Statement of Judging Ethics

Pictures of the Year International selects judges who maintain the highest journalistic and ethical standards. We have confidence that these same values will apply as jurors for POYi. We recognize that our profession is a close network and that the judges are also working journalists. So, we carefully research and consider any potential conflicts and then counsel all the members about their obligations to be fair and impartial. Any judge with entries in a category are asked to recuse themselves. The entire three weeks of judging is an open forum for anyone to quietly observe the process. POYi conducts the annual competition with complete transparency and integrity.

POY80 JUDGES AND MODERATORS

JUDGING PANELS

NEWS 1
February 6–7

Kyndell Harkness

Kyndell Harkness is the Star Tribune’s Assistant Managing Editor of Diversity/Community.

Kyndell has worked at the Star Tribune for 20 years as a photographer and most recently, as a photo editor, coordinating coverage of breaking news such as the death of Prince and protests of police shootings as well as local events such as the Super Bowl and Final Four. For 15 years, she has been a photo instructor for high school journalists participating in an annual program called J Camp. Kyndell also has led the Minnesota News Photographers Association.

Ron Erdrich

Ronald W. Erdrich has been a staff photojournalist at the Abilene Reporter-News in Texas since 2000. A former U.S. Navy Photographer’s Mate, Ron is a 1997 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism.

A longtime member of the National Press Photographers Association and a past director for the former Region 8, Ron has been consistently recognized for his work by that group, the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Association, and Pictures of the Year, International.

In 2011, he became the sole columnist for Big Country Journal, a regular Reporter-News feature for which he roams the 20-plus counties surrounding Abilene documenting through words and pictures the flavor of those communities and the unique characters which inhabit them.

Ron enjoys the unpredictability of daily newspaper work, deriving a sort of optimism because of it: Never knowing what to expect, he greets each assignment expectantly. It’s what allowed him to go from photographing a local lakeside Boy Scout cardboard boat race to covering the detainment of 15,000 Haitian migrants beneath the Del Rio International Bridge — all within the same 24-hour period in 2021.

That optimism also informed his idea to follow the trail of the World War II Bataan Death March in the Philippines by using the memoir of William Edwin Dyess, for whom Abilene’s Air Force base was named, as a roadmap. Gannett, the Reporter-News’ parent company, accepted his proposal and sent him there in 2019.

Most of Ron’s work, however, is focused on the quieter events that are unlikely to make statewide, much less national, news but nonetheless are vital to the lives of the communities he covers. It’s in those tiny moments where he’s found the magic and the insight which has kept him at his newspaper for more than two decades.

Bob Scheer

Robert Scheer was raised in California, bought a camera on a whim, and fell in love with photojournalism while earning his biology degree at Humboldt State University. After working at several small Northern California newspapers, he joined the Indianapolis Star as a staff photographer in 1998. An early advocate for newspaper video, his still and video work has taken him to news and sporting events in Iraq, Greece, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and many of the large cities of the United States.

Scheer has won awards for work on numerous IndyStar projects, including a 2022 regional Emmy that details the growing trend of deaths inside Indiana’s county-run jails. Visuals on failure-to-report issues by USA Gymnastics and disgraced doctor Larry Nassar earned Scheer and IndyStar’s investigative team international recognition including IRE’s Tom Renner Award. In 2021, Scheer pitched and helped launch a major newsroom initiative called the 317 Project, a multi-year series that showcases often-overlooked communities in Indianapolis.

Scheer has been a wine writer, Kalish Workshop participant, adjunct college professor, teacher for the High School Journalism Institute, and Hearst judge. Scheer is taking a six-month sabbatical in 2023 to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a continuous footpath from Mexico to Canada. Twitter and Instagram: @bobscheer

Cathaleen Curtiss

Cathaleen Curtiss is an award-winning photojournalist, editor, and the current Director of Photography at the Buffalo News, with broad experience in online media as well as traditional print publications. An active member of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). She is the President of the National Press Photographers Foundation (NPPF). Cathaleen has had solo photography exhibits in NYC and Buffalo as well as juried work at the Corcoran Art Gallery, Library of Congress, the Building Museum and National Geographic.

