I’ve not yet had time to look at all the pictures from the winning entries in the University of Missouri School of Journalism‘s 72nd annual Pictures of the Year International competition, though I can say that there are some fine images among those I have viewed on the POYi web site.
One photographer who gets a number of mentions is Brad Vest, 2011 Alexia award winner, with a portfolio of 40 images from Memphis local newspaper The Commercial Appeal winning the Newspaper Photographer of the Year award, as well as two mentions in the Newspaper Issue Reporting Picture Story category with first place for “Last One Standing” about the last public housing project in Memphis and an Award of Excellence for “Paul Joseph Oliver” on the lives of the family and friends of a Marine after his death.
The competition has its roots in 1944, when
the Missouri School of Journalism sponsored its “First Annual Fifty-Print Exhibition” contest. Its stated 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.”
For many years it was a USA only contest, and was run jointly with the NPPA, but since 2001 it has again become solely the responsibility of the Missouri School of Journalism, and an international competition (POY became POYi), and has slowly become less dominated by US photographers and organisations, though still keeping a very US flavour and not quite yet POYI. Funding for it comes from endowments and also sponsors Fujjifilm, US cable and satellite company MSNBC, National Geographic as well as the entrance fees to the yearly competition.
There is also an archive with many thousands of winning images (either 41,766 or over 60,000 depending on where you look) over the years, starting from 1943. It gives an interesting overview of the changes in news photography over the years.
The Missouri School of Journalism has always had a clear view of photographic ethics, and the USA generally has a rather more clear view on news photography than pertains in the UK. It was something I was made very aware of when I spent 7 years working for a US company from London, and which I applauded. Although there may be disagreement about whether the best work won in some categories, there is unlikely to be the kind of controversy that the WPP has recently attracted. The staging in Je Suis Chaleroi? would certainly never have been thought acceptable here.