2008 – 2009 Photojournalism Winners
The three photo judges met at the Hearst Foundation’s San Francisco office for the semi-final portfolio review on Monday, June 1st. Out of a record 197 entries in the three photo competitions throughout the year, fourteen semi-finalists qualified for this round of judging. After much deliberation, the judges selected six finalists to attend the Championship. These finalists were then immediately notified and flown to San Francisco the next day, where they competed in “the shoot-off.”
Canon and Nikon participated in the competition once again by offering state of the art equipment for the shooters. Tuesday night, shortly after arriving in San Francisco, the finalists met the judges in the Hearst hospitality suite for orientation and assignments. This year’s assignments were: a photo story about “rituals,” a single personal vision image of San Francisco architecture, and a “book cover” image showing the city’s fabled cable cars. The finalists had two days to shoot and edit their images before their Friday afternoon deadline. The winners were announced Saturday night at the awards ceremony.
The first through third place winners were awarded scholarships of $5,000, $4,000, and $3,000 respectively and are featured below. The three finalists who earned $1,500 scholarship awards are: Bryan Anselm from Western Kentucky University, Carl Kiilsgaard from Western kentucky University, and Jake Stevens from Western Kentucky University. Two additional awards of $1,000 were given to Brian L. Frank for Best Single Photo and Carl Kiilsgaard for Best Picture Story, selected from their semi-final portfolios.
