JUDGES - Q4 '07 WPJA CONTEST

AL BELLO, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Al Bello graduated with a Liberal Arts degree from the University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989. Since Joining Allsport/Getty, Al has become Chief Sports Photographer in North America on a very talented staff and is assigned to cover sporting events and people in sports worldwide.

He has worked on editorial assignments for Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, Newsweek, Time Magazine, US News and World Report, Maxim, The New York Times, The LA Times, and The London Times. He has also worked on commercial assignments for Everlast, Reebok, Puma, Adidas, Canon, Discovery Channel, Bank of America, Sandisk, and Spike TV.

Some of Al’s favorite events he has covered include many Super Bowls, World Series, and Stanley Cups. He covered 3 Winter and 3 Summer Olympic Games. His tennis favorites include the US Open, the French Open and Wimbledon. Al has also enjoyed covering World Cup Soccer for both men and women. His favorite sport, by far, is boxing. Al has been to countless world title fights and boxing gyms in the last 17 years and he never gets tired of it. Some of Al’s picture stories include “Cockfighting in Puerto Rico”, which won him 1st place in the Sports Picture Story Category in News Photographer's The Best of Photojournalism 2007. He also won 3rd place for Sports Photojournalist of the Year for that same year. His other works include “Senior Athletes” and a photo essay in 4x5 format on “The Faces of Boxing”.

DENNIS BRACK, WHNPA PRESIDENT

Dennis Brack is President of the White House News Photographers Association. Brack has won awards from the National Newspaper Photographers Association, the White House News Photographers Association and the World Press Association. Brack is also the secretary/ treasurer of the United States Senate Standing Committee of Press Photographers. This six member committee determines the photographic coverage of the House and Senate, the conventions and the Inauguration.

From JFK to today, Dennis Brack has photographed the Presidents of the United States and he hopes to continue this coverage for years to come. Represented by Black Star, the clients have changed through the decades: LIFE, NEWSWEEK; were major clients over these years.  Brack averaged a picture a week in TIME for twenty-three years.

RENÉE C. BYER, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Renée C. Byer is a Senior Photojournalist with The Sacramento Bee and the recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for her project "A Mother's Journey," an intimate portrayal of a single mother's emotional and financial struggles as her son battled neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer. The story was also awarded the World Understanding Award and second place multimedia feature picture story at Pictures of the Year International 2007, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for feature photography, the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, second prize in the Days Japan International Photojournalism Awards and an honorable mention in the UNICEF Photo of the Year Award. Also a picture editor and designer, Byer is represented by Zuma Press photo agency.

Byer's photos have been published in Newsweek Asia, Paris Match, Marie Claire, El Mundo, Days Japan, Rangefinder, Photo District News, Business Week and most recently in View magazine in Germany. She has taught workshops and had gallery shows in San Francisco, California, Palm Beach, Florida, Yokohama, Japan, Siem Reap, Cambodia and Madrid, Spain. Her pictures titled "Seeds of Doubt," won the Harry Chapin Award for Photojournalism 2005 and she is also the recipient of the Associated Press News Executives Council, Mark Twain Award 2004. She was a finalist for a Dart award for victims of violence before coming to the Sacramento Bee 2003. Her numerous awards include honors from NPPA, POYi, AP, SND, Best of the West and regional contests in photography, picture editing and design.

MARY CALVERT, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Photojournalist, BOP Winner and Pulitzer Finalist, Mary F. Calvert has worked at The Washington Times since 1998. Calvert was recently awarded 2007 Photojournalist of the Year, Smaller Markets in the National Press Photographer's Association, Best of Photojournalism contest and was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography. She also won First Prize Portfolio in the White House News Photographer's Association 2007 Eyes of History competition.

Calvert has been a member of the faculty for the Department of Defense Worldwide Military Photographers Workshop in Ft. Meade for the last eleven years. Before working at The Washington Times, Mary spent nine years covering the Bay Area for The Oakland Tribune and The Hayward Daily Review. She is a graduate of San Francisco State University, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Journalism.

GINA FERAZZI, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Gina has been a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times since 1994. Her Wildfire photos were part of the staff Pulitzer Prize win for Breaking News in 2004. Other recent awards include: Best of Photojournalism 2007: Second Place - Natural Disaster Single, 61st Pictures of the Year 2004: Second Place - Spot News; Award of Excellence - News Photo Story; Award of Excellence – Pictorial, Best of Photojournalism 2004: Second Place - Domestic News; Honorable Mention - Domestic News Picture Story.