As the director of photography at the Buffalo News, Cathaleen was named the 2021 small market picture editor of the year both in individual and team categories for the National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism contest. She advocated for and created the first ever drone team at the Buffalo News, as a photojournalist she has documented events from Super Bowls to Superpower Summits, covering three presidential administrations.

In 1990 she was named, Photographer of the Year by the White House News Photographers Association. As Vice President of Global Photography at AOL, she built and managed a staff of visual content editors based in VA, NY, and Bangalore. While at AOL, she oversaw the direction, development, and implementation of AOL Visions and Pixcetera.com. Cathaleen was previously the Coordinator of Entrepreneurship and a Visual Media Consultant at Daemen College.

NEWS 2
February 9–10

Billy Calzada

Billy Calzada has been a newspaper photojournalist since 1987. Now in his 22nd year at the San Antonio Express-News, he has recently covered the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in Uvalde, the deaths of 51 migrants in a trailer, San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball and daily life. He was a Hearst Visiting Fellow at the University of Texas, has twice been a judge for the U.S. Air Force worldwide contest, has an NPPA President’s Medal, numerous Texas APME and NPPA awards and the Texas Veterans Commission Excellence in Media Award.

His career began in 1987 at the El Paso Herald-Post, where he covered Mexico, immigration, and drug trafficking, in addition to shooting daily features and spot news. After the closure of the Herald-Post, he freelanced, including a short stint in Beirut, Lebanon. He then answered the call from the Orlando Sentinel, where he covered the wildfires of 1998 and sporting events including the Daytona 500. He returned to Texas to work for the San Antonio Express-News in 2000. He counts his brother, Victor, a recently retired photojournalist, as his inspiration.

Beth Nakamura

Beth Nakamura s a senior staff photojournalist with The Oregonian in Portland, where she works primarily on longform, high-impact investigative and enterprise projects. Her recent work includes "The Safest Place," a four-part narrative and multimedia series examining the toll of gun violence on one small high school on the edge of Portland. Her work on "No Mercy," a 10-month investigation into a renowned international relief agency's mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the daughter of the co-founder, received an Emmy.

She was awarded an Emmy for her work on "Ghosts of Highway 20,” a narrative and documentary series focused on the victims of serial killer John Ackroyd, a former state highway mechanic who targeted vulnerable women along U.S. 20. With more than 36 million views on YouTube, the series continues to resonate with viewers and will be made into a television series produced by actress Octavia Spencer.

Before The Oregonian, Nakamura was on staff at The Virginian-Pilot. She credits Bob Lynn, former director of photography at the Pilot, for his early mentorship. She similarly credits Michele McDonald, currently a photo editor with The Portland Press Herald in Portland, Maine, for her early mentorship and ongoing support and encouragement.

Beth has taught at the Missouri Photo Workshop and the University of Oregon’s multimedia journalism masters program.

Her work has been recognized by American Photography, Pictures of the Year International, Society of Professional Journalists, National Headliner Awards, Online News Association, National Black Journalists Association, National Press Photographers Association, and many others.

Jake May

Jake May, 36, is an editorial photojournalist who calls Flint, Michigan his home. May, who attended Central Michigan University, is currently a photojournalist for The Flint Journal and MLive.com, where he has been committed to telling community stories in his backyard since 2013.

He was honored as a 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Feature Photography. May was named Small Market Photographer of the Year in the National Press Photographers Association’s Best of Photojournalism three times in the last five years, as well as an honorable mention in the Cliff Edom New America Award in 2022.

He has also been recognized with two special citations from the NPPA for his work on the Flint water crisis and his leadership in the industry. May has been named the Michigan Press Photographers Association's Photographer of the Year five times and the coveted Barry Edmonds Michigan Understanding Award four times, which was established to recognize and honor photographers work that best portrays the common purpose of man while exploring human relationships, friendship and concern for the environment, a lifting hope for peace.

May has also won four SPJ Sigma Delta Chi awards for various works, including a portrait series of isolation in COVID-19, continued water crisis coverage and coverage of four tornadoes that ravaged Genesee County.

He is happily married to his wife Elizabeth, loves to spend time with his stepdaughter Remi and enjoys playing with his pup Roxy.

