Statement of Judging Ethics

Pictures of the Year International selects judges who maintain the highest journalistic and ethical standards. We have confidence that these same values will apply as jurors for POYi. We recognize that our profession is a close network and that the judges are also working journalists. So, we carefully research and consider any potential conflicts and then counsel all the members about their obligations to be fair and impartial. Any judge with entries in a category are asked to recuse themselves. The entire three weeks of judging is an open forum for anyone to quietly observe the process. POYi conducts the annual competition with complete transparency and integrity.

POY82 JUDGES AND MODERATORS

JUDGING PANELS

NEWS
Feb. 3–7 (in person)

Mitsu Yasukawa

Mitsu Yasukawa was born and raised in Japan, where he first discovered a love for photography in high school. He dreamt of moving to theU.S. and becoming a fashion photographer. However, a few years later, he changed his career to photojournalism. Since then, he has worked as staff photographer with four major newspapers in NYC and New Jersey for more than 35 years until his retirement in 2022.two years ago.

His work has been published at Newsday, the New York Daily News, The Star Ledger and The Record/Northjersey.com. In between staff jobs, he freelanced with The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.

He has covered rallies, features, portraits, sports and major news events including the Crown Heights riot in 1991, Bill Clinton’s acceptance speech during the 1992 Democratic National Convention the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima Atomic Bomb in 1995, Vietnam refugees in Hong Kong in 1996 and 9/11.He was the recipient of dozens national and local awards including the Pulitzer Prize as a member of Newsday’s team that covered the 1991 Union Square subway derailment that killed five and injure more than 200 people. including being double awarded from the NY Press Club and Silurian Press Club in the feature category “Down and Out on 5th Avenue” in 1989. As the first Japanese photojournalist to receive this recognition, he was featured in two national Japanese news programs, “News Station” and “Zoom in, Asa.” photojournalist in NYC.

He was a member of the Newsday team that won a Pulitzer Prize for the coverage of the Union Square subway derailment in 1991 that killed five and injured more than 200 people. Almost 2 years period coverage due to 9/11 tragedy, the project “The View from Schley Mountain” was recognized by NPPA in 2002 and exhibited by the Star Ledger at a local library in 2002 and an exhibit of his work hosted by Star Ledger at a public library. Mitsu believes we are all eyewitnesses of the moments that inspire us in daily life and his desire is to educate and nurture through visual art. He currently works as a freelancer both as a photographer and videographer in NY and NJ.

Delcia López

Delcia I. López is a distinguished photojournalist based in McAllen, Texas, specializing in visual storytelling across documentary, editorial, sports, travel, corporate, and food photography. She currently serves as a staff photo editor and photographer at The Monitor in McAllen. With 38 years of experience in newspaper photography, Delcia has worked with prominent outlets, including the San Antonio Express-News, The Monitor, and as a freelancer along the Texas/Mexico border for the Associated Press.

A proud native of Edinburg, Texas, Delcia has spent over four decades capturing the stories of the Rio Grande Valley with unparalleled dedication. A self-taught photojournalist who studied at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (formerly UT Pan American), her work has been featured in newspapers and magazines across the United States. Known for her keen eye and fearless journalism, Delcia has earned numerous accolades and awards for her contributions to the field.

Throughout her career, Delcia has remained committed to her roots, returning to Edinburg time and again to shed light on the unique stories of the region. Her photography offers a nuanced perspective on border life, tackling complex issues such as immigration while celebrating the everyday lives of Rio Grande Valley residents.

Nationally recognized for her exceptional sports photography, Delcia has documented the achievements of RGV athletes and teams, creating a lasting historical record. Despite opportunities to work for major media companies across the country, she chose to dedicate her talents to enriching the region she calls home.

Beyond her photography, Delcia has a rare talent for uncovering compelling stories. Her newsroom colleagues often credit her with finding unique angles and trends that spark insightful coverage, showcasing her instinctive knack for storytelling.

Delcia López is not only a gifted photographer but also a passionate advocate for the Rio Grande Valley, using her lens to illuminate its challenges and celebrate its triumphs.

John Kim

Endless adjectives can be used to describe news photographs: exciting, troubling, frightening, joyous, insightful, infuriating, vain, hopeful, ugly, beautiful and more. To work as a photojournalist sometimes includes all of those words on the same day. And then there's truth. Telling the truth with a camera still means exactly that, but the headwinds we face from technology, social media, political influence — and most things "influence," really — make telling the truth harder than ever amid all this noise.