Gina has covered the last three Winter Olympics in Japan, Salt Lake City and Italy. She also covered many national sporting events, presidential campaigns, local and national news events including Hurricane Katrina. Most recently, Gina has been on the Campaign Trail through Iowa and New Hampshire. Before that she was covering the American League baseball playoffs and the California Wildfires in 2007.

In 1992, Gina was named Best of Gannett and California Photographer of the Year while working for the San Bernardino Sun in San Bernardino, CA. She began her career in photojournalism at the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, Maine after graduating from the University of Maine, Orono with a degree in Journalism.

BILL FRAKES, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Bill Frakes is a Sports Illustrated Staff Photographer based in Florida. He has worked in more than 100 countries for a wide variety of editorial and advertising clients. His advertising clients include Nike, Coca-Cola, Champion, Isleworth, Stryker, IBM, Nikon, Kodak, and Reebok. Editorially, his work has appeared in virtually every major general interest publication in the world.

Bill won the coveted Newspaper Photographer of the Year award in the prestigious Pictures of the Year competition. He was a member of the Miami Herald staff that won the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Hurricane Andrew. He has also been honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for reporting on the disadvantaged and by the Overseas Press club for distinguished foreign reporting. He was awarded the Gold Medal by World Press Photo. Bill has received hundreds of national and international awards for his work.

JOHN LONG, NPPA ETHICS & STANDARDS CHAIRMAN

John Long was a photojournalist with The Hartford Courant newspaper for 35 years, filling in as a picture editor when needed. He has covered every kind of assignment from the simplest neighborhood events to natural disasters and national political events. He is noted for his coverage of homelessness issues and his artistic photographs of classical ballet.

After retiring from active shooting, he taught a course in photo editing at the S. I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Previously he taught a course on Issues in Journalism for five years at Manchester Community College as an adjunct.

He is a past president of the National Press Photographers Association (1989-90) and currently serves as Ethics Chairman for the NPPA. He has lectured all over the world on photojournalism ethics, especially the ethics of digital manipulation. He has appeared on many TV shows including The News Hour and has produced his own video on ethics for the NPPA titled, "Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography."

John Long has received many awards for his photography and for his work in the field of ethics. In 2007, he received the Joseph A. Sprague Award from the NPPA, the highest award the organization offers.

He is a graduate of the Catholic University of America. He taught high school English for three years before becoming a photographer. He and his wife Mary have three grown daughters. The Courant (the oldest newspaper in continuous publication in the U.S., founded in 1764) is the only newspaper for which he ever worked.

MASSIMO MASTRORILLO, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Massimo Mastrorillo was born in Turin and lives in Rome. He has been working essentially with geographical and social reportage cooperating with various magazines in Italy and Europe (Espresso, D di Repubblica, Geo France, Meridiani, Neon, Panorama, Sunday Telegraph, Internazionale ecc.). Massimo worked on long term projects about the Kurdish Diaspora and the poverty in Mozambique. From the year 2005 to the year 2007 he has been working on his project The Lives of the Cities.

Prizes: Fujifilm Euro Press Photo Awards/ Italia 2005 section Europe, OneVision 2005/Italy, Honorable mention Korea International Documentary Photo Award 2005 for “Mozambique a decade of peace between poverty and Dream”, World Press Photo 2006: Nature 1st prize singles, 63 Pictures of the Year International contest: third place Magazine Photographer of the Year, 2006 NPPA Best of Photojournalism contest: third prize Photojournalist of the Year, Humanity Photo Awards 2006: first prize Traditional Rites for “Zione, between moon and stars”, Finalist GRIN Prize-Amilcare Ponchielli 2006, Bronze AOP Photography Award Document 2007, PDN Photography Annual Photojournalism 2007, International Photography Awards 2007, FNAC Prize Attenzione Talento Fotografico 2007, International Photographer of the Year at the 5th Annual Lucie Awards.

JOE MCNALLY, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Joe McNally has been described by American Photo magazine as "perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today", a distinction earned for his ability to capture compelling images in locations as diverse as an operating room, the top of the Empire State Building and the cockpit of a jet aircraft. Noted for his technical mastery, what makes him unique is his ability to create and imaginatively render "the big idea"—the unique or startling concept that frames a single image or a long-term project.

After studying photojournalism at Syracuse University, Joe went from copy boy at the New York Daily News to a stint as a stringer for the wire services, The New York Times and The Philadelphia Enquirer. A freelance career followed, leading to assignments for Life, Newsweek, Time, Sports Illustrated (where he was a contract photographer for six years), Fortune and National Geographic. In 1995, he was named staff photographer at Life, the first person to hold that post in over 20 years. He was also inducted by Kodak and Photo District News into their Legends Online archive, and Nikon Inc. similarly honored him by placing him on their website's prestigious list of photographers noted as Legends Behind the Lens.