Angela Rowlings

Angela Rowlings is an independent photojournalist based in Boston, Mass. and Prince Edward Island, Canada. She reports on climate, culture, politics, immigration, and human rights issues, and produces long-form visual essays in Boston, Canada, and Latin America. She previously worked at the Boston Herald for 16 years reporting on news, human interest, and lifestyle stories. Prior to the Herald, Angela worked with The Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today, and her photography has been published nationally and internationally.

Angela has spent considerable time photographing in Cuba, including Pope Francis’ visit to the island, and she covered the election of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. An English/Spanish interpreter, she completed an intensive interpreter training program in 2022 and sees her language access work as complementary to journalism.

Her 2021 photo essay about Boston's first Black, first female mayor was recognized as a finalist in POY's Local News Picture Story category, and won first place in the Politics Story category of NPPA's Best of Photojournalism competition. She was a 2022 New England Equity Reporting Fellow, 2021 IRE Fellow, and 2018 New England First Amendment Institute Fellow. Her work has been honored numerous times in the BPPA's annual contest, and included in juried shows at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Mass. and at ViewPoint Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her photos were also included in the BPPA's 2020 and 2021 Pictures of the Year outdoor exhibits in Copley Square and other Boston neighborhoods.

Angela has taught photography to teens at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston and visual journalism to undergraduates at Boston University's College of Communication and Endicott College. She mentors aspiring photographers and has been invited to speak at a variety of universities, community organizations, and at Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC) in Havana.

Currently Angela is working on a long-term documentary project about the intersection of culture and climate on Prince Edward Island and she is vice president of the Boston Press Photographers Association.

SPORTS
February 12–14

Al Diaz

Al Diaz captures the decisive moment when covering natural disasters, political campaigns, sports championships, temperamental celebrities, and angry mobs as a multi-award-winning photojournalist for the Miami Herald.

Diaz is the recipient of the 2014 Humanitarian Award by the National Press Photographers Association and the Associated Press Media Editors Showcase Photo of the Year for helping, then capturing the dramatic CPR rescue of a baby on a busy Florida highway.

Diaz was a key part of two Pulitzer Prize winning news teams for his work covering the sudden collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside in 2022 and Hurricane Andrew in 1993. He was also a contributing staff member awarded Pulitzer Prize Finalist for pictures depicting the force of Hurricane Andrew and the strength of those who survived the storm. Diaz has been twice honored with the McClatchy President’s Award for Journalism Excellence for team coverage of Puerto Rico: The Forgotten Island in 2018 and for coverage of the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010.

Throughout Diaz's photojournalism career, his photographs have received honors from the National Press Photographers Association, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Atlanta Seminar on Photojournalism, POY, the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, and most recently, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Photography Contest.

Diaz joined the photography staff at the Miami Herald in 1983 upon graduating from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree and a minor in Visual Arts.

"May the best shot be yours!" Al Diaz.

Elaine Thompson

Originally from Grand Rapids, Mich., Elaine Thompson studied journalism at Michigan State University and later visual communication in Ohio University’s Master of Arts program. She worked as a staff photographer at the Bellevue Journal-American, Santa Barbara News-Press, Houston Chronicle and most recently retired from a 26-year career as a Seattle-based photojournalist for the Associated Press.

Over the course of her AP career, which she called "the best job in the best city," she covered everything from high-level sports assignments, including NFL, MLB, WNBA, NBA, MLS, NHL and much etc., along with five Olympics and one World Cup; to spot news; the big regional businesses of Boeing, Starbucks and Amazon; orca whales in the Salish Sea and fish tossing at the Pike Place Market. She is best known for a photo she took her first week on the job in Seattle in 1995, when Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr. smiled from beneath a celebratory pig pile after the team beat the Yankees in a playoff series, and decades later for shooting the removal of a nest of so-called "murder hornets" in Northwest Washington near the Canadian border in 2021.

Elaine now lives in Bellingham, Wash., with her wife, Joy Haertig.

Thearon Henderson

Thearon has been shooting sports for 40 years. As a self taught professional, he brings a critical element to the Summit Family. Having been in the shoes of the students and finding his way is what we all aspire to. Thearon is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1980 working in a health club owned by the orthopedic surgeon of the Golden State Warriors, he gained access to shooting NBA games and has since been shooting as a freelance/contract photographer for four decades. He has worked for Topps Trading Cards, The Sporting News and currently Upper Deck since 1990. Thearon worked for the AP as a stringer from 1998-2010 and is currently a stringer/contributor for Getty Images since 2010.

