This years judging of the NYPPA YEAR IN PICTURES 2012 will be by 3 extraordinary judges and the NYPPA is pleased to announce that they are:
Melanie Burford– was part of the team of Dallas Morning News photographers who received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. In 2009 she won the Emmy Award for her portfolio of video documentary work at the Lone Star Emmy Advanced Media Awards. Melanie’s work has been recognized at the 74th National Headliner Awards, the Harry Chapin Media Awards, the Clarion Awards, the Best of Photojournalism and Pictures of the Year International. An adjunct professor at The Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, her passion for teaching has gained her keynote speaking roles including the Kodak Seminar Series touring Australia and New Zealand in 2008. Originally from New Zealand, Melanie’s career began in 1990, working at The Evening Post before moving to America in 1999, becoming a staff photographer at The Dallas Morning News in 2003 and moving to New York in 2009. She is a founding member of the photo collective Prime.
Bill Eppridge – After his graduation from college, Eppridge worked for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and then went on to work for LIFE. During the 1960s and until the magazine folded in 1972 Eppridge was a staff photographer for LIFE. He covered many topics and news events, often finding himself in history-making situations.While working for LIFE, Eppridge photographed celebrities such as Alan Alda on the set of M*A*S*H, Gene Hackman, Raquel Welch and others. During the Apollo 13 mission, Epperidge was the only photographer allowed into Marilyn Lovell’s home even as her husband was stranded in orbit above the moon. In 1968 while five feet in front of his subject and friend, Robert F. Kennedy lay on the floor of the kitchen of Los Angeles’s Ambassador Hotel, mortally wounded by a bullet fired by Sirhan B. Sirhan. Eppridge went into the crowd and began holding people back, but every once in a while, he would reach down and click his camera.
David Burnett– is a photojournalist with more than 4 decades of work covering the news, the people, and visual tempo of our age. He is co-founder of Contact Press Images, the New York based photojournalism agency, now entering its 36th year. In a recent issue of American Photo magazine Burnett was named one of the “100 Most Important People in Photography.” He has been a contract photographer for TIME since 2003, reprising a position he held for 15 years in the 1970s and 1980s. The May/June 2010 issue of American PHOTO did a 10-page story on David, and his unique talent for staying ahead of the times. In July 2011, David worked with Photographers for Hope to create a workshop for homeless newsvendors in Glasgow, Scotland.
The Rules of the Contest prohibit any member of the NYPPA to contact the Judges in any way. If the Board finds out that a member has contacted a Judge that member will be expelled from the New York Press Photographers Asociation.
Thank you
The Contest Committee