Carolyn Cole
Carolyn Cole is a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times, where she has spent many years covering national and international news. Her coverage of the civil crisis in Liberia won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. Carolyn is a two-time winner of the Robert Capa Gold Medal from the Overseas Press Club of America — for her work in Iraq and Liberia (2003) and her photographs of the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem (2002).
She has earned four World Press awards and has also been named U.S. newspaper photographer of the year three times. Carolyn grew up in California and Virginia, before attending the University of Texas, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism (1983).
She went on to earn a master of art’s degree from Ohio University (2010). She is currently based in New York.
Richard Murphy
Richard Murphy began chasing ambulances for his hometown newspaper when he was 18 years old.
He served as chief photographer of the Jackson Hole News for ten years, and photo editor of the Anchorage Daily News for 25 years. Murphy has been awarded two endowed chairs of journalism at the University of Alaska.
Murphy has served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prizes, the NPPA Pictures of the Year, and for numerous state and regional photojournalism competitions.
Dean Rutz
Dean Rutz joined the Seattle Times in 1988 as picture editor, and quickly set out to transform the picture desk’s operation. Within a relatively short period of time the picture desk assumed responsibility for production of most of the Times news pages – frequently including the Times front page. In those years the Seattle Times routinely placed among the top three newspapers in POY’s Best Use of category. Rutz wrote style guides for photography and captions, and developed production standards for images in print and online.
In the ‘90s Rutz established a beachhead for picture editing events on site with larger numbers of photographers, and focusing largely on sports. That began a slow evolution away from the picture desk and back into photography to today where he serves as the lead sports photographer for the newspaper.
Prior to working at the Seattle Times, Rutz was a staff photographer for The Washington Times; and before that The Palm Beach Post.
He lives in Lake Forest Park, Wash., with his wife and fellow photojournalist Karen Ducey, and their two dogs.