REPORTAGE 1
February 15–16

Jehan Jillani

I am a photo and visuals editor based in Brooklyn, New York.

I currently work at The Atlantic where I commission original photography and illustrations for the publication’s digital features and special projects.

Before joining The Atlantic, I was the picture and visuals editor at the Guardian US. I have also worked as a photo editor at National Geographic where I contributed to the publication’s environment coverage. I began my career as a digital photo editor at The New Yorker where I researched images for all facets of newyorker.com.

I do portfolio reviews throughout the year and have been on the jury for several photography grants and awards including the Overseas Press Club Awards, The Alexia Grant, and the Howard Chapnick Grant. I have also been a mentor for Everyday Projects and Women Photograph, and have spoken about my work at Columbia University, Smith College and Massachusetts College of Art. In addition, I also helped curate Diversify Photo, a database of photographers of color who are based in the United States.

I am a graduate of Smith College and hold a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Government. I was born and raised in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Andri Tambunan

Andri Tambunan is an independent documentary photographer and videographer based in Sacramento, CA. Tambunan changed his career to pursue photojournalism after witnessing and documenting the 2008 Terrorist Attack in Mumbai, India. Tambunan's documentary work focuses on social justice, and environmental conservation, and explores race and identity. Tambunan believes that a camera gives both a rare privilege and a profound responsibility and he is dedicated to utilizing the visual narrative as a tool to inform, engage, and impact social change.

Before returning to Sacramento, Tambunan was based in Indonesia for over 10 years covering breaking news and investigative reporting in the South East Asia region for international news publications and NGOs. Tambunan's initiative, Against All Odds, a long-term visual documentary on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Papua formerly known as Irian Jaya, received recognitions from POYi Emerging Vision Incentive, Reminders Project Asian Photographers Grant, PhotoPhilanthropy Activist Awards, Open Society Foundation Engagement Audience Grant and was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress Permanent Photography Collection, Washington DC. Following this project, Tambunan collaborated with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and USAID to produce I am Positif or I am Positive, a multi-media visual campaign to end stigma and discrimination against individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Indonesia.

In Sacramento, Tambunan covers Northern California regularly for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Focusing on issues and stories in his community, Tambunan is currently, working on a visual campaign to Stop Anti-Asian Hate in his hometown.

Xyza Cruz Bacani

Xyza Cruz Bacani (b.1987) is a Filipina author and photographer based in New York and Hong Kong who uses her work to raise awareness about under-reported stories. Having worked as a second-generation domestic worker in Hong Kong for almost a decade, she is particularly interested in the intersections of migration, climate change and human rights. She is one of the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellows in 2015, has exhibited worldwide, and won awards in photography.

She is also the recipient of a resolution passed by the Philippines House of Representatives in her honour, HR No.1969. Xyza is one of the Asia 21 Young Leaders (Class of 2018), the WMA Commission grantee in 2017, a Pulitzer Center and an Open Society Moving Walls 2017 grantee. She is one of the BBC’s 100 Women of the World 2015, 30 Under 30 Women Photographers 2016, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2016, Fujifilm ambassador and author of the book We Are Like Air.

EDUCATION

2021 - 2022 M.A. Arts Politics, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

2015 Photography and Social Justice Fellow, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

Represented by: Redux Pictures New York City, USA Christine Park Gallery: Shanghai, China and New York Website: www.xyzacruzbacani.com

John Stanmeyer

John Stanmeyer is an award-winning photographer and artist. An Emmy-nominated filmmaker and educator dedicated to environmental, social, and humanitarian issues that define our times. For nearly 20 years, John has worked with National Geographic magazine, producing over 19 stories, resulting in more than 14 covers. Between 1998 and 2008, John was a contract photographer for Time magazine. His years with Time resulted in 18 covers.

In 2001, Stanmeyer co-founded the prestigious VII Photo agency with six of the world’s leading photojournalists. Today VII represents more than 30 photographers from around the globe. Stanmeyer is an Emeritus member of VII and is a member of Ripple Effects Images, a collective of artists and storytellers working on women, empowerment, and equality.

