'E&P' Announces Winners in Annual Photo Contest

Thomas James Hurst of The Seattle Times has won first prize in E&P's annual Photos of the Year contest. He receives $1,000 and a Canon EOS-1D Mark II N digital SLR camera.

The seventh annual Photos of the Year contest, sponsored by Canon, produced a record number of entries this year. Prize-winning photographs were selected from hundreds of entries in four categories (news, features, sports, and multiple images/photo essay), and represent some of the most striking images published this year by newspapers in four circulation classes.

Winning images can be found by clicking here. They also appear in E&P's November issue, out this week. The magazine's annual collection of honorable mentions can also be found in both places.

The grand prize winner, Hurst, 35, has worked for The Seattle Times since 1999, after a stint at the Boston Globe. He has traveled to many dangerous locales, including Bosnia and Iraq, and has won three World Press Awards for images taken in Rwanda and Kosovo. When our winning photo, taken in Pakistan after the great earthquake, appeared on the front page of The Seattle Times last Dec. 18, an art director at the paper compared it to a Caravaggio canvas.

Along with others, the photo helped inspire thousands of dollars in donations to a Seattle relief group. The mission of photographers, Hurst believes, "is to inform readers about every corner of the world. That should never change."

Other winners (in four different circulation categories) follow.

For News: Leigh Shelle Robertus, East Valley (Mesa, Az.) Tribune; Thomas R. Cordova, Inland Valley (Ontario, Ca.) Daily Bulletin; Troy Boman, Toele (Utah) Transcript Bulletin; Karim Shaib, Agence France-Presse.

For Features: Mario Tama, Getty Images; Chuck Branham, The Evening News of Jeffersonville, Ind.; Ji-Eun Lee, Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal; John Valenzuela, Inland Valley (Ontario, Ca.) Daily Bulletin.

Sports: Jewel Samad, Agence France-Press; John Locher, Las Vegas Review-Journal; Amiran White, Santa Fe New Mexican; Edward Lea, The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.).

Multiple Images: Oded Balilty, The Associated Press; Mike Brown, The Commercial-Appeal of Memphis, Tenn.; Troy Wayrynen, The Columbian of Vancouver, WA.; Robin Chan, Norwell (mass.) Mariner.

To see all of this year's winning photographs (including honorable mentions), visit E&P's online gallery.

Greg Mitchell is editor of E&P.