Pictures of the Year International awards

Author:

Olivier Laurent

Often overshadowed by the World Press Photo, the Pictures of the Year International awards - or POYi as they are known - was established in 1944 and has become a new highly-regarded press photography competition, often rewarding real talent, time commitment and dedication.

This year's winner in the freelance/ agency category is Tomas van Houtryve of Panos Pictures. His selection of 54 photos can be seen on the POYi website here. They include images from China, Moldova and Cuba, as well as an interesting take on Obama's inauguration seen from the point of view of expats and French supporters at Paris' town hall.

Van Houtryve surpasses, in his category, Paula Bronstein of Getty Images and Marcus Bleasdale of VII Photo, respectively second and third.

In the Photographer of the Year Newspaper category, the winners are Paul Hansen of the Dagens Nyheter, Mads Nissen of Berlingske, and the Denver Post's Craig F. Walker.

Times%20of%20Crisis%20Screen%20Grab.001.jpg

Project produced by Reuters (Ayperi Karabuda Ecer, Jassim Ahmad and team) and MediaStorm (Brian Storm, Tim Klimowicz, Bob Sacha and team).

However, three particular awards have caught my attention. The first one is the Documentary Project of the Year, which went to Reuters' Times of Crisis, which chronicles the consequences, over one year, of the worldwide economic crisis. The essay, developed in association with MediaStorm, is the second high-profile multimedia creation from Reuters to win major awards. In 2008, it presented Bearing Witness - a look at five years of the Iraq War. It went on to win the inaugural New York Photo Festival awards.

The second is the Judges' Special Recognition in the One Week's Work category, which went to Finbarr O'Reilly. It's not the first time this Reuters photographer caught my attention - I remember the haunting image of a lone US soldier walking through the fog in Afghanistan. This time, O'Reilly is commended for his work in Congo.

A gold miner inspects a rock while digging a pit at the Chudja mine in the Kilomoto concession near the village of Kobu, Congo. 23 February 2009 © Finbarr O’Reilly / Reuters.

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to see Ed Ou receive the Judges' Special Recognition in the Global VIsion category for his work at Getty Images Under a Nuclear Cloud. A year ago, Ou was barely known to anyone, but ever since winning a student grant of $5000 from Getty Images' Grants for Editorial, he's been a rising star. No doubt, we will see more of him in the next couple of years. Under a Nuuclear Cloud relates the lives of people living in Semey, Kazakhstan, where the former Soviet Union detonated more than 400 nuclear weapons.

For more on the POYi awards, check the official website at www.poyi.org.

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