In 2017 Stanmeyer co-founded Bridging Stories (@Bridging.Stories), an ongoing project working with young photographers in Armenia and Turkey to tell their own stories, working to bridge peace between neighbors. He has received numerous honours, including the prestigious Robert Capa Award, POYi Magazine Photographer of the Year, and the World Press Photo of the Year in 2014. John lives with his dogs, Elfriede the Great Dane, and her sister, Eleanor, in the southern Berkshires of western Massachusetts.

REPORTAGE 2
February 18–19

Q. Sakamaki

Q. Sakamaki is a Japanese documentary photographer, focusing on human conditions and socio-economic issues with aesthetic images. Born and raised in Japan, he moved to New York City in 1986 to professionally explore photography. His photo-documentary was sparked by the 1988 Tompkins Square Park riot and the following social movement in the city. In the mid-1990s, Sakamaki started to cover more international events, particularly the deadly conflicts. Since then, his works have appeared in books and magazines worldwide and have been the subject of solo shows.

He has received many honors, including the World Press Photo Award and two Overseas Press Club prizes. He has published several books, such as “WAR DNA (Japan, 2007)” covering seven deadly conflicts, “Tompkins Square Park (PowerHouse Books in U.S., 2008)” depicting New York’s anti-gentrification movement and “Chance Encounters: New York (Japan, 2022) “ depicting his own metaphor through New York street scenes. He holds a master degree in international affairs from Columbia University. He is also an educator and a writer. In recent years, he is exploring photo-documentary, combining with fine art, to understand and feel not only the significance of photography but the joy and hardship of life. Represented by photo agency Redux. Co-Founder of @Hikari.Creative, Instagram based collective.

Barbara Davidson

Barbara Davidson has built her photojournalism career turning a compassionate eye towards individuals striving for dignity and normalcy with an emphasis on women and children caught in a culture of gun violence and poverty. She honed her story-telling approach through multiple assignments over two decades across 58 countries covering war, humanitarian crises and the human condition for the Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News, and The Washington Times.

Davidson, who is Pulitzer Prize and Emmy award winning photojournalist, was twice named Photographer of the Year by the Pictures of the Year International. In 2020 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent the year travelling across the United States making portraits of gunshot survivors using an 8x10 film camera. Originally born in Canada, to Irish immigrant parents, Davidson is based in Los Angeles covering both editorial and commercial assignments.

Mike Davis

Helping visual storytellers create images that last beyond the day has been Mike’s mission in settings as diverse as National Geographic Magazine, The White House, several of America’s visually powerful newspapers, as an educator and an independent consultant and editor. His work as an editor and the work of those he has edited has received the highest of accolades again and again. He recently concluded eight years as director of The Alexia grants competition while an endowed faculty member at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School.

Mike was twice named Newspaper Picture Editor of the Year. He has been a picture editor for more than 40 books. The National Press Photographers Association honored Mike with The Sprague Award, its highest honor. He has edited the work of magazine photographers of the Year twice, first and second place newspaper photographers of the year three times; and first and second place college photographers of the year. His staffs have won Picture Editor of the Year and Regional Photographer of the Year recognition multiple times.

Mike has judged Pictures of the Year (POY) five times and judged many other international, national and regional photographic competitions and juried grants including the W. Eugene Smith Grant, The RFK Memorial Fellowship, the Walkley Awards in Australia and The NPPA/Nikon Sabbatical. He has taught at several workshops in the U.S., New Zealand and Latin America and lectured at a wide range of universities and photographic conferences.

Mike earned a masters degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism with a thesis that created a viable magazine, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with double majors in journalism and Spanish.

He has the good fortune of being married to Deb Pang Davis, a Sr. UX Designer at Disney. She’s a talented designer and educator.

Maye-E Wong

Maye-E Wong is a photojournalist at the AP in New York and serves as a creative engine for the Global Enterprise team. She joined the Associated Press in 2003 and moved to NYC in 2018. Maye-E has documented major breaking news such as the political unrest that took place in Thailand and Hong Kong, the devastation of typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Dhaka’s garment factory collapse and the Black Life Matters protests in NYC.

