2004 ONPA Pictures of the Year

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Albany residents, and participants in the annual Demolition Derby at the towns annual fair, stand to attention for the singing of the national anthem.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Erin Jones demands more peas and carrots as his aunt and mother look on, oblivious to the nightly dinnertime melee that is in progress.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Brittany Meece and her date, Jordan Chamberlain, slow dance at the Logan High School Freshman Valentines Dance, February 2004.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

An Ohio University ROTC member completes quarterly training, Wayne National Forest, Feburary 2004

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Rihab Bagnole of Athens dances after her weekly practice for community members.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Christina man's a friends yard sale. In return she can pick out anything she would like.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Electricity is not available in many of the shanty homes of Langa Township. Sylvia Ganiso has only the light from a small window in her home. South Africa, 2004

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Monwabisi (7) plays on a dusty soccer pitch in Khayalitsha Township, South Africa, August 2004. Soccer is the most popular sport among township dwellers and South Africa has just been awarded the 2010 Soccer World Cup bid. “I cannot wait for the World Cup … I think I won’t sleep until then,” says Monwabisi.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Prior to 1994 South African townships were not only the center for the fight against apartheid, but also one of the most visible symbols of its brutality. Ten years of democracy and racial freedom has slowly begun to change this and township tourism, today, is a booming industry. Michal Modricker (German) photographs the inside of a hostel that measures roughly 150 square feet yet sleeps 14 people – including his host who laughs at the prospect of her “house” being special enough to be photographed.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Religion Factor - Brad and Melissa Holmes (Australian) and visiting medical students from Germany are mesmerized by a Moravian church service in Gugulethu Township. Different tour companies use assorted adjectives to market their tours. Brochures describe “Freedom” tours, “Cultural” tours, “Vibrant “ tours and even “Gospel” tours. Churches in the townships welcome tourists who are treated as celebrities and whose donations enable them to keep their doors open.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Begging Factor - A local kid tugs at the hand of Rashid Mosajee (American) as he and the rest of the foreigners on his tour of Langa Township stroll around the squalor of the hostel dwellings. Begging is highly discouraged by the tour operators but, without fail, kids will take any opportunity given to them to ask for money or sweets.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Crushing Pride Factor - Tourists on the Grassroots “Freedom Tour” walk around Khayalitsha Township weaving in and out of the community’s clean laundry.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Economy Factor - Birthe Steiner (German) shops for Christmas presents. Advocates of township tourism hail it as driving another wedge into the walls built by decades of Apartheid and a positive force in the reconstruction of South Africa. Tourism within townships has created jobs – in a place where jobs are solely needed. Statistics show that roughly only 30% of township residents have formal employment and becoming involved in tourism – either directly or indirectly – literally puts food on the table.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Unscripted Factor - Darryl Hammond (British) strolls around Landile Township. Despite trying to tell an uplifting story of life in a township where changes in the new South Africa have enabled residents here to overcome hardship – tourists don’t need a scripted tour to tell the true story of conditions here.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Invasion of Privacy Factor - Tourists visit a local home in Langa Township while one of its residents nonchalantly irons his pants while he gets ready for work. Invasion of privacy has been one of the biggest criticisms leveled at tour companies operating in the townships.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Sharing Factor - An elderly hostel dweller enthralls a 'Rainbow Tours' tour group with stories of life in the hostels during the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Interaction Factor - Cherie Althauser (British) cautiously takes a sip from a rusty can full of ‘Umqomboti’ (traditional sorghum beer) in a local ‘shebeen’ (informal tavern) while her daughter, Cassie, looks on. Township tours have been criticized in the South African media for being too much like patronizing safari-style events –where tourists merely stay on their buses, observing the townships from its windows. Many tour operators have added the shebeen visit to their tour itinerary to enable tourists to meet and interact with locals.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

The Reality Factor - Maggie and Jan Dijkstra (Dutch) look through the rearview mirror as they leave Khayalitsha Township. Having just witnessed the absurd conditions that more than fifty percent of Cape Town's population live under, the couple head back to the five star hotel where they will be staying. When this couple looks back at their experience in a South African township will they see it as a day trip to a real live theme park – or as the reality of someone else’s life?

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Spray-painted in thick black letters onto the wall of a trailer the word ‘HELP’ greets you has you enter Pine-Aire Village. The high school drop out rate in Appalachian Ohio is three times the national average, drug and alcohol abuse are rampant in this trailer park and physical and mental abuse are daily occurrences on its streets. This is the story of Brittany, Anthony, Chris, Andy, Sonya, Christine and Elijah - just some of the children of Pine-Aire Village. Christine watches her brothers outside her home.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Despite living in poverty and being involved with alcohol and drugs - on the surface these kids still do what kids everywhere do: play.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

It is a weekday afternoon and Christine’s jobless mother and stepfather look on as George – a stray dog that has made his home with the family – attacks her with licks.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Elijah has the chicken pox and is under his young sisters care while his parents are at work.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

"He's my favorite," says Christine, holding her yard sale purchase: a laminated poster of Dale Earnhardt's last lap before his death.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

After a long day at work Tara Reid can't seem to move from the couch to control the chaos in their home. "I don't live here because I want to, I live here because I have to," she says.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Greg works the night shift at a nearby gas station. Fatherhood duties, however, keep him from sleeping during the day. While his wife readies his eldest daughter for a local beauty pageant - he has to look after his youngest child.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Sonja and her step father fight on a Sunday afternoon.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Brittany hugs her grandfather and begs for $2 to spend at a neighboring yard sale.

First Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Samantha Reinders / Ohio University

Chris bows his dizzy head after chewing tobacco. "It makes me feel spacey ... I even do it at school," he says. Just weeks after this photograph was taken Chris decided to drop out of school all together.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Athens police and sheriff deputies tend to a young woman found alone and incapacitated in front of an apartment complex on Court Street in Athens during the town's annual Halloween celebration October 30, 2004.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Marie Miller (far right) is overcome by emotion in her home while looking through family photographs of her daughter Maggie M. Woltz, 12, and sister-in-law Velvet Miller Perkins, 26, in Shawnee, Ohio on August 16, 2004. Earlier that day, an auto accident took the life of Miller's daughter who was a passenger in a car traveling to inform another family member of the carbon monoxide poisoning death of Miller's sister-in-law. Giving consolation, second from right, is Tammy Cagg, the 12-year-old girl's aunt. At left are family members Crystal Taylor (far left) and Carol Francis.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

U.S. Marine Corp Lance Corporal Kyle Blumenstock, a 2003 Grove City High School graduate was recently injured during a battle in Fallujah, Iraq. He received the Purple Heart for sustaining major injuries which caused temporary hearing loss and severe eye damage. In his honor, Cate's Steakhouse hosted a celebration November 27, 2004 to welcome him home to Grove City. Shown are three of the four members of the color guard practicing their rifle movements before the ceremony.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

"This is what I can do for the people I know who are on the wall," says volunteer Charles Kennedy, shown standing watch over the Moving Wall-The Vietnam Wall Experience, a 252-foot traveling replica of the Washington, D.C. monument, at Kingswood Memorial Park north of Columbus, August 27, 2004. Kennedy, a veteran from Lithopolis, who served in the U.S. Army 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam from December 1967 - December 1968, has volunteered two other times in past years when the wall has come to Ohio.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Kelly Busch, an Ohio University freshman from Brunswick waits to make a hit while playing a pickup game of volleyball with other residence hall residents near Nelson Commons on the Athens campus, September 13, 2004. The students from Brown, MacKinnon, Crawford, and Pickering Halls regularly meet on fall weeknights to play such pickup games.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Sixth-grade chorus-members Myeisha Scott (facing) and Morgan Rako (right) joke-around backstage during a practice for New Albany Middle School's production of "Fools", December 1, 2004. Also waiting to go on stage is sixth-grade chorus member Amanda Poll.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Jorge, the one-named lead singer of The Casualties, takes a ride over fans while performing as part of the Vans Warped Tour at Germain Amphitheater in Columbus, on August 17, 2004. Singing-along with the musician is rock fan Jared Siculan of Columbus.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Paul Reininga, afflicted with Paranoid Schizophrenia, has long been a participant in the Athens Photographic Project, a program helping those with mental illness increase self-esteem and express themselves artistically. Nicknamed "Two-Liter" by some for always having a soda bottle with him, Reininga is often seen roaming the streets of Athens looking for line, texture, color, and interesting people to photograph. Here, Reininga takes note of numerous satellite dishes atop a building in the city.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

The Reds' Jacob Kuhn, 6, makes a leaping attempt to catch an incoming throw to first base, but misses, during a North Columbus Intramural League T-Ball game at Whetstone Park in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus, on July 14, 2004.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Hockingport, Ohio was once a major port city along the Ohio River. Today, it is more of a township, consisting of campers, trailers and mobile homes occupying the riverfront. Hockingport residents make last minute attempts to salvage vehicles, trailers, and personal effects at the bottom of Grand Street on September 18, 2004. The cresting of the Hocking and Ohio Rivers left some people in Hockingport with more than five feet of water inside their homes and businesses.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

John Schwarzel, owner of Schwarzel Marine on State Route OH-124, tiredly wipes his face during a long day of flood cleanup at his shop on September 30, 2004. Schwarzel, who has lived in Hockingport and run his business since the mid-1960s, said that he's never seen such a flood. $1 Million-worth of Schwarzel's new and used boating motors were submerged or touched by the muddy floodwaters.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Hockingport resident Bob Martin attempts to salvage his upholstered armchair outside his poll barn on September 23, 2004. Martin, a builder by trade, sustained damages to vehicles, tools and supplies in the barn - anything lower than 5 feet off the ground.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Blaine Schwarzel and wife Amanda stand aside in their living room as an insurance adjuster takes measurements and accounts of the damage sustained to the Schwarzels' trailer on Pine Lane, Sunday, September 26, 2004. All of the furniture and carpeting were discarded, and even some of the children's toys floated-away down-river. The adjuster declared the dwelling totaled and the family soon began looking through catalogs for a new mobile home.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

