The Washington Post won five first place awards. Alice Li won first place for news story for Here’s what Detroit’s black pastors want Trump to know. Whitney Shefte won first place in features for Truth and transgender at age 70. McKenna Ewen and Reem Akkad won first place in issue reporting for the The Big Exit. Ewen also won first place in sports for The Making of Mojo: A Wrestler’s Quest for WWE Stardom. A team of Zoeann Murphy, Reem Akkad, Anthony Faiola, Douglas Jehl, Kat Downs Mulder, Samuel Granados, Kevin Schaul won first place in multimedia package for Raising Barriers: A New Age of Walls.
A team of Adam Cole and Ryan Kellman won first place in animation for Your Body’s Real Age and a first place in the one-off category for Travel To The Moon With David Bowie. A team of Jessica Koscielniak, Renée C. Byer, Jason Shoultz, and Sue Morrow of McClatchy won first place in documentary for Afghans risked their lives for U.S., now struggle in Sacramento.
The judges for the Multimedia competition were Coburn Dukehart, Alexandra Garcia, and Sung Park. Dukehart is the Digital and Multimedia Director for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Her role at the Center includes directing its visual strategy, creating visual and audio content, managing digital assets and training student and professional journalists.
Garcia is a senior story producer at The New York Times, where she directs, oversees and produces interactive projects and video stories. Garcia has been awarded two national Edward R. Murrow Awards, top honors in the National Press Photographers Association’s Best of Photojournalism and Pictures of the Year International contests, and eleven regional Emmy awards, along with four national Emmy nominations.
Park is an instructor of photojournalism/multimedia at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. In addition to teaching he is still an active freelance photojournalist and multimedia producer for various print and online publications as well as for NGOs and non-profits.
“It’s amazing to see the powerful storytelling and innovation coming out of the Multimedia Contest,” said WHNPA president Whitney Shefte. “Congratulations to McKenna Ewen for setting the bar high with his outstanding work.”
The still, video and student competitions were also held at the National Geographic Society over the weekend.
The top winners of the still, video, multimedia and student contests will be honored at the annual ‘Eyes of History®’ gala on June 10, 2017, at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington. The black-tie event celebrates all the winning photojournalists and the President of the United States. Nearly 1,000 guests, including government dignitaries and industry celebrities, attend.
The White House News Photographers Association is a 96-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the efforts of Washington’s professional photojournalists. The WHNPA aims to provide professional and educational outreach to its members and the community through scholarships, programming, an annual competition and a celebration of the industry at the annual “Eyes of History®” gala.
For more information, please contact Whitney Shefte at president@54.85.141.172 or executive director Heidi Elswick at heidi@54.85.141.172 (301-606-8251). For further information about ‘The Eyes of History®’ and to view the winning images and videos, visit the WHNPA website at www.whnpa.org.
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