The results of the NPPA’s annual Best of Photojournalism awards are out. Here’s my work that was recognized :
Photojournalist of the Year, 2nd for a 2011 portfolio.
Enterprise Picture Story, 2nd for daily life photos from North Korea.
Natural Disaster Picture Story, 1st for coverage of the Tohoku tsunami.
Natural Disaster Picture Story, HM for the essay Japan’s Nuclear Refugees for National Geographic Magazine..
On May 15, Christie’s in NYC auctioned photojournalism prints raising US$135,089.00 for the family of Anton Hammerl, a South African photographer who was killed in Libya on April 5th of last year.
As a freelance photographer, Hammerl didn’t have the financial support of a magazine or agency or a life insurance policy. He leaves behind a wife and three young children.
72 photographers and agencies donated prints for the cause including Bruce Davidson, Joao Silva, Alec Soth, Susan Meiselas, Sebastiao Salgado, and David Alan Harvey. The ICP added Robert Capa’s iconic D-Day landing image. The event was hosted by Christiane Amanpour. AP offered a signed print of my Pink Boxer Shorts picture from Afghanistan’s firebase Restrepo.
Please visit the Friends of Anton site if you want to offer further support to Anton’s family.
Twenty-two World Press Photo award winners talk about their work.
I’m honored to receive this years’s OPC’s Olivier Rebbot award for Japan’s Nuclear Refugees and the OPC’s Feature Photography award for photos taken inside North Korea.
But the biggest thrill at tonight’s black tie dinner will be watching Joao Silva stand and light the ceremonial candle to remember fallen friends.
Thank you to National Geographic senior editor Susan Welchman who shares this Olivier Rebbot award. Also NGM’s Kurt Mutchler and Ken Geiger who pushed for this difficult story assignment and trusted me. A huge thank you to Noriko Hayashi who assisted me on this story, and the “dog catchers” Leo and Hiroshi Hoshi.
Thank you to The Associated Press. Our CEO Tom Curley believes in the power of photojournalism and had the vision to push for an AP bureau in the otherwise isolated country. Thanks also to Kathleen Carroll, John Daniszewski, Santiago Lyon, Greg Baker, and Brian Carovillano for helping to guide and push it through. A huge thanks to the AP colleagues who work day to day on the ground in the DPRK. Jean H. Lee, Raf Wober, Ng Han Guan, Vincent Yu, and Tim Sullivan.
Here’s a link to the announcement in PDN
Here’s a TIME magazine Lightbox post showing my work and the work of fellow winners Pete Muller and Andre Liohn.
Bravo to friends Yuri Kozyrev, Stephanie Sinclair, Todd Heisler, and Sebastian Liste for award citations.
TIME Magazine’s Phil Bicker profiles me on LightBox. A flattering run-down of my photo career so far and a broad edit of my North Korea photography. Thanks Phil and Kira.
“Finalists for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography were: David Guttenfelder, Ng Han Guan and Rafael Wober of the Associated Press for their extraordinary portrayal of daily life inside the reclusive nation of North Korea, including scenes after the death of Kim Jong Il.”
The sum of the parts. From 2008 to 2012, a curious view of North Korea.
Collected by the Denver Post’s “Plog” photo blog
Window on North Korea : Photographs from the DPRK, a joint photo exhibition by photographers from The Associated Press and the Korean Central News Agency will be up from March 15 to April 13 in Manhattan’s The 8th Floor Gallery at 17 W. 17th st.
Here’s a gallery and interesting write up by James Estrin on the NYT’s Lens blog quoting AP’s DOP Santiago Lyon who went to Pyongyang to curate the show along side KCNAs photo director.
AP photographers included are Vincent Yu, Ng Han Guan, Ahn Young-Joon, Elizabeth Dalziel, Wally Santana, and me.
On March 11, the one year anniversary of Japan’s tsunami, please check out Dispatch From Tohoku: Documenting the Aftermath.
Organized by Jake Price, and curated by Elissa Curtis, Dana Kien, & Jamie Wellford, the projection will include work from Price, James Whitlow Delano, Kyoko Hamada, Dominic Nahr, Kosuke Okahara, Q. Sakamaki, Takahashi Munemasa, Midori Curtis, and me.
Doors open at the Bubble Lounge at 6pm and projections begin at 7:30 and 9:30.
Proceeds will help support Art in a Box which brings supplies to children impacted by the disaster.
Here’s a write-up in the New Yorker’s Photo Booth blog- Postcards from Tohoku: Japan, One Year Later
See the whole set here: Before and After - Japan’s tsunami one year later
This year’s POY awards are out now. I landed a few mentions:
Photographer of the Year, 2nd Place
Japan’s Nuclear Refugees was named a finalist for POY’s Global Vision award.
Susan Welchman, who edited the Japan’s Nuclear Refugees story for National Geographic, won 1st prize in News Story Editing for Magazines.
Afghanistan’s Opium Wars story editor Sarah Leen received an Award of Excellence in the Issue Reporting Story Editing for Magazines category.
I also got a 3rd place in POY’s Impact 2011 category.
POY Photographer of the Year, runner-up. I’m way proud to be listed next to friends Yuri and John & to see the hard fought and beautiful pictures they made on the road in 2011.
My first ever sighting of new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a ceremony to commemorate his father’s death and mark what would have been his 70th birthday on Feb 16.
A link to today’s AP story: Late North Korean Leader Gets A Military Birthday Tribute
Here in Pyongyang people are marking what would have been the 70th birthday of Kim Jong Il. Feb. 16 has been declared a national holiday known as the Day of the Shining Star.
AP’s Jean H. Lee reports that “North Korea’s grief has taken on a supernatural air: Mountains glow crimson, lakes shake, a family of bears weeps by the side of a road, hundreds of shrieking magpies hover over mourning sites”. (That’s what DPRK’s state media has said).
I didn’t get to photograph any of that stuff but here ‘s a slideshow collected in the HuffPost showing some of my AP photos this week.
I’m so grateful to National Geographic Magazine, and the AP, for supporting the coverage of Japan’s Nuclear Refugees. Special thanks to NGM editor Susan Welchman, The Hoshi Family, and assistant Noriko Hayashi. World Press Photo 2012, 3rd prize General News stories.
And here’s a list and links to my past WPP recognized photographs.
2009 2nd Prize, People in the News
2006 1st Prize, Daily Life stories