In 2017, she photographed Rohingya women who had fled Myanmar. This assignment was part of an investigative piece on the rapes of Rohingya women by Myanmar’s military, which were both sweeping and methodical. From 2014-2018, she was AP’s lead photographer for North Korea, where she documented life in the reclusive nation. She also won the Oliver S. Gramling journalism award in 2017, for her work in the North. She covers major sporting events like the Olympics and World Cup.

When Maye-E is not out on the field, she works closely with photographers and reporting teams to lead and find best ways to visualize stories in multi-format digital presentations in a player/coach role. Some of these stories have gone on to win international prizes including the Pulitzer and the RFK awards.

PRINT EDITING
February 21–22

Jill Karnicki

Jill Karnicki is the acting Director of Photography at the Houston Chronicle. During her 15 years there, she has helped lead a team of incredibly talented visual journalists through every situation Texas can throw at them. She feels she is at her best when she is helping the staff achieve their highest level of work possible all while pushing them beyond their comfort zones to help them grow in this ever-changing industry.

Before coming to the Houston Chronicle, Jill was a photo editor at the Washington Post for two years. Prior to that, she spent 7 years as the chief photographer for three Los Angeles Times community newspapers photographing everything from little league to the Dodgers.

Jill is also a proud dog mom, live music seeker, needlepoint enthusiast, wanna-be violin player, tap dancer, and fan of all people and things that are positive and good.

Julie Jacobson

Julie Jacobson is the news editor for photos at the Associated Press in New York City where she oversees the photo report for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and manages a team of staff photographers and freelancers in the tristate region.

A 1992 graduate of the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism, Julie started her career as a staff photographer at the Kansas City Star in 1993 where she spent more than eight years covering community journalism as well as pro and college sports. In 2001 she joined the AP as a staff photographer in San Francisco then transferred to the AP’s New York City bureau in 2003. Julie has covered both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, multiple summer and winter Olympic games, Super Bowls, World Series, golf and tennis majors.

Kevin Dilley

Kevin Dilley has stitched together a 30-year career that includes photojournalism, design, editing, consulting, teaching and now serving as the director of one of the largest and most award-winning student media operations in the country at Kent State University.

Two things have stayed constant throughout those years and experiences — storytelling and learning. He began honing those skills in high school in Michigan and then at the University of Missouri–Columbia and Ohio University. Kevin was recently named one of 25 top media leaders over age 50 by Editor and Publisher. According to E&P, this year’s leaders were chosen for “their strong work ethic, transformational mindsets, commitment to journalistic and publishing excellence, and their ability to lead during challenging times.”

Kevin is currently adjusting to an "empty nest" with his wife, Rosario, as his children Diego and Alejandra are off to college.

Boyzell Hosey

Boyzell Hosey is senior editor for visual storytelling at ProPublica. He is a former Deputy Editor and Director of Photography for the Tampa Bay Times. He serves on the boards of University of Florida Journalism Advisory Council, National Press Photographers Association, Pinellas County Schools Journeys in Journalism, and the Photo Technology Advisory Board of St. Petersburg College. He is widely known in the industry for fostering and promoting visual journalism talent and committing to diversity efforts.

Boyzell’s community connections and civic engagement in the Tampa Bay area run deep as he is involved with various positive initiatives impacting a diverse spectrum of adults and youth. He is co-founder of the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival – an annual, nonprofit event designed to inspire the community to live healthier by focusing on urban agriculture, culinary experiences, fitness, and family fun. He resides in St. Petersburg with his wife, Andrida a recently retired theater educator and actor. Boyzell’s social media handle is @zellpic.

ONLINE EDITING
February 24–25

Samir Abady

Samir Abady is a documentary photographer and photo editor at The Wall Street Journal.

Born and based in Queens, New York to Lebanese parents he received a bachelor’s degree in English from St. John’s University and attended the International Center of Photography for Documentary Photography and Photojournalism. He participated in the Eddie Adams Workshop and has been selected for American Photography and was a finalist for the portrait prize in Australia's Head On Photo Festival in 2016.

He has photographed for The Wall Street Journal, Buzzfeed News, and Fast Company and his documentary work has appeared in Refinery29, The Village Voice, Juxtapoz, and FeatureShoot.

Previously he held positions at Redux Pictures as a photo assistant, where he focused on outreach and promotion, and as digital photo editor at Fast Company for News and Creativity verticals, where he occasionally had the opportunity to write about representation in popular media.

