UNPA Photojournalism Awards

Last night was the Utah News Photographers Association’s awards banquet. The results of the 2005 Photojournalism Competition were in and photographers from several newspapers from around the state got together for dinner and to celebrate the work of the winners. Congratulations to Deseret News photographer Scott Winterton for being named Photographer of the Year. Nobody works harder than Scott. In second place for Photographer of the Year was my co-worker Leah Hogsten. Leah has been named in the top three for photographer of the year four straight years. You have no idea how impressive that is. Her contest entries are always well thought out and top-notch. Hands down, she’s the best pure storyteller we have on staff, and a great editor as well. While Brian Nicholson did the heavy lifting in running the contest, I’ve been involved since its inception in 2001. I’ve seen just about every photograph entered over the years — the good, the bad, the out-of-focus ugly. This year’s entries were the strongest I’ve seen. The younger photographers in this state are getting better and better. These photographers usually work at smaller newspapers like the Daily Herald in Provo, the Herald-Journal in Logan, the Spectrum in St. George, the Park Record in Park City, the Transcript in Tooele. They are crazy creative, and it’s no longer a given that the Tribune photographers will take home the lion’s share of the awards (though we did this time). OK, enough bragging about the Tribune photographers. We won a whopping seventeen awards (not counting Rick Egan taking the runner up in the for-fun “Worst Photo” category). But that’s enough bragging. Hey, did I mention we won 17? Seriously though, the banquet is a great chance for us photographers to get together and have some down time together. We see each other quite often on assignment, but it’s a competitive atmosphere and there is usually no time to ask how families and children are doing, where the vacation was, etc. I talked with BYU photographer Jaren Wilkey, a talented guy who regularly wins in the sports categories. We both lamented how poorly photographers do at showcasing their work to the public. We tend to show our work to ourselves in these contest-type situations. I don’t know what good that is. Rarely is the work celebrated and hung in the public arena for people to appreciate. We need a photojournalism missionary program. This is a time in culture when the popularity of photography is at an all-time high. Digital cameras are selling in the millions. Phones have cameras now. Photography is huge. And keep in mind that any one of these photographers (there were about 20 of us who showed up) would knock your socks off with the quality of their work. They are all very talented and creative. Not every assignment produces unforgettable photos like the ones we saw win in this contest, and sometimes us photographers get discouraged that the assignments we are sent out on aren’t exciting and don’t seem important. Jaren had a great line from BYU photographer Mark Philbrick: “This photograph might not end up in your portfolio, but it will end up in your subject’s portfolio.” Those are great words that all photojournalists should remember. You can click here to see the contest winners at the poorly designed but very functional Utah News Photographers website.