Joe has won several journalism awards, including the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for outstanding magazine photography, and he's been honored by the World Press Photo Foundation and the Art Directors' Club. Constantly in demand as a speaker, teacher and lecturer, he has taken part in numerous workshops and presentations, including the Eddie Adams Workshop, National Geographic's Masters of Contemporary Photography, RIT workshops, The Smithsonian Institude Masters of Photography, The United States Department of Defense Worldwide Military Workshops, workshops at the Disney Institute and the Maine Photographic Workshops. Joe published, The Moment It Clicks, "an anecdotal look at a life in photography"—a book that, he says, "has one foot on the coffee table and one foot in the classroom."

PETE SOUZA, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Pete Souza is a freelance photographer and assistant professor of photojournalism at Ohio University. He has worked as an Official White House Photographer for President Reagan, a freelancer for National Geographic, and as the national photographer for the Chicago Tribune based in their Washington bureau.

Souza has covered stories around the world as well as the national political scene. After 9/11, he was among the first journalists to cover the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan after crossing the Hindu Kush mountains by horseback in three feet of snow. More recently, Souza documented Barack Obama's first year in the Senate and has accompanied him to seven countries including Kenya, South Africa and Russia.

As a freelancer, Souza has photographed two articles on assignment for National Geographic Magazine and three photo essays for Life Magazine. His photographs have also been published in many other magazines and newspapers around the world including on the covers of Fortune, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report.

In 1992, Souza produced and published "Unguarded Moments: Behind-the-Scenes Photographs of President Reagan," a coffee-table book based on his 5 1/2 years in the White House. A newer book, "Images of Greatness: An Intimate Look at the Presidency of Ronald Reagan," was published in June, 2004 by Triumph Books. Former Senator Howard Baker, Jr. said in his introduction to the book that Souza recorded "some of the most intimate, honest and humanizing scenes of the presidency I've ever seen." Souza was also the official photographer for the June, 2004 funeral of President Reagan.

Souza has published another documentary book entitled, "Plebe Summer at the U.S. Naval Academy". The book chronicles one company of incoming midshipmen through the six-week indoctrination period of Plebe Summer.

Souza has won numerous photojournalism awards including several times in the prestigious Pictures of the Year annual competition, the NPPA's Best of Photojournalism, and the White House News Photographers Association's yearly contest.

He has lectured many times on his photography including at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Harvard University, Boston University, the University of Kansas, Western Kentucky University and Kansas State University. He has appeared on the ABC news magazine show 20-20, Nightline, Good Morning America, CNN Special Reports, Fox Friends and Family, and on National Public Radio. Souza made presentations of his Afghanistan coverage to Tribune reader forums in Chicago, and to the Board of Directors of the Tribune Company and AT&T Wireless.

Souza has had solo exhibits of his photographs at Kansas State University, Fermilab, the U.S. Naval Academy, the Navy Museum, the University of North Carolina, and the National Press Club in Washington. His photographs have also been part of group exhibits at the National Archives, Smithsonian Museum of American History, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Newseum, Boston University, Kansas State University and the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

He is a native of South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He graduated cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in public communications from Boston University and received his master's degree in journalism and mass communication from Kansas State University.

YONATHAN WEITZMAN, PHOTOJOURNALIST

Yonathan Weitzman (born 1977) is an award-winning freelance photojournalist based in Israel. Having previously worked with Corbis, Reuters and the daily newspaper, Haaretz, Yonathan has also had photographs in magazines including: Stern, Newsweek, The Observer, Time, and View. In 2005, he was working as a cameraman for Reuters Television documenting the former Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

During five years of work as a professional photographer, Yonathan was awarded 3rd place in the World Press Photo competition in 2007; 1st place in 63 Pictures of the Year international (POYi) 2006; 2nd and 3rd place in Best of Photojournalism 2007; 1st place in PPY press photographer year 2007, and was awarded prizes in Israel's annual photojournalism competition Local Testimony 2006 and 2004. Yonathan has studied photography in "Camera Obscura" School of Arts in Tel Aviv, "Musrara" School of Arts in Jerusalem and media studies in "Beit Rutenberg Media Centre" in Haifa. He also participated in a special project entitled "Kids with Cameras" in Jerusalem, whose goal was to teach photography to underprivileged children. Yonathan specializes in documentary photojournalism in the Middle East and in developing countries and in outdoor studio portraiture.