Like the Academy Awards of news photography, the new World Press winners are announced. A few notes of interest:
~There are a lot of black and white images. Not sure if this is a trend of how images were shot this year (2006) or the jury, looking at stories from afar, thought that the b/w images were more meaningful at the end.
~The sports section show some of the best images I have personally ever seen. Its fascinating to see that with such predictable events as sports events, happening in set location with set conditions, some photographers are still able to reinvent themselves and continue to take incredible images.
~The extreme majority of winners are with either wire services or photo agencies. Where are the independents? Where their material not good enough or did they simply did not have the time to submit their images?
~ Being at the right place at the right time just doesn’t cut it. Photojournalism, as I said before, has absolutely nothing to fear from UGC ( User Generated Content) or other “Citizenphotojournalist armed with a cell phone”
~ When will the World Press acknowledge multi media slide shows? I have seen some pretty amazing made for the web slide shows in 2006 and expect to see some more in 2007. As the internet is becoming more influential as a medium for photojournalism, the World Press organization should pave the way. And the Pulitzer for that matter.
~ No artifacts please. Like the Lensbabies for Commercial stock photographers, there has been an over use of images taken with the HOLGA. I understand that technology can be intimidating for some but I am a big believer that great images do not need any artifacts. Please, let’s stop rewarding those who rely on tricks to take images.
Otherwise, a great year for photography and congrats to all the winners and all those who were close to winning. You make my job more interesting every day.