WHNPA Names Andrea Bruce Photographer of the Year

For the third time, photographer Andrea Bruce of The Washington Post has been named Photographer of the Year by the White House News Photographers Association.

Bruce, who has worked for the Post since 2001, also claimed the award in 2003 and 2005. Among her images from last year were coverage of the earthquake in Pakistan and military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. (In previous years, her credit line was Andrea Bruce Woodall.)

For 2006 Bruce also won first and second place in the contest's domestic news category, first place in the portfolio category, second and third place in the feature category, second place in the picture story/news category and awards of excellence in the portrait/personality and international news categories.

Freelance photojournalist Carol T. Powers won the WHNPA's award for Political Photo of the Year for a black-and-white image of a House Majority Leader Tom Delay glancing downward while surrounded by journalists at a press conference.

Winners in other categories include:

- Jay L. Clendenin of Polaris Images, first place in portrait/personality.

- Chris Maddaloni of Roll Call, first place in pictorial.

- David S. Holloway of Getty Images, first place in features.

- Gene Sweeney Jr. of The Baltimore Sun, first place in sports action.

- Jonathan Newton of The Washington Post, first place in sports feature/reaction.

- David Burnett of Contact Press Images, first place in presidential.

- Lucian Perkins of The Washington Post, first place in insiders Washington.

- Melina Mara of The Washington Post, first place in Capitol Hill.

- Jeff Hutchens of Getty Images, first place in international news.

- Pete Souza of the Chicago Tribune, first place in picture story/politics.

- Charles Ommanney of Contact Press Images/Texas Monthly, first place in picture story/feature.

- Michael Robinson-Chavez of The Washington Post, first place in picture story/news.

Judges for the WHNPA stills contest this year were Lynne Johnson, staff photographer at Sports Illustrated and a contributor to National Geographic, Ken Lambert of the Seattle Times and Ken Geiger, senior editor at National Geographic.

The WHNPA "Eyes of History" contest recognizes both still photography and video. Winners will be honored at the WHNPA's annual black-tie gala May 6 in Washington.

Images and a complete list of winners are available at www.whnpa.org.