So in these times, I am super looking forward to viewing tens of thousands of pictures, alongside smart, sincere and skilled editors and photographers, that hopefully get at the truth - in their many joyous, ugly, troubling and beautiful forms.

Hello, I work as a photographer for the Chicago Tribune. Previously, I worked at the Chicago Sun-Times, the Oakland Tribune and in 2011 was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting with two co-workers named Frank and Mark. I graduated from the University of Illinois and had perfect attendance in high school.

Cecilia Bohan

Cecilia Bohan is a distinguished visual journalist and photo editor with over 30 years of experience at The New York Times. She has a strong background in international news, overseeing several award-winning projects, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning assignments in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2002. Cecilia has juried prestigious awards including the Visa pour l’Image Visa d'or Award and the Overseas Press Club Awards. She was also the first director of photography at the International Herald Tribune, in Paris, where she brought photography into the conversation in the newsroom.

In addition to her editorial work, Cecilia served as a Photo Content Manager for the USTA US Open for several years and took on the role of Photo Venue Manager at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She has also curated exhibitions and led symposiums that brought together photojournalists from diverse backgrounds. This past year, she helped start and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Peaks Island News, a print-only newspaper in her hometown in Maine. As former Chairman of the Board of the Bronx Documentary Center, she dedicated herself to sharing photography, film, and new media with underserved Bronx communities.

Cecilia began her career with an internship at GEO Magazine and later worked at The Associated Press. She holds a BA in English Literature with a minor in Fine Art Photography from Washington University in St. Louis. Cecilia is passionate about discovering and nurturing emerging photographers, having collaborated with many notable photographers at the start of their careers.

Tara Pixley

Tara Pixley, Ph.D. is a Jamaican-American photographer, filmmaker, and professor based in Philadelphia. Her visual journalism reframes race, gender, health, climate futures, LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities through a solutions lens. Her writing and photography have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Allure, People, HuffPost, Nieman Reports, and ESPN, among many others. She has been named a Reynolds Journalism Innovation Fellow, Pulitzer Center Grantee, World Press Photo Solutions Visual Journalism grantee and a Knight Fellow at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation. She has been a contract photo editor for Newsweek, The New York Times, CNN, Bloomsbury and most recently for The 19th.

Tara is Vice-President of the National Press Photographers Association, on the Photo Ethics Centre Advisory Board and on the Board of Directors for stock image co-op Stocksy. She is a co-founder and executive director of Authority Collective — an organization dedicated to establishing equity for women of color in visual media. Her book Critical Photojournalism: Contemporary Ethics & Practices, co-authored with Judy Walgren, will be out with Routledge Press in Spring 2025.

SPORTS
Feb. 8–10 (in person)

Elijah Walker

Elijah S. Walker is a photo editor at The New York Times who covers various sections including Styles, Science, Metro and Sports. He was previously a photo editor for National Geographic. Elijah is from Rochester, NY and received his bachelor’s degree in Photojournalism from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

He started his journey as a photo editor almost 10 years ago as an intern working for The New York Times. He has covered many topics including faith healing in Venezuela, issues of race and traffic stops, Olympics amid a pandemic and more.

Briana Sanchez

Briana Sanchez is a visual journalist based in Austin, Texas. Sanchez is currently the director of photography at the Austin American-Statesman. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelors in journalism and is a Chips Quinn Scholars alum. Sanchez spent the first few years of her career working as a photojournalist at small dailies in Minnesota. She then moved to South Dakota and spent time covering indigenous issues, daily news and high school and college sports. In 2019, Sanchez got the opportunity to head back home to El Paso where she worked as a photojournalist at the El Paso Times covering the border. She now lives in Austin and leads the photo team at the Austin American-Statesman.

Jennifer Buchanan

Jennifer Moriguchi Buchanan is a photographer based in Seattle. After earning a degree in biology from the University of Washington, Jennifer accepted a staff photojournalist position at The Everett Herald. Among many assignments for the Herald, great and small, Jennifer has covered two Super Bowls, a Winter Olympics and, on slower days, city council meetings. She left The Herald in March 2014 to work as a photo editor for MSN, Bing and the Seattle Seahawks and as a photographer for USA Today Sports Images, the Associated Press, the University of Washington and TOM BIHN Bags.

