Damon Winter of The New York Times and Adrees Latif of Reuters achieved premier honors in the 68th annual Pictures of the Year International competition and set the mark for excellence in photojournalism for 2010. The Los Angeles Times set the gold standard for editing by earning the “Angus McDougall Overall Excellence in Editing Award.”

POYi is privileged to announce these premier awards and category winners, with support from the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Missouri School of Journalism.

Winter was named the 2010 “Newspaper Photographer of the Year” and Latif was honored as the “Freelance / Agency Photographer of the Year.” The judges recognized similar strengths in the work of these two photojournalists — a strong balance of powerful aesthetic with solid journalistic content that reflects the news events, personalities, and social issues of their respective regions. Winter’s portfolio presented a stunning report on U. S. military troop deployments to Afghanistan, breaking coverage of the Haiti earthquake, and an essay on the lack of mental patient care following the Haiti earthquake. In honoring Latif’s portfolio, the judges noted that the portfolio presented a stunning report on the Pakistan floods and the political protests in Thailand.

POYi’s “Documentary Project of the Year” award went to The Washington Post for the project titled “Coming Home A Different Person.” The entry examined the personal impact of brain injuries suffered by the military serving in combat.

Multimedia entries continue to dominate the annual contest entries with the debut of a new premier award for “Multimedia Portfolio of the Year,” which was won by Leslye Davis, a student at Western Kentucky University. Top honors for visual journalism on news websites went to the Los Angeles Times, winning first in the “Best Use of Photography - Online” category.

In the Editing Division, the Los Angeles Times won the “Angus McDougall Overall Excellence in Editing Award.” The judges praised the Los Angeles Times “for its consistent approach and dedication to photojournalism in both print and multimedia.”

Among additional prestige awards, Fernando Moleres won the “World Understanding Award” for his long-form documentary photography project on “Juveniles Behind Bars in African Prisons.” The project focuses on the imprisonment of children in a Sierra Leone — a serious situation that plagues many African countries.

Steve Winter won the “Global Vision Award” for his science and natural history long-term project on the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, India. The project documents the array of wildlife in this World Heritage Site and the efforts to save wildlife species from extinction.

Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles Times earned the “Community Awareness Award” for “Stray Bullets” — a project that documents innocent victims living in the crossfire of gang violence.

And the “Best Photography Book Award” went to Blanco by Stefano De Luigi, published by Trolley Books. The published work chronicles the lives and conditions of the visually impaired in Liberia, Rwanda, and Congo among other countries.

POYi premier award winners are presented with Tiffany crystal engraved trophies and cash prizes. Eleven of the most highly respected professionals in our field reviewed more than 42,000 images during 16 days of judging. The grueling and intense process began on Monday, Feb. 7 and continued through Tuesday, Feb. 22. During the first week, four judges reviewed entries in the General Division categories and Newspaper Picture Stories, followed by another panel the next week for Freelance / Agency Picture Stories, and a third panel for Multimedia / Editing Division.

Pictures of the Year International conducts the international competition as a program of The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) at the Missouri School of Journalism. RJI is journalism's advanced studies center whose mission is to engage media professionals, scholars and other citizens in programs aimed at improving the practice and understanding of journalism in democratic societies. Since its founding in 1944, POYi is the oldest and one of the most prestigious photojournalism competitions in the world. For six decades, newspaper and magazine photographers have sent their strongest images to be judged in an annual contest started by the late Cliff Edom, the University of Missouri professor who coined the term “photojournalism.”

POYi prides its contest as providing an educational and professional development role within an academic setting. Six students serve as POYi coordinators each year with the assistance of many other student volunteers. The dedicated six —Katie Wood, Jonathan Stephanoff, Han Cheung, Hye Soo Nah, Kristan Lieb, and Jessica Cherry — sorted thousands of photographs, stories, pages, books, and website links, then orchestrated the technology to display the work during the contest.

An impressive program by the premier winners is slated for the annual POYi Education & Awards Program to be held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on April 29 - 30. Nikon is the exclusive sponsor for the event and will be working in partnership with the Newseum to host this extraordinary recognition of the world’s best photojournalists. The two-day event is free to anyone wishing to attend. Details on the program agenda and accommodations will be posted on this site within the coming days.

Selected winning photographs are available upon request. For more information, feel free to contact POYi director Rick Shaw at 573-864-7691 or email shawrf@missouri.edu.