CONTACT

Pictures of the Year International
Phone: 573-884-2188
Email: info@poy.org
Web: www.poy.org

Mailing address:
Pictures of the Year International
Missouri School of Journalism
109 Lee Hills Hall
Columbia, MO 65211


AWARDS

Individual category winners:
• 1st — Engraved plaque
• Finalist and Award of Excellence — Certificate

$1,000 cash prizes & Tiffany crystal trophy:
• International Photographer of the Year
• Local Photographer of the Year
• World Understanding Award
• Community Awareness Award
• Environmental Vision Award

Tiffany crystal trophy::
• Sports Photographer of the Year
• Documentary Storyteller of the Year
• Photography Book of the Year
• Visual Editor of the Year

Angus McDougall Excellence in Editing Award:
Winner hosts a sterling silver trophy for one year and receives free tuition to the Missouri Photo Workshop.

All winners will be posted to social media soon after the jury makes its decisions. An official announcement will be made after the competition ends and the results are verified.

For winning entries, POY requires high resolution copies of the images and digital files of the films and online entries.

QUICK ANSWERS
  • Publication is not a requirement for entering photographs in any category.
  • Anyone may enter. However, most entrants are at a “professional” level.
  • Photographs entered must have been taken or published for the first time between Jan. 1, and Dec. 31, 2022.
  • First-time publication is defined as being published by a media organization in print or online. Personal web sites or social media accounts do not qualify.
  • Photographs should include captions with the date the image was taken or first published. If the exact day is not known, include the month (i.e., Photo taken in May 2022.)
  • Each person submitting an entry must have an individual registration.

80th POY competition announces winners; Gabrielle Lurie sets record with third consecutive Local Photographer of the Year award

By Austin Fitzgerald

COLUMBIA, Mo. (March 16, 2023) — Pictures of the Year International has announced the winners of its 80th competition, which was held virtually and saw judges review more than 35,000 images and photo stories submitted from all over the world.

A renowned program of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism, POY made history this year as San Francisco Chronicle photographer Gabrielle Lurie won Local Photographer of the Year for the third consecutive year — the first ever to do so in this category.

“Gabrielle’s recognition speaks to her deep dedication as well as simply being an outstanding journalist,” said POY Director Lynden Steele. “It’s incredible hard to work at the same level year after year. Very few photojournalists have won 3 times, and Gabrielle has done it consecutively.”

In a different category, Magazine (International) Photographer of the Year, Life Magazine photographer George Silk won in 1963, 1964 and 1965.

The award for International Photographer of the Year went to Danish documentary photographer Mads Nissen, whose portfolio represented stories from Ukraine, Afghanistan and the war on cocaine in Colombia.

Indeed, the war in Ukraine played a prominent part in POY this year, with several categories geared specifically toward its coverage. The categories covered the news of the war but also focused on images of daily life that demonstrated resilience during the conflict. In an unusual turn, the judges for one category — War in Ukraine: News — recognized four images with a Judges’ Special Recognition honor instead of selecting a single first place image.

In choosing four images as winners, the judges sought to make a statement about how competitions can approach war.

“I want (people) to see that there are different ways to be telling the story,” said judge Jehan Jillani, a photo and visuals editor for The Atlantic. “It’s very rare that one image will define a conflict.”

And in yet another new addition, the first-ever prize for Team Picture Story of the Year awarded went to the Associated Press, whose submission to the premier category featured the work of 11 photojournalists covering the war in Ukraine.

For a complete list of the winners and a gallery of their work, click here. The credits appear as they were submitted. We want to make sure the credit and affiliation appears as desired. Please send updates to: info@poyi.org.

Select winners from POY and College Photographer of the Year will present their work during the POY/CPOY awards weekend April 21-22 at the Reynolds Journalism Institute in Columbia, Missouri. Included in the weekend, POY is hosting a local reception and a panel discussion on storytelling at the Unbound Book Festival. See poy.org for details.

COPYRIGHTS & USAGE STATEMENT

By entering this competition, you declare that you meet the eligibility requirements stated in the rules of the competition and that you are authorized by the holder of the copyright (or the right to copyright) to submit photos and multimedia entries to the Pictures of the Year International (POY, POYi) competition. You grant permission to Pictures of the Year International, the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Missouri School of Journalism and POY programs (such as POY Asia, POY Latam and the POY Archive) to use your submitted material in exhibitions, publications, in promotion of the competition itself, and for educational research and historical record purposes concerning Pictures of the Year International. This usage includes, but is not limited to print, electronic and online platforms such as the CPOY, POY or MU websites, social media, books, slides/tapes, television broadcast/film/tapes, DVDs and CDs. Entries may become part of the permanent POY archive.

Pictures of the Year International is a program of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The University of Missouri is a public, tax-exempt educational institution of the State of Missouri. POY provides an educational mission for career development and student advancement, without profit. To achieve the educational mission of the competition, POY requests $50 (U.S. dollars) compensation from participants to cover the costs associated with operation of the competition.