craig Walker of the Denver Post – for a photo of a dog watching an incoming storm from a field in Colorado.
Judges for this year’s contest included: Toby Massey, retired photo editor with The Associated Press; Bernie Boston, publisher of the Bryce Mountain Courier in Virginia and a prize-winning photographer; Marcy Nighswander, a professor of photojournalism at Ohio University and a former Associated Press staff photographer; and Phil Sandlin, retired photo editor and photographer.