Craig Walker of the Denver Post has been named Photographer of the Year in the annual Pictures of the Year International competition at the University of Missouri.
In honoring Walker’s portfolio, the judges noted a strong balance of powerful aesthetic with solid journalistic content that reflects news events and social issues. Walker’s portfolio presented a stunning project on a Iraq war veteran who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder
That project — just one of several in Craig’s winning portfolio — was called Welcome Home: The Scott Ostrom Story. That series also won first place in the issue-reporting picture story category.
Craig followed this former Marine — honorably discharged just five years ago — through debilitating panic attacks…
…fights with his girlfriend…
…fits of violent frustration…
…and even witnessed the aftermath of a suicide attempt.
In this picture, Ostrom weeps after being rejected for an apartment because of his erratic behavior.
A heartbreaking story. Wonderful pictures. And most definitely worthy of the award.
See the entire winning portfolio here.
A 1986 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Photography, Craig spent nine years as a photographer and picture editor for the Berkshire Eagle of Massachusetts before moving to the Post in 1998. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for a project in which he followed a local man from high school to a soldier in Iraq.
The Post‘s managing editor for Presentation and design, Damon Cain, wrote via Facebook today:
The really cool thing about Craig Walker’s POYi Photog of the Year portfolio is that it was all local material. There is a lesson in this. Walker is a professional who makes the most of every assignment — no matter the assignment.
The Welcome Home story, Damon writes, was
…conceived of and executed as an online multimedia piece only.
…Another photo project we did awhile back — it, too, conceived and executed for online only — also met with success (2010 Hillman Award for Photojournalism). And, it, too, focused on local, local, local subjects.
As much as I would have loved to have run this in its full glory in print (we ended up with a doubletruck that ran “the best of” from photo essays on each of seven different families), our argument could not overcome the economics of the day. But we knew we had online avenues, so we sought to make the best of the situation.
My point? Guess I’m just encouraging you not to listen to folks who say newspapers can’t do photo stories these days.