Emma Patti Harris

Emma Patti Harris is the Senior Director, Audience & Experience overseeing visual, digital, and audience strategy for The Baltimore Banner. Prior to joining The Banner, she led several news organizations’ digital and visual strategy including Education Week and The Baltimore Sun.

During her tenure at The Sun, she helped the organization become a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize after the death of Freddie Gray and the riots in Baltimore. Emma has a degree in photojournalism and multimedia from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with her family and two dogs.

Virginia Lozano

Virginia Lozano is the national photo editor at NPR, covering U.S. news from climate change to immigration. She also produces photo essays for NPR’s picture show with a focus on identity, race, and highlighting new voices. She is based in New York and California.

Previously she freelance edited at The New York Times, where she covered the 2020 election from the early campaign days to President Biden’s first 100 days in office. She was also embedded with the investigations desk, where she produced long-form stories covering policing, international politics, and the Covid-19 pandemic. She was the lead photo editor of Exploited, an award-winning series on online child sexual abuse.

Virginia has also photographed and edited for The Intercept and The Detroit News. She is an alumna of the University of Michigan.

Danny Gawlowki

Danny is the Assistant Managing Editor for The Seattle Times. He manages the Photo, Video and Digital Departments while coordinating efforts to grow subscribing audiences.

As an editor, Danny Gawlowski’s work has been recognized with two staff Pulitzer Prizes, a national Emmy Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, two national Edward R. Murrow Awards, the Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism and a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. His work has spanned a broad spectrum of topics – from ocean acidification to deadly medical practices to family homelessness – helped change public policies and saved lives.

DOCUMENTARY
February 24–25

Ana Ramirez

Ana Ramirez is a staff photojournalist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Before focusing on the cross-border communities in San Diego and Tijuana, she worked on short-form documentary storytelling at the Austin American-Statesman. She is passionate about telling stories of social, immigration and environmental issues. Ramirez is a six-time regional EMMY award-winner and has worked for four daily newspapers.

Margaret Cheatham Williams

Margaret Cheatham Williams is an Emmy-nominated independent film producer and editor. Previously she worked as a documentarian at The New York Times, where she pitched, produced, shot and edited narrative and documentary video and photography.
She is particularly driven to stories that examine the intersection of health, family and personal identity.

Margaret Cheatham’s work has been recognized by the Livingston Awards, the Hearst Foundation, Pictures of the Year International, the National Press Photographers Association, Society for News Design, and the South by Southwest interactive awards. Her films have premiered at AFI Fest and the Margaret Mead Film Festival. In 2016 she was selected as an alternate for the Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship.

She has been a coach at the North Carolina Photojournalism workshop and The Mountain Workshops, has served as a judge for the National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism contest and the White House Press Association. She completed her bachelor's degree in 2011 from the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied photojournalism and French.

Johnny Andrews

Johnny Andrews is a photographer and videographer for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he seeks out and documents the stories of the campus community, from students to faculty and staff. He returned to his alma mater after nearly two decades as a staff photojournalist for several newspapers including The Seattle Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Florida Times-Union. He prides himself on making a personal connection with whoever he meets and enjoys the conversations just as much as making the actual image.

Andrews also worked for several years as a photo editor for Microsoft while continuing to pursue personal projects. He is a strong proponent of finding whatever you’re passionate about and channeling that energy into your work. The Atlanta native has had his photo and video work recognized by numerous organizations from the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, Southern Short Course, the University Press Photographers’ Association of America, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and others. He was also the recipient of a Racial Justice Fellowship from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism.

Reshma Kirpalani

Reshma Kirpalani is a fourteen-time Emmy award-winning video journalist and filmmaker. Previously, she worked on the National High Impact Team at McClatchy, collaborating with 30 newsrooms across the country to produce stories that affected change in national policy. Before that she worked for the Austin American-Statesman, winning that newspaper’s first Lone Star Emmy award. And prior to that, she spent a summer at ABCNews.com in New York City while getting her photojournalism degree from the University of Texas.

While reporting for the Statesman, Reshma covered several national news stories, including Hurricane Harvey and the Austin bombings. In April of 2020, after joining McClatchy, Reshma got exclusive access to the COVID unit inside a South Miami hospital. She directed a five-part documentary series that followed health care workers and their families throughout the height of the pandemic. That Miami Herald series won two Suncoast Emmy Awards and was screened at two film festivals.

PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK OF THE YEAR

Brian Kratzer

Brian Kratzer is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism where he teaches, serves as the Director of Photography at the Columbia Missourian and as director of the Missouri Photo Workshop, through which he has overseen the publication of books documenting life in small Missouri towns. Kratzer teaches a range of classes. His primary course, Photo & Visual Editing, provides experience in visual leadership, helping students see themselves as tomorrow’s top editors.

Formerly the Assistant Managing Editor for Online & Multimedia at The Gainesville Sun, Kratzer led the newsroom into the video and web-first environment. He oversaw the production of Gainesville.com and Gatorsports.com during the many national championships at the University of Florida.

He’s been a photojournalist and/or photo editor at the Columbia Daily Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Eugene Register-Guard, Great Falls Tribune and Manhattan Mercury, including his hometown paper, The McPherson Sentinel. He holds an undergraduate degree in Journalism & Mass Communications from Kansas State University. As part of his Master’s Degree at the University of Missouri, Kratzer was awarded the O.O. McIntyre grant to documented 15 Missouri Century Farm families.

Annette Kiesow

Annette Kiesow is an independent photo editor and researcher currently based in Columbia, Missouri. She grew up in western Maine and received a B.A. in U.S. History at the University of Maine. She began her career in photo research with Primedia History Group in Leesburg, Virginia in 2000 and became the lead photo editor for World War II and Vietnam Magazines.

In 2005, Kiesow shifted to freelancing, initially with National Geographic Kids Books, eventually photo researching more than 50 published titles for them. She continues to edit for other publishers including Scholastic, Highlights, and DK, and has consulted on visual storytelling and photo rights management for book packagers and tech companies.

Noppadol Paothong

Noppadol Paothong is an award-winning nature and conservation photographer and a staff photographer with the Missouri Department of Conservation. His focus has been rare and endangered species, primarily grassland grouse and their fragile habitat. Those efforts resulted in two large-format books, Save the Last Dance: A Story of North American Grassland Grouse and Sage Grouse: Icon of the West.

An associate fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), Noppadol has been honored as Missouri Photojournalist of the Year and has been recognized in the Outdoor Writers Association of America, National Wildlife, Nature’s Best, and the Audubon Photography Awards. His images regularly appear in agency publications, including Missouri Conservationist and Xplor, and in national magazines, such as Audubon, Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife, Ranger Rick, and Sierra.

Noppadol shares his work and passion through programs and presentations across the country, and he hopes that these will help people connect, at a personal and emotional level, with nature and the conservation issues that he deeply cares about.

MODERATOR

Lynden Steele

Director of photojournalism, Reynolds Journalism Institute

As director of photojournalism at RJI, Lynden Steele oversees the Pictures of the Year International competition, co-directs POY Asia and manages the POYI archive. He also teaches at the Missouri School of Journalism.

In 2021, Steele partnered with fellow Mizzou alum Kay Chin Tay to found Pictures of the Year Asia, a program dedicated to supporting photojournalists living and working throughout Asia. This program joins POY Latin America and College Photographer of the Year in a mission to create, preserve and share a visual record of life as witnessed by photojournalists across the entire planet.

Before coming to RJI, Steele had worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since 2008, most recently as assistant managing editor of photography. The work of his staff has been widely recognized. Notable awards include the 2017 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Photography, the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography and the POYI Director’s Choice in 2015.

In 2014, the Post-Dispatch’s photo, graphics and metro teams won an EPPY Award from Editor & Publisher for Best Use of Photography on a Website and the Scripps Howard Foundation Award for Breaking News for staff coverage of Ferguson.

Prior to his work in St. Louis, Steele was a picture editor at the White House and edited the photography book “Portraits of a Leader: George W. Bush.”

Steele began his career as a staff photographer at the Monroe Evening News in Michigan, followed by a staff position at Copley newspapers in the Chicago suburbs.

He received his bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from the Missouri School of Journalism. Steele and his wife, Jody Mitori, who is also a Missouri School of Journalism graduate, have three children, 12-year-old twins and a 16-year-old son.