In August of 2021, she accepted her dream job and now works as a staff photographer for The Seattle Times. At the Times, Jennifer has pursued making story-telling sports photographs as well as working on quieter narratives about PFAS contamination in drinking water and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

In her spare time, she competes in triathlons, skis whenever she can and travels the world with her husband, Joe.

Elizabeth Conley

Elizabeth Conley is a senior staff photographer at the Houston Chronicle, with over 20 years of professional photojournalism experience. Before joining the Chronicle, she worked for over a decade at The Detroit News, specializing in long-term multimedia projects and sports photography. Her career includes recognition as a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and honors from organizations like the National Press Photographers Association, Texas APME, and Editor and Publisher Magazine. Conley has participated in various fellowships, including the International Women’s Media Foundation fellowship (Tanzania, 2017), the International Journalism for Environmental Reporting fellowship (North Dakota, 2016), the Kalish Photo Editing fellowship (2010), and the Kiplinger Fellowship for Public Affairs at Ohio State University (2009).

Conley's work reflects her passion for storytelling through visual mediums, a craft she continues to cherish as she captures diverse narratives in Houston and beyond.

REPORTAGE
Feb. 12–16 (in person)

Gabriel V. Cárdenas

Gabriel V. Cárdenas is an independent visual storyteller based in McAllen, Texas. He frequently contributes to The New York Times, Reuters, The Texas Tribune, and other outlets. His personal work often explores themes of immigration and identity.

Gabriel has participated in mentorship programs with esteemed photojournalists, including James Estrin, Ed Kashi, Lynn Johnson, and Emily Jan through Women Photograph. Until recently, much of his work was published under the name Verónica G. Cárdenas.

In 2018, he attended the prestigious Eddie Adams Workshop and was named an Adelante Fellow by the International Women’s Media Foundation. His contributions to the documentary Border Hustle, produced by The Texas Tribune and TIME in 2019, earned a Peabody Award nomination. In 2020, Gabriel served as a field producer in Matamoros, Mexico, for This American Life episode 688, “The Out Crowd,” which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

This year, Gabriel received the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ “Ñ Award” for his photography project, On the Texas Border, Folk Healers Bring Modern Touches to Their Ancient Practice.

Eve Edelheit

Eve Edelheit is a photo editor at The New York Times, assigned to the Metro desk, which focuses on New York City and the tri-state area. Previously, she worked on The Times’s digital team, covering breaking national and global news and curating homepage presentations. Her editing work has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International, NPPA Best of Photojournalism and the Newswomen’s Club of New York.

Before editing, Eve worked as a photojournalist for more than a decade, first as a staff photographer for the Tampa Bay Times in Florida and then as an independent photographer. Her clients included The New York Times, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She studied photojournalism at the University of Missouri and the Danish School of Journalism and now lives with her family in Brooklyn.

Cara Owsley

Cara Owsley is a national award-winning visual journalist/director of photography at the Cincinnati Enquirer.

In 2018 The Cincinnati Enquirer won a Pulitzer Prize in the local reporting category. The story "Seven Days of Heroin" was recognized by the Pulitzer board "for a riveting and insightful narrative and video documenting seven days of greater Cincinnati's heroin epidemic, revealing how the deadly addiction has ravaged families and communities." Owsley was a photojournalist and photo editor for the project.

Before working for The Enquirer, Owsley was a staff photojournalist at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi, and The Repository in Canton, Ohio. Owsley has been in the industry for 28 years.

Owsley found her love of photojournalism while attending Western Kentucky University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in photojournalism.

Owsley serves on the board of the Greater Cincinnati Pro Chapter Society of Professional Journalists and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She is also an active member of Cincinnati Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

May-Ying Lam

May-Ying Lam is a freelance visual journalist based in Austin, Texas. She works with national and local publications as a photographer, including Texas Tribune, The Washington Post, and Houston Landing. She also contributes to The New York Times as a photo editor, where she has worked on national, science, metro and politics desks. She is particularly interested in environment and climate stories, as well as exploring how visual innovation can intersect with traditional photojournalism.

