Lisa DeJong from The Plain Dealer has been chosen ONPA Photographer of the Year for 2010 by the Ohio News Photographers Association. It is the second POY win for DeJong who also won for her work in 2008. Finishing second in competition was Gus Chan from The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and third was Eric Albrecht, from The Columbus Dispatch.
There were no awards given in the Small Market division. Listen to an audio file with comments from the judges about their decision in this category.
The James R. Gordon Ohio Understanding Award was awarded to the photography staff at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer for County Corruption, which told the story of the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal that began in 2008.
Joel Hawksley from Ohio University won the Student Photographer of the Year award. Maddie McGarvey from Ohio University won the Larry Fullerton Photojournalism Scholarship. Hawksley placed second in the category.
Gus Chan of The Plain Dealer was awarded Best of Show in the contest for his entry, Blessing of the Water.
Sixty two visual journalists from across the state submitted 848 entries in the 60th annual news photography contest judged at The Columbus Dispatch.
Judging the competition were: Danese Kenon, multimedia journalist at the Indianapolis Star, Boyzell Hosey, director of photography St. Petersburg Times, Ross Taylor, staff photographer at the Virginia Pilot.
Judging multimedia and online entries remotely were: Soctt Anger, former director of video at the Los Angeles Times, McKenna Ewen, multimedia producer at The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, Regina McCombs, Poynter Institute faculty member, Richard Koci Hernandez who teaches multimedia at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Jen Ackermanan, an award-winning photographer and producer. based in Minneapolis.