Munro raids photography awards 20/03/10

Ian Munro has been named the WA Press Photographer of the Year for a diverse portfolio of photographs that included a police raid, a hospital clown and a Nullarbor golfer.
Munro, who shot the winning portfolio for The Sunday Times, has since moved to The West Australian and has worked for many Australian publications. He also won the Spot News Award for his photograph of the TRG raid on a house in Falcon.
The other images that earned him the top prize in the Press Photographer of the Year awards were;
• Princess Margaret Hospital clown doctor, Natalie Barr, with leukaemia patient Zac Pearse
• Golfer Len Thomas playing and travelling on the Nullarbor links, the world’s longest golf course
• Perth Glory’s Jamie Harnwell rising above Sylvan Ebanks-Blake in Glory’s game against Wolverhampton.
The Best News Feature Photograph award went to Michael Wilson of The West Australian for his image of five-year-old Thursley Milgin chasing a butterfly in the remote Aboriginal community of Jarlmadangah Burru.
Best Portrait Photograph prize was awarded to freelance photographer Ross Swanborough for his shot of world renowned singer and musician Gurramul Yunupingu before he performed at Perth Concert Hall.
Kerris Berrington of The Sunday Times won the Best Sport Photograph prize for his shot of Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak attempting to stop Perth Glory scoring at Members Equity Stadium.
The Best Feature Photograph was awarded to Lee Griffith of The West Australian for his image of former flight attendant Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Foster on the wing of a DC3.
A series of images of asylum seekers injured in a boat explosion and the response by emergency services earned Paul Kane of Getty Images the prize for the year’s Best Picture Story.
Andrew Ritchie of Community Newspaper Group won the Best Suburban Photographer of the Year prize for images including boogie boarders making the most of stormy conditions at Cottesloe Beach and footballer Nic Natanui reflecting on his first year at West Coast.
The Kalgoorlie Miner’s Mary Mills was awarded the Best Country Photographer prize for images including a train derailment 30 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie and Finks bikies on the way to Perth under police escort.
Organisers of WA’s top press photography awards were inundated with 735 images from 458 entrants. This year’s judges were once again, retired freelance photojournalist Ritchie Hann, Duncan Dodd from Maxwell Optical Industries and photojournalist and lecturer David Dare-Parker.
Representing the three judges, David Dare-Parker noted;
“The overall standard was again high, no surprises there as WA has in its midst, many World class photographers.
“The overall winner in particular demonstrated exceptional skills within different disciplines — sport, portraiture, and both general and spot news photography.
“This photographer obviously has an excellent technical ability, offering up the kind of photographs that left the Judges unanimous in their final decision.
“Another reason the Judges felt so strongly about this work in particular was that these images were proof of a great eye, relying more on fine tuned observational skills, and less on photoshop or other computer manipulations.
“Strong news photography with a simple but telling portrait thrown into the mix. Well deserved.�
Award sponsors include the State Library of Western Australia, Canon, Team Digital, Eizo, The West Australian, The Sunday Times and The Community Newspaper Group.
The 500 best entries will be displayed at the State Library of Western Australia until Tuesday March 30, 2010.
The awards are divided into nine categories: Portfolio, Spot News, News Feature, Portrait, Sport, Feature, Picture Story, Suburban and Country. The overall, Suburban and Country prizes are each judged from a portfolio of the entrants best four images for the year.

News by category:

• Announcements
• Campaigns

Scoop:

• Archive

© 2009 Western Australian Journalists' Association