Lam began her career at The Washington Post as an online photo desk editor, and later moved to editing Style, Weekend, Sunday Arts, and the Magazine. From 2021 to 2023, she served as the NPPA Clips Contest Chair.

Erika P. Rodríguez

Erika P. Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican freelance photographer based in San Juan, P.R. With over a decade of experience covering her homeland for national & international publications, her documentary work delves into the intersections of identity and memory seen through the sociopolitical complexities of Puerto Rico as the oldest colony of the modern world. She seeks to counter the insular Caribbean visual stereotype and its legacy as “paradise.”

Rodríguez earned a degree in Visual Journalism at Brooks Institute in Calif. and has studied at the University of Puerto Rico. She has extensively documented the archipelago through its economic crisis, political turmoil, its slow recovery from climate and natural disasters, and the displacement and disenfranchisement of locals. After the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017, Rodríguez was one of the leading photographers covering the devastating aftermath that cost the lives of over three thousand people.

She is a regular contributor to The New York Times, and has worked with The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Businessweek, and Foreign Policy, among others. Her work has been showcased at the Photoville Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the first Latin American Photo Fest in N.Y., and is part of the book ‘Latinx Photography in the United States: A Visual History'. Rodríguez is a recipient of the Bridging the Divides fellowship from Hunter College & Princeton University. She is a member of Diversify, Authority Collective, and Women Photograph.

PRINT EDITING
Feb. 18–19 (virtual)

Michele Cardon

Orange County Register director of photography Michele Cardon has worked at The Register and the Southern California News Group for over 35 years. Her editing skills have been honored by the National Press Photographer Association, Society of News Design and Pictures of the Year. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism. As a photo editor, Michele has covered events such as the World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Championship, Oscars, Emmys, Los Angeles riots, and the Laguna Beach firestorm.

Martha Asencio-Rhine

Martha is director for photography features and projects at the Tampa Bay Times, where she has worked since 2019. She coordinates multimedia coverage as well as photographer-led content like photo essays and photo and video packages. Her work has been featured in several award-winning projects, including “Poisoned,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2022. Martha’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, ABC News and more.

She is a graduate of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, with a degree in mass communications and journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). She grew up in St. Petersburg but is originally from the Dominican Republic.

Jose R. Lopez

Jose R. Lopez is a former staff photographer and picture editor for The New York Times. He was a member of the picture editing team that won both Pulitzers in 2002 for the coverage of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He worked in the Washington, D.C. Bureau of the Times covering three Presidential administrations, Reagan, Bush (41) and Clinton.

Lopez taught the photojournalism aspect of The New York Times Student Journalism Institute which brought together college students from across the country to work with and learn journalistic standards and ethics from Times staffers who committed themselves to this endeavor.

Lopez took the buyout offered in 2015 and retired after a 31-year career at The Times. He continues to work for them on a freelance basis. For the past six years, he has documented the process of the judging of the Pulitzer Prizes which is held on the campus of Columbia University in New York City. He is the first photographer that has been allowed into the inner sanctum of this prestigious affair. He lives with his wife, journalist and author, Caitlin Kelly, in Tarrytown, New York.

Mikki Harris

An alumna of Spelman College with a graduate degree in Journalism from Boston University, Mikki K. Harris is a multimedia journalist whose work over the past 20 years has focused on community-based power as examined through the tools of journalism and cultural studies. Mikki is a photojournalist by training. She has served as a Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute, has photographed six of the past eight US Presidents, and has worked as a photojournalist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today and the Newark Star-Ledger.

Mikki uses oral history, documentary photojournalism and video, as well as writing to document and shape stories of impact. Her story on the island of Barbuda in National Geographic provide a look into this work, and is published in the “The Best Science and Nature Writing 2022.” Mikki became a certified drone pilot in 2019 and founded the Atlanta Drone Lab to expand the certification and participation of Black storytellers using drones. In addition to drone technology, Mikki produces stories in Virtual Reality while designing and teaching digital media and visual innovation courses at Morehouse College.

