Jessica Phelps/Newark Advocate
Small Market POY
Annie Glen says goodbye to husband Sen. John Glenn, of 73 years as he lies in honor in the Statehouse Rotunda. John Glenn leaves behind a legacy fit for an American hero. Before becoming a senator, he flew in 149 combat missions and was the first man to orbit Earth from outer space.
ATHENS – Jessica Phelps capped off an extraordinary week in the world of contests winning the ONPA small market Photographer of the Year title for the third year in a row Meg Vogel won the POY title for the large market division.
Phelps also won the first place award for the James R. Gordon Ohio Understanding Award for her entry “The View From Phoenix,” which told the story about eight-year-old Phoenix Lucterhand who was diagnosed with autism. She also won the first place award for the Ron Kuntz Sports Photographer of the Year. Phelps also won first place awards for sports feature and sports picture story and placed second in feature picture story and won an award of excellence in the portrait category.
Earlier in the week Phelps was also named Photojournalist of the Year for small markets in the 2017 Best of Photojournalism competition sponsored by the National Press Photographers.
Meg Vogel/Cincinnati Enquirer, Large Market POY
Rimas, Zina, and Dalal Alhamoud wait with their mother, Ahlam, at the bus stop for their first day of school. It was Rimas’ first day of school ever. She is in kindergarten. Volunteers raised money to buy all the kids school supplies.
She is only the third photographer working in Ohio to win the award. George A. Smallsreed, Jr. from The Columbus Dispatch was the NPPA Photographer of the Year in 1957. In 1973 Kurt E. Smith from the Lorain Journal was the NPPA / Missouri Pictures of the Year Newspaper Photographer of the Year.
In addition to her POY title Vogel placed second in the Ohio Understanding Award for her story which followed a family Syrian refugees for their first year living in this country. Vogel also has six individual wins in the contest and also was a team member in three video entries won by the Enquirer. Andrea Noall from Kent State University won the Chuck Scott Student Photographer of the Year award. Andy Morrison from The (Toledo) Blade was awarded Best of Show in the contest for his story, “Cow & Diann
Kyle Robertson from The Columbus Dispatch was named Clip Photographer of the Year from points accumulated in the Association’s Monthly Clip Contest. Andy Morrison from The (Toledo) Blade won placed second and Barbara Perenic from The Columbus Dispatch won third place.
Sixty visual journalists from across the state submitted 855 entries in the 66th annual news photography contest judged over the last two days at Ohio University. Judging the competition were: Harry Walker, former Director of Visuals Naples Daily News; Tanner Curtis, photo editor at the New York Times; Preston Gannaway, independent visual journalist. Judging multimedia and online entries remotely were: Jessica Koscielniak, Video Journalist with The McClatchy Company,
Aaron Ontiveroz (director of emerging media), Lindsay Pierce (staff videographer), John Sunderland (retired director of photography) – The Denver Post.