UNC-Chapel Hill Students Take Home 8 International Collegiate Photojournalism Awards
November 20, 2018
Hussman School of Media and Journalism
Students from the UNC School of Media and Journalism have won eight awards — including four gold — in the multimedia and photo categories of the 73rd College Photographer of the Year (CPOY) competition, making this the ninth year in a row UNC has won gold.
“Our students’ performance in CPOY again this year is yet more proof of their quality, and it speaks to our faculty’s commitment to producing graduates ready to lead in the profession,” said Susan King, dean of the MJ-school. “It’s gratifying that their work is recognized at the highest levels, as it has been at CPOY for nearly a decade.”
In 2018, 566 students from 126 schools across 17 countries submitted a total of 9,385 images to CPOY.
In the multimedia category, three of four awards won by Tar Heels were based on “Aftermath,” a multidimensional project that tells the story of how Puerto Ricans recovered after the catastrophic Hurricane Maria.
Winners in the still photography category, Rob Gourley and Alex Kormann, covered a wide array of photo themes, from a mother kissing her child while getting a tattoo to the winner of the demolition derby at a county fair.
MJ-school winners include:
- Gold, UNC-Chapel Hill, Aftermath
- Silver, Rob Gourley and Ruijia Zhang, Flipping the Switch (based on Aftermath)
- Award of Excellence, Hanna Davison and Alex Kormann, The Healing Brigade (based on Aftermath)
- Gold, Rob Gourley, Don’t Think Twice
- Gold, Rob Gourley, A Mother’s Kiss
- Gold, Alex Kormann, Crashing into Victory
- Bronze, Alex Kormann,Tears For Thurman
- Award of Excellence, Alex Kormann
Faculty members who contributed to the project “Aftermath” included Tamara Rice, lecturer; Pat Davison, Julian W. Scheer Term Professor; Christa Gala, lecturer; Kate Sheppard, Teaching Associate Professor; and Chris Carmichael, alumnus.
Judges for the multimedia category included Maisie Crow, a documentary film director living in West Texas; Jarrad Henderson, an Emmy-award-winning video producer; and Yoshi James of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Judges for the still photography category were Marica Allert, director of Photography for The Dallas Morning News; Cheryl Diaz Meyer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning independent photojournalist based in Washington, D.C.; Patrick Farrel, Pulitzer Prize-winning staff photographer at the Miami Herald; and Vaughn Wallace, senior photo editor at National Geographic.
Visit the CPOY website for a full list of winners, winning images and more.