NPPA Announces Reorganized Best Of Photojournalism Contest For 2012
DURHAM, NC (December 28, 2011) – The National Press Photographers Association today made several significant announcements about its annual Best Of Photojournalism contest, including a reorganization of the competition as visual journalism moves into a new era. Along with a new and easier way to enter, there’s also some category revisions plus some new categories, and winners will be picked using a mixture of online and on-site judging.
“We’ve not only reorganized, but we’re building on the steps of the giants before us,” Best Of Photojournalism Contest Committee chair Terry Eiler said. He is the director of Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication (VisCom) in Athens, OH.
“This is a significant, four-part contest. We’re running stand-alone picture editing, Web and multimedia contests, photojournalism, and television photojournalism contests. No one else in the contest arena is touching this scope. It’s not just Best Of Photojournalism; it’s four applauded and separate divisions of Best Of Photojournalism. We recognize that visual journalism doesn’t happen in a single flavor.”
In the world’s major annual contests, World Press Photo is a still photojournalism contest and Pictures of the Year International is a still photojournalism contest with some editing and multimedia categories. The Society of News Design contest, Photo District News’s contest, the Pulitzer Prizes, the Robert F. Kennedy Awards, and the Webby Awards are all primarily still photography contests.
“Best Of Photojournalism is the core contest of all photojournalism … still photography, motion, and editing,” Eiler said. “It’s an annual celebration of international excellence in all forms of photojournalism editing and visual reportage.”
Eiler explained, “Within NPPA’s Best Of Photojournalism we’ve defined four separate contests, and each contest is a separate event that’s judged by a wide variety of specialists. Best Of Photojournalism has more than 100 categories focused on defining visual journalism’s excellence, selecting and applauding the year’s best work.”
The four unique NPPA Best Of Photojournalism contests are:
- Best Of Print Photojournalism
- Best Of Television Photojournalism
- Best Of Photojournalism Editing
- Best Of Web Photojournalism
Eiler said that a new and easier way to enter the Best Of Photojournalism contests comes with this year’s reorganization.
“We wanted to make it easier, more transparent, and to get it all in good order,” Eiler said. “This new streamlined entry system has a better user interface, and there’s a more intuitive uploading process. As always, you’ll be able to view your entries to make sure that you’ve entered them in the right place.”
The Best Of Photojournalism “Call For Entries” will go out on Tuesday, January 3, 2012.
The deadline for entries in the Television Photojournalism contest is Friday January 27, 2012.
The deadline for entries in the Print Photojournalism, Photojournalism Editing, and Web Photojournalism contests is Friday February 3, 2012.
Eiler said a committee of “working photographers” has revised the Best Of Photojournalism contests’ categories “to try to bring more clarity to the picture sets.”
The new categories and rules are posted on NPPA’s Best Of Photojournalism Web site.
Courtesy of NPPA: http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2011/12/bop2012.html