ONLINE EDITING
Feb. 21–22 (virtual)

Andrea Wise

Andrea Wise is the visual strategy editor at ProPublica, where she visually edits investigations into abuses of power with an emphasis on documentary photography and editorial illustration. She is also the co-founder of Diversify Photo, a community-based organization committed to creating a more inclusive and equitable visual media industry. As a photo editor, she has also worked with National Geographic, Newsweek, BuzzFeed News, The Intercept, and more. She has juried competitions for the Overseas Press Club, Getty Images, American Photography, and the Society of Professional Journalists. She earned her M.S. in Photography from Syracuse University and her B.A. in Studio Arts from Trinity College, and she is an alum of the Eddie Adams Workshop, the Kalish Visual Editing Workshop, and the Mountain Workshops.

Jillian Kumagai

Jillian Kumagai is a visuals producer and editor at Reuters, specializing in presenting photojournalism and enterprise storytelling. Previously, she edited visuals for six years at ProPublica, and before that was an editorial fellow at The Atlantic.

Her work as an editor has been exhibited by Photoville and CatchLight and recognized by American Photography and Photo District News. She has served as faculty at the Missouri Workshop and on judging panels for the Pulitzer Center and the National Magazine Awards. She is an alum of Barnard College.

Danese Kenon

Danese Kenon is a seasoned visual educator and coach with nearly 20 years of experience in photojournalism. A Virginia State University graduate with a bachelor’s in English, she began her career at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, NY. She later earned a master’s in photography from Syracuse University’s SI Newhouse School of Communications. Kenon’s career has taken her to Pittsburgh, Tampa, and now Philadelphia, where she serves as the managing editor of visuals at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Passionate about storytelling, she leverages her expertise to inspire and empower through visual narratives and education.

Alyssa Goodman

Alyssa Goodman has been a photo editor at the Associated Press for 11 years. She has edited high-profile events ranging from Super Bowls and Olympics to the war in Ukraine. Currently, she works for AP’s global climate and environment team, leading photographers on assignments worldwide.

Goodman graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in photojournalism.

DOCUMENTARY
Feb. 23–24 (virtual)

Shweta Gulati

Shweta Gulati is a video producer and editor on the immersive experiences team at National Geographic. In her role, she has spent time working across platforms including Instagram, TikTok, and the National Geographic website to create video-led editorial stories. Her work has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International, The Society of Publication Designers, and NPPA Best of Photojournalism awards. With a Master of Science in Multimedia, Photography, and Design from Syracuse University, and a Master of Computer Science from the University of Texas, Austin, Shweta brings a unique blend of technical and creative skills to her work.

Andrea Patiño

Andrea Patiño Contreras is an Emmy-nominated video journalist from Bogotá, Colombia. She is based in Boston, where she produces, shoots and edits documentaries. Most of her work revolves around questions of migration, mobility and gender and sexual violence both in the U.S. and across Latin America. Her 2022 film, #IamVanessaGuillen explores the mental health impact of survivors of military sexual violence. The film was a finalist for a Livingston Award in National Reporting.

Andrea’s work has also been recognized by the Hillman Foundation, the National Murrow Awards, the Gracie Awards, Picture of the Year International and Fundación Gabo de Periodismo among others. She is the co-founder of the studio Rabbit Raccoon and a ceramics artist when she is not working behind the camera. She is a 2024 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where she studied how journalists can improve trauma-informed practices when reporting on vulnerable populations, particularly survivors of sexual violence.

Joshua Bickel

Joshua A. Bickel is a visual journalist with The Associated Press where he covers climate change and environmental issues. Before joining the AP in 2023, Josh was a staff photojournalist for more than a decade at newspapers in Missouri, Wyoming and Ohio. At the AP, Josh focuses on humanizing the impacts of climate change through video, photos and text. His stories have ranged from crab fishers in Alaska, polar bears in Canada’s Hudson Bay and families on the Navajo Nation.

Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, Josh earned his undergraduate degree in journalism and Spanish from the University of Kansas before earning his master’s at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. In 2021, Josh was a finalist in Pictures of the Year’s Local Photographer of the Year category. His work has also been recognized by NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism and the Press Club of Atlantic City.

Josh lives in Cincinnati with his wife and their two daughters. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, all things music-related and tending to his ever-growing collection of houseplants.

