Rangefinder Magazine
December 2006

Pictures of the Year International (POYi) by Editorial Staff
The 63rd Annual Competition

NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR Barbara Davidson, Wearing pride and her pink Queen of Rosary secondary school uniform, Agatha Anene poses for a photograph in the small village of Eziowelle, Nigeria, hometown of Cardinal Francis Arinze. Like many African villages, Eziowelle’s school is a run-down building with no windows and few materials. Pupils have to trek long distances to class in rubber sandals or bare feet.

The 63rd annual Pictures of the Year International competition presents another year of achievement and adversity, shared in photographs for all to see.

WORLD UNDERSTANDING AWARD Roger Lemoyne, Redux/Alexia Foundation “DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO” Fishermen ply their age-old trade on Lake Albert, despite the turmoil that has engulfed the Great Lakes region of Africa in recent years. This series covers the conflict in Eastern Congo and the UN-led effort to bring peace. The deadliest conflict since WWII, it persists in part because of the plundering of the Congo’s immense mineral wealth by militias and neighboring countries. Ethnic strife that has torn the Great Lakes region apart is also a factor. A recent referendum on the constitution and elections planned for 2006 offer hope for this Western-Europe-sized country, which hosts the UN’s most expensive and amibitious undertaking in the world. In the war-ravaged eastern provinces of the D.R. Congo in the Great Lakes region of Africa, MONUC (the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in the Congo) has given militias until April 1 to turn in their weapons and join the demobilization and re-integration program run by the UNDP (United Nations Development Program). Although the program had been in effect for months, there had been limited disarmament. Once the deadline had been set, a flood of militiamen, including child soldiers, suddenly entered the program.

MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR Tamas Dezso, Freelance “POLLUTION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC” Cooling towers and chimneys of a power station reflect in a lake in northern Bohemia, Czech Republic. In the most polluted area of the country, power stations are fuelled by brown coal, which when burned, produces large quantities of sulphur dioxide. Temperature inversions trap the pollutants in the cold air of the valley bottom.

From conflict in the Middle East, Africa and throughout the world, to natural disasters in New Orleans, Kashmir and elsewhere, 2005 was a year at times marked by sadness and loss. But the Pictures of the Year are also a celebration of life, a cross section of the contemporary landscape that helps us better understand the world we live in.

COMMUNITY AWARENESS AWARD Brenda Ann Kenneally, Freelance “UPSTATE GIRLS” “DEB AFTER WORK”—Deborah Stocklas is a 39-year-old mother of seven. She was born in Troy, New York, when it was a manufacturing town. Deborah’s mother worked at a local clothing manufacturer until the company closed its doors. From then on, Deb’s mom had nothing to get in the way of her drinking. Deb had her first child when she was 14—young enough, but not out of the ordinary for girls among the ranks of the lower working class at the time. A husband with a decent job, such as the father of Deb’s first two kids (an auto mechanic), was a bird in the hand.

SPORTS ACTION First Place Gene Sweeney Jr., The Baltimore Sun Severna Park High's #16, Lauren Stafford, comes over the top of South River High's #13, Kasey Honeycutt (nearside), and #9, Aly Shelly, as they all try for this header during the closing minutes of the first half in the inter-county rivalry.

This year, POYi judges viewed more than 39,000 images submitted by more than 1718 newspaper and magazine photographers and editors from 400 publications from 45 countries. Awards were given in 46 distinct categories by a panel of 12 of the world’s leading photographers and editors.

NEWSPAPER/PORTRAIT First Place Erik Lunsford, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers / The Palm Beach Post “THE SPIRIT OF MIND” Ray Cummings, a senior basketball star at Vero Beach High School in Vero Beach, Florida, believes his worship of God gives him the strength on and off the basketball court.	MAGAZINE/PORTRAIT First Place Brigitte Lacombe, New York Magazine “WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES” Joan Didion on losing her husband, John Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo; her devastating memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking; and her persistent critics

The winning images were chosen during 19 days of judging from Feb. 19 through March 8 on the University of Missouri campus.

NEWSPAPER/FEATURE PICTURE First Place Matt Mcclain, The Ventura County Star “SURF CONTEST” Ashley Winger, 5, leans her head back as she plays at Surfer's Point in Ventura, California, during a surf contest.	MAGAZINE/PICTURE STORY First Place Tamas Dezso, Freelance/Geo “ROMANIA—ON EUROPE'S EASTERN EDGE” Early on a winter morning, a young boy is off to work to saw firewood for locals in Odobesti and nearby villages.

A Brief History of POYi

POYi began as a photographic contest at the Missouri School of Journalism in 1944. MU’s First Annual Fifty-Print Exhibition was created “to pay tribute to those press photographers and newspapers which, despite tremendous war-time difficulties, are doing a splendid job; to provide an opportunity for photographers of the nation to meet in open competition; and to compile and preserve…a collection of the best in current, home-front press pictures.”

MAGAZINE/NEWS PICTURE STORY First Place Shaul Schwarz, Getty Images “GAZA PULLOUT” “ABANDONED LADDER”—An Israeli settler looks at an abandoned house to be renovated for Jewish families in Shirat Hayam settlement in Gush Katif settlement block Gaza Strip.

SCIENCE/NATURAL HISTORY PICTURE STORY First Place Richard Sennott, The Star Tribune “TWISTER SISTERS” Melanie Metz Trockman and Peggy Willenberg watch a wall cloud in Kearney, Nebraska, while storm chasing in May, which is one of the most severe weather-producing months. Peggy and Melanie are the “Twister Sisters,” storm chasers. Armed with science and fueled by passion, they pursue tornadoes with a vengeance. Following these supercells and tornadoes, they log over 15,000 miles a year driving through the heartland of America. April through June is tornado season across most of the U.S. This season was the slowest in over 50 years. In the months of April, May and June, there were no tornado fatalities, when, annually, tornados average 55 deaths. “The tornado is always an enigma,” Willenberg says, explaining the pull of the chase. “And it’s a puzzle I want to solve. It’s symbolizes the great unknown to me. And I just have to keep on going and going and going because I can never get enough of that. I would never dream to assume I could ever conquer or control nature. But to understand it, that’s almost as powerful.”

The Fifty-Print Exhibition Contest invited magazine photographers to participate in 1948 and became the News Pictures of the Year Contest. Then, in 1957, the University of Missouri and the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) merged their respective contests. Through this partnership, Pictures of the Year was developed and continued until 2001, when NPPA and Missouri parted ways. POYi is now administered solely by the Missouri School of Journalism, with additional financial support from Fujifilm, MSNBC, National Geographic and by the entrants to the yearly competition.

In recent years, the contest has greatly expanded its scope, and in 2001 became Pictures of the Year International. The mission of POYi has broadened as well. Today, there are Pictures of the Year Awards seminars and workshops. Each year’s contest is commemorated through exhibits, a book and the POYi website. In addition, the public is invited to participate in online voting for its “Best Picture of the Year.”

For more information on POYi, and to see more winning images, visit www.poyi.org.