Denver Post Photogs Win Top Prize In E&P Contest

Denver Post Photogs Win Top Prize In E&P Contest

A panel of distinguished judges has awarded The Denver Post team of Craig F. Walker, Meghan Lyden, and Tim Rasmussen the grand prize in Editor & Publisher's 2009 Photos of the Year competition.

The winning entry, “ Ian Fisher: American Soldier,” chronicled with extraordinary photographs, videos, and print—over the course of 27 months—the recruitment, induction, training, deployment to Iraq, and return from combat of Ian Fisher. This was the first year that video/multimedia entries were judged.

Twenty-four other winners in six categories (spanning four circulation groups), including in first-time Portraits and Video/Multimedia categories, were honored. This year also was the first time E&P recognized one winner in the Unpublished Photo on Assignment category and in the extremely popular People’s Choice award competition. Ten People’s Choice photo and six video/multimedia honorable mentions were recognized this year.

Walker took the Denver Post pictures and shot the video. Tim Rasmussen, the paper's assistant managing editor/ photography, and Lyden, the online photo editor, edited and managed the multimedia offerings.

A gallery of select winning photos appears in E&P’s November issue. All photos, including those from the multiple image category, and an audio interview with Rasmussen, will be available late Monday at www.editorandpublisher.com.

(Editor & Publisher, like PDN, is a Nielsen Business Media publication.)

Newspaper print photos, online news photos, and video/multimedia published since Sept. 13, 2008 were eligible for award consideration. Photos selected as E&P’s Photos of the Week or Photos of the Month between Sept. 13, 2008, and Sept. 13, 2009, were automatically entered.

“Despite budget cuts at most newspapers, the number and quality of entries this year remained strong,” said Greg Mitchell, E&P’s editor. “This was a year of firsts for this competition, including exciting new categories and a video/multimedia submission winning top honors. This also was the first time final winners were selected by photo editors from major newspapers and magazines."

Among the judges were Colin Crawford, deputy managing editor/visuals, Los Angeles Times; Santiago Lyon, director of photography, The Associated Press; Alan Taylor, Web developer and blogger, The Boston Globe/Big Picture; and PDN photo editor Amber Terranova.

As the grand prize winners, Walker, Lyden, and Rasmussen receive $1,000, with a sample of their winning submission appearing on the November 2009 cover of E&P.

Rasmussen told E&P that, in addition to his photos and video, Walker’s extensive written notes were “absolutely essential” in providing details and fleshing out the multi-part print series.