Jaqueline Baylon

Jacqueline is a Mexican filmmaker whose work focuses on civil rights injustices and immigration stories from different corners of the world. Her impactful work includes covering stories such as the accusations against Turkey for cutting water supplies in northeast Syria, the experiences of protesting as an undocumented immigrant in the United States, and the harrowing reality of the oxygen supply crisis in Peru during the pandemic. She has worked for news organizations across the U.S., including The New York Times. She currently produces and directs short documentaries. Jacqueline's debut short film "Until He's Back" tells the story of a Moroccan father’s journey to recover his son’s body after it washed up on a sun-soaked Spanish beach far from home. The film is shortlisted for the 97th Academy Awards. She was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and was raised in El Paso, Texas.

MODERATORS

Marie D. De Jesús

Director of Pictures of the Year (POY) and Co-director of College Photographer of the Year (CPOY)
Reynolds Journalism Institute

Marie D. De Jesús is the director of Pictures of the Year (POY) and co-director of College Photographer of the Year (CPOY) programs at RJI. The two international photojournalism competitions are respected worldwide as a leader in recognizing the best in visual journalism.

Before coming to Mizzou, Marie served as the founding director of photography for the Houston Landing and worked as a staff photojournalist for the Houston Chronicle, where she concentrated on developing relationships with Houston’s diverse communities.

Prior to working for the Chronicle, Marie worked for the Democrat and Chronicle, in Rochester, New York, and the Victoria Advocate in Texas. From 2022 to 2024, she served as president of the National Press Photographers Association, a professional organization representing thousands of photojournalists across the country.

In 2017, she was part of a team finalist for the Pulitzer Prize of Public Service and is a winner of the staff award for Public Service Award from the Scripps Howard Foundation.

Marie was born and raised in Puerto Rico, five miles from the Arecibo Observatory. She developed her interest in journalism from her father, who worked as a television camera director for nearly 30 years. She earned a bachelor’s degree in photography from the University of Central Florida in 2008.

Shoun Hill

Buffett-Mangelsen-Sartore Chair in Photojournalism
Assistant Professor of Practice

Shoun A. Hill is an experienced photo editor and photographer with more than 20 years of photojournalism. He is an assistant professor of practice in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he teaches photojournalism and multimedia, sharing his extensive industry knowledge with his students.

Hill served as a photo editor with The Associated Press from 2005 to 2022, where he edited photos for the news, entertainment, and lifestyles desks, and later focused on the sports desk. From 2000 to 2005, Hill worked as a staff photographer for the Orlando Sentinel, where he photographed collegiate and professional sports. Prior to that, he was a staff photographer for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1995 to 2000, covering news and sports in the Mid-South.

Before starting a career as a newspaper photojournalist, Hill served in the U.S. Army. While he intended to gain experience as general assignment reporter, he discovered that he enjoyed photography even more than writing.

Hill holds a Master of Arts in visual communication from Ohio University and a bachelor's degree in history from Frostburg State University, where he was involved in the indoor and outdoor track teams, the student newspaper, and the dance company.

His images have been included in several recent exhibitions in the United States as he expands his focus beyond strict photojournalism into more open-ended genres. Hill is passionate about the process of photography and enjoys spending time with his subjects to capture their true selves in his photographs.

Deb Pastner

Independent Photo Editor

In 2023, Deb Pastner wrapped up a rewarding 24-year career at The Minnesota Star Tribune, the largest media company in the state. During her tenure as Director of Photography and Assistant Managing Editor/Photography, the photo department was recognized by the World Press Awards, Pictures of the Year, the Edward R. Murrow Awards and the Online News Association. For her efforts, she was named one of the best visual editors by both Pictures of the Year and the National Press Photographers Association.

In 2021, Pastners served as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Upon returning to Minnesota, she partnered with Robin Hickman-Winfield and Gordon Parks High School to start a journalism mentoring program for high school students.

Pastner has also served a judge for POYi, SND and the Pulitzer Prize. Before moving to Minneapolis, Pastner worked as a photographer at newspapers in Massachusetts, Washington and Michigan. Since departing the Star Tribune, Pastner completed her master's degree at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Antranik Tavitian

Interim Co-Director of Photography
Houston Landing

I’m a first generation Syrian-American with Armenian ethnic roots. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Currently, I’m a staff photojournalist at the Houston Landing. My work focuses on immigration, identity, place, and marginalized communities. My photos have published in the Star Tribune, Detroit Free Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post. I’m a member of the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association and Diversify Photo.

I’m currently a master’s candidate at the University of Missouri, school of journalism. I speak English, Armenian, and Spanish.