Todd May, a friend of the Schwarzel family, tells a tall-tale while helping discard carpeting and other furnishings from Blaine and Amanda Schwarzel's trailer on September 22, 2003.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

After floodwaters receded, a houseboat and debris sat washed-up along the banks of the Ohio River along State Route OH-124 just outside of Hockingport, September 22, 2004.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

With his parking lot converted into a clean-up center, John Schwarzel, owner of Schwarzel Marine, sorts through a mess of boat engine parts and tools that were submerged in floodwater, wiping as he goes, September 22, 2004. Schwarzel's friends and frequent customers also came and volunteered their time to help make order. Almost two weeks after the waters receded, less than half of the cleanup was complete.

Second Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Michael P. King / Ohio University

A personal message to the Ohio River from the Lantz and Kathy Repp family sits in a screen-window on their porch at their year-round home on Grand Street, September 26, 2004. "I've lived [near the river] for 35 years and I'm going to stay," says Kathy. Drywall, carpet, and furniture were all discarded from the house that was built in 1982 and recently renovated.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., tries to connect with voters during a rally at The University of Akron, March 14, 2004. Kerry assured the room full of supporters that help is on the way.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

A Rootstown Township fire medic treats an unidentified elderly man after a six-point buck crashed through the windshield of the van he was driving on Interstate 76, Oct. 24, 2004, in Brimfield Township. The collision killed the buck while causing a female passenger to suffer a head injury.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Greg Owen (right) cries on the shoulder of his wife Deborah Owen, as their 4-year-old daughter Emma, holds a rose at the gravesite of Greg's father, Birmingham, Ala., Police Officer Carlos Winston Owen, June 21, 2004 at Jefferson Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Turssville, Ala. Officer Owen was one of three police officers killed June 17 as they attempted to deliver a warrant.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Barry Trash takes part in a demonstration on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, Oct. 5, 2004, during the vice presidential debate in Cleveland. Republican and Democratic supporters gathered in an open field to show support for their candidates as Vice President Cheney and Sen. John Edwards debated in a nearby building.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Family and friends of Birmingham, Ala., Police Officer Carlos Winston Owen pause for a moment as an American Flag is draped over his coffin after a funeral service, June 21, 2004, in Argo, Ala. Owen was one of three police officers killed June 17 while attempting to deliver a search warrant.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

A mourner holds a Confederate flag as she waits in line to pay respect to Alberta Martin, June 12, 2004 in Curtis, Ala. Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died May 31.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Western Michigan's Brian Snider, (33), tries to take control of the ball as Kent State University's Matt Jakeway, braces for a fall during the during the first period of play, Jan. 21, 2004 at Kent State University. Kent State beat Western Michigan 84-71.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

St. Henry's Kyle Rosenbeck, (center) celebrates with his team after defeating Amanda Clearcreek 35-7 during the Division V championship game Dec. 4, 2004, in Massillon.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Members of the Walsh Jesuit High School basketball team jump to their feet as their teammate attempts a shot at the buzzer March 11, 2004 in Stow. Walsh Jesuit beat Keystone, 77-73 in double overtime.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Semi-truck driver Andy Lundy, 29, of Mobile, Ala., warms up before his fight in the Toughman Contest, July 9, 2004, in Dothan, Ala. Lundy, competing in the heavyweight division and known by the boxing name of the "Cowboy," wears a cowboy hat for good luck.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Eldora Boges dings the bell for the start of another round during the Toughman Contest, July 9, 2004, in Dothan, Ala. The contest created 23 years ago in Bay City, Mich., consist of three, one-minute rounds, and requires that participants use 16-ounce-boxing gloves, headgear, and a padded kidney belt.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Semi-truck driver Andy "Cowboy" Lundy, 29, of Mobile, Ala., squares up to deliver a punch to his opponent Army soldier Steven "Mad Dog" Drake, 21, of Fort Benning, Ga., during the Toughman Contest, July 9, 2004, in Dothan, Ala. Lundy first became interested in boxing nearly two years ago.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Semi-truck driver Andy Lundy, 29, of Mobile, Ala., takes a break between rounds of the Toughman Contest, July 9, 2004, in Dothan, Ala. The contest requires participants train for a minimum of 30 days, compete within their weight division, pass a pre-fight medical physical and be examined after their fight.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Boxers exchange punches during the Toughman Contest, July 9, 2004, in Dothan, Ala. The contest held in the Dothan Civic Center is a two-day event in which over almost $3000 in prize money will be awarded.

Third Place, Student Photographer of the Year - Haraz Ghanbari / Kent State University

Boxing referee John Cade holds up the arm of semi-truck driver Andy "Cowboy" Lundy after he defeated Army soldier Steven "Mad Dog" Drake, during a three-round match of the Toughman Contest, July 9, 2004, in Dothan, Ala.