About POY
The mission of Pictures of the Year International is to build public trust in photojournalism, honor excellence in its practice, come together as a community and create educational opportunities by preserving access to an inspiring visual record of history.
POY International began as a photographic contest in 1944 by Cliff Edom at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri. It was called the “First Annual Fifty-Print Exhibition.” Its purpose was, “to pay tribute to those press photographers and newspapers which, despite tremendous war-time difficulties, are doing a splendid job; to provide an opportunity for photographers of the nation to meet in open competition; and to compile and preserve... a collection of the best in current, home-front press pictures.”
In 1945, Cliff Edom started collegiate photo competition, College Photographer of the Year. It has evolved to an international program. Each year more 600 students enter, representing dozens of countries and about 130 universities. Winning entries are posted at www.cpoy.org.
In 1957, the University of Missouri and the National Press Photographers Association, (NPPA), merged their respective contests and “Pictures of the Year” was born. Guided by directors Angus McDougall and Bill Kuykendall, the scope of POY changed dramatically through the 1990s. The number of entered images increased to tens of thousands, and Pictures of the Year became an international program. In 2001, NPPA and POY parted ways. and POY was renamed “Pictures of the Year International” and continued to evolve and inspire new efforts.
In 2011, POY supported Dr. Loup Langton and Dr. Pablo Corral Vega’s effort to establish an independent program in Latin America. POY Latam has become the largest and one of the most important programs of its kind in Ibero-America. It hosts a competition, online exhibit as well as workshops. You can visit the site at https://poylatam.org.
During the pandemic, POY Asia to share an Asian perspective. Headed by Tay Kay Chin of Singapore, the founding members are Tanya Habjouqa of Jordan, Prashant Panjiar of India and Maye-E Wong of Singapore/New York. It celebrates excellence in documentary and artistic photography. You can visit
the site at https://poyasia.org.
Over time, the contributed photos and stories have created an incredible archive of stories that reflect the events and people who shape our world. The POY Archive is an important resource for students and scholars. In 2023, POY began efforts to update the archive and bring it into the classroom. Since then, hundreds of students have learned valuable lessons from the photojournalists’ eye-witness accounts. Each year students curate public exhibits and presentations based on their findings.At its heart, POY is an educational program. The program is staffed by students. Over the decades, many students have funded their entire education by working as graduate research assistants for POY and CPOY. Connecting students and the public with the curated work in POY shows the value of photojournalism and allows people to interpret the news and historic events through an empathetic lens. For the students who work directly with POY, it can be a humbling, inspiring and even transformative experience. In all of our efforts we hold to the guiding principle set forth by POY founder Cliff Edom, “Show truth with a camera.”
