MU SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM NAMES 57TH ANNUAL PICTURES OF THE YEAR CONTEST WINNERS

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Winners of the 57th Annual Pictures of the Year (POY) Competition, one of the world's largest and most prestigious photojournalism contests, have been announced by the Missouri School of Journalism.

Judges viewed nearly 31,000 photographs and 1,500 tearsheets submitted by 1,942 newspaper and magazine photographers and editors. A total of 306 awards were given to 240 entrants in 52 different categories. A panel of 13 of the world's leading photographers and editors made the winning selections during 13 days of viewing tearsheets and projecting slides from Feb. 14 through Feb. 28 on the MU campus.

Rob Finch of The Beacon-News (Aurora, IL) was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year, the competition's top award in the newspaper division. Finch's winning portfolio included two stories: "From Hell to Home" documented the Losoya family's search for a new home, and "To be a Mom" told the story of a mother fighting to hold on to her dying son.

John Stanmeyer of SABA Press Photos was named Magazine Photographer of the Year. His winning portfolio included stories about the killing of pro East Timorese independent supporter Joaquim Bernardino Guterres by Indonesian police; the first democratically held elections in Indonesia; and laborers in the central Chinese city of Chong Qing.

Freelance photographer Kari Rene Hall received the Canon Photo Essay Award for her story "Henry: An Unlikely Hero." Her photographs documented Henry's struggle to "stand up for the little people" as he struggled to keep his family together and save their motel room home. Brenda Ann Kenneally, freelance photographer, received the Fuji Community Awareness Award for her essay, "Real Life Stories from the Hip Hop Generation: Money, Power, Respect - The Legacy of Crack Cocaine." The staff of Spokane, Washington's Spokesman-Review won the Angus McDougall Overall Excellence in Editing Award, which is given to the newspaper that excels most consistently throughout the editing division of POY.

New this year is the Public's Best Pictures of the Year Award. Online voters from throughout the world will choose a single Best Picture of the Year and nine runners-up. The nominees, which represent a cross-section of newspaper winners, will be posted on Hewlett-Packard Company's Cartogra Internet site, www.cartogra.com, for one month beginning March 15. Online voters are encouraged to visit the site and cast their ballots. The individual whose ranking of the top five photos most closely matches rankings of all voters will also receive an award. If more than one voter matches the mass rankings, a drawing will be held to pick one winner.

Newspapers collecting the greatest number of awards were The Washington Post with 15, Copley newspapers of northern Illinois with 12, The Spokesman-Review with 11 and The Los Angeles Times with 11. Among magazines, National Geographic received 25 awards while Sports Illustrated won 13 and U.S. News & World Report won 10. Among wire services and agencies, Associated Press and SABA Press Photos each took 10 honors. In addition, 46 winners were freelance photographers and six were students.

Winners will be honored during the annual POY awards ceremonies weekend May 4-5 at The Newseum in Arlington, Va., and Ringe Auditorium of the Smithsonian's Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. The program on May 5 will be open to the public. Major award winners will present and discuss their work at his time.

POY57 Judges included: Nancy Andrews, staff photographer, Washington Post; Lelen Bourgoignie, professor, University of Miami; Bert Fox, illustrations editor, National Geographic; Dan Habib, photo director, Concord Monitor; Loup Langton, director of photography, Copley Chicago Newspapers; Jean Francois LeRoy, general manager, Images Evidence; Bonnie Jo Mount, photo director, The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC; Marcy Nighswander, professor, Ohio University; Evan Nisselson, consultant, Internet Imaging; Brian Peterson, staff photographer, Minneapolis Star Tribune; Fred Sweets, photo editor, Associated Press, Washington, DC; and Judy Walgren, freelance photographer, Dallas.

POY is sponsored by the Missouri School of Journalism and the National Press Photographers Association and funded with gifts from Canon USA, Inc. and Fujifilm Professional. Additional support is provided by the Freedom Forum Newseum, Hewlett-Packard and the National Geographic Photographic and Digital Imaging Laboratory.

POY features more than three times as many categories as any other major photojournalism competition and is the only competition of its kind to be judged in public before an audience of students and professionals.

For further information about POY or to download a complete list of winners, visit the POY web site at www.poy.org/57. A sample of winning photographs will be posted soon.

Editor's Note: A complete list of POY winners is attached.