The 2025 Recipients – Michael Horan & Susan Walsh
Michael Horan
Since I grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, I returned to Washington after college and then did a stint as a production assistant with a political consultant. When the election season ended I took a job as a courier at Washington’s WTTG-TV. I liked being out in the field, and I was drawn to the idea of doing camerawork. I’d never had any classes in photography, but I’d always enjoyed snapping pictures with whatever camera I’d had when I was young. I also took a lot of art history classes in college and studied the composition and lighting of the great masters, which later helped me greatly with my photography.
Of course, neither attribute was going to recommend me for a job as a TV photographer in a top 10 market. Indeed, a news director told me if I was interested in becoming a cameraman I should go to some small station, say in Iowa, to learn. But I was lucky because TV crews at that time consisted of two-man teams, a sound man and a cameraman, and if you started by doing sound it was a good way to get into the system. I did my courier gig by day and went out with the crews at night to learn the ropes. (I refer to sound man and cameraman because those were the terms used at the time; women in the field were rare.)
In those days Channel 5 was the de facto national bureau for Metromedia, and later Fox, so we covered national news as well as local news. I might be at the White House as President Reagan hosted Mikhail Gorbachev one day, traversing the metro tunnel between Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn with trains whipping by me the next. Once, I covered a train derailment in Baltimore where I slipped and fell into the muck. The next morning I was at a Senate hearing when another photographer blurted out, “You’ve got mud on your gear!” He wasn’t aghast because of the dirt—he was jealous because all he ever got to do was cover the Hill. There’s nothing quite like being at the White House or roaming the
halls of the Capitol, but I also liked being out on the street covering a wide variety of stories.
Most of the time I stayed within 50 miles of DC and cranked out the nuts-and-bolts stories that fed the beast, the ever-expanding amount of air time that broadcasters demanded for their news programs. Exceptions were trips to Florida to cover the Challenger disaster and to Guatemala to examine working conditions in textile factories.
Like most photographers I lived for opportunities to be creative. Hard-news stories—the Algerian Embassy fire and a massive water main break in freezing weather that stranded motorists on River Road—offered such moments. But feature stories were my favorite pieces to shoot, like ones about the Chesapeake Bay oyster men, wreath laying at Arlington National Cemetery, or one of the last tobacco harvests in Maryland, an Emmy winner. Try as I might I just couldn’t make a DC city council or Metro board meeting sing.
Eventually the demand to go live outweighed any other considerations. It became harder and harder to make visually compelling TV stories. However, I had another outlet for my artistic drive: still photography. I made a living with a TV camera, but my true passion had always been stills, particularly travel stills. By the time I was 30 I had visited all 50 states. By 40 I had traveled to all seven continents. And everywhere I went I made photographs. Many of my colleagues would tell me about all the places they traveled to for work, which made me extremely jealous. I did virtually all my journeys on my own time and on my own dime.
Ever since I was a little kid, I have always been dying to see what’s over the next hill. And then photograph it. To my friends and colleagues of the White House News Photographers Association, let me say thank you. Being chosen for this award by an organization filled with visual artists and some of the best photographers in the world is an incredible honor—and the little kid looking over the next hill never saw it coming.
Susan Walsh
I hit a rough patch in a couple of engineering classes at Boston University and was too shy to ask for help (ironic now, considering no one I worked with would think I’m timid). I needed a GPA lifeline. Enter Photography 101, the class that changed everything.
Actually, the spark might have been lit way earlier—third grade, Field Day, and a crush. I begged my mom to let me bring a camera to school so I could immortalize whatever 8-year-olds find attractive. I spent the day chasing a boy around the playground like a pint-sized paparazzo. The photo wasn’t great, but it was mine to stare at over the summer. That moment marked the beginning of a lifelong chase: me vs. the perfect frame.
College was more than just classes. I landed an internship at The Patriot-Ledger in Quincy, Massachusetts, working alongside photographers Yunghi Kim and Bob Bukaty. When the promise of a staff job fell through, I did what any desperate and poor aspiring photographer would do – I stalked The Associated Press. For three weeks, I called the AP Boston bureau every morning. Eventually, AP photographer Peter Southwick, staffing the weekend desk (and probably too tired to ignore me anymore), tossed me an assignment. That was all I needed to get my foot in the door.
After a short stint at The Springfield Union-News, AP Boston Photo Editor Dan Hansen took a chance. He wouldn’t let his boss off the phone until he agreed to hire me as a staffer in Boston. Then came the wild ride: Super Bowls, Boston Marathons and five Olympic Games. Once upon a time, I’d dreamed of being an Olympic skier. Technically, I made it – just with a camera, skiing into position with the gear in a backpack and praying I didn’t crash and break thousands of dollars of equipment. I spent summers in Kennebunkport, Maine, chasing George H.W. Bush—literally—on “boat duty” while holding a 500mm lens and working on my sleeveless tan.
In 1997, I transferred to AP’s Washington bureau and was fascinated with political photography. I’ve photographed every president from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump, crisscrossing the world aboard Air Force One and riding in a van in the presidential motorcade. (Yes, “Wire One” is as cool as it sounds.) Thanks to this job, I hit all 50 states and over 50 countries from Australia to Zambia. Wildest assignment? Covering the Trump–Kim Jong Un meeting at the Korean DMZ. Coolest? Hitching a ride on a “Skibird” LC-130 to Greenland to hang out with the National Science Foundation. Hardest? Photographing funerals at Arlington National Cemetery post-9/11. Some moments just live in your gut forever.
Most consequential? Covering President Clinton after he was impeached. Our team won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography—still surreal. A few years later, I was traveling with President George W. Bush to survey the damage from Hurricane Katrina when I learned I was pregnant. I was beyond relieved that morning sickness skipped me. Let’s just say you don’t want to get queasy in places with no plumbing.
Beyond the assignments, I worked to shape the profession. From 2001 to 2006, I served as president of the White House News Photographers Association and fought—politely but passionately—for important industry issues. The most significant item during the Bush administration was educating news organizations on why official White House handout photos should be limited. That effort changed AP’s handout policy, a victory I still take pride in.
Nowadays, I’ve traded my skis for skates. My son’s passion for hockey became mine. No broken bones—yet. No gold medals either, but plenty of bruises, camaraderie and laughs. Retirement means more time to volunteer, travel and tackle the Mount Everest of to-do lists I’ve been ignoring since the Clinton administration.
But at the heart of it all—whether it was chasing presidents, gold medalists or a boy—my career was fueled by curiosity, competition, love for storytelling, and laughter. Always laughter.
The best part? The colleagues who became friends, and the moments that turned into memories.
And to think it all started with a schoolyard crush and a camera.
About the Award
Sixty years after the WHNPA was formed in 1981, the executive board created a Lifetime Achievement recognition that would be presented each year at the annual ‘Eyes of History®’ awards gala. The award was created to honor the career and achievements of both still and video photographers. Andrew J. “Buck” May of Harris & Ewing received the first Lifetime Achievement Award. May was a founding member of the WHNPA and a four-time president of the association. He served on the inaugural and multiple exhibit committees.
Past Winners
The list of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients throughout the years reads like a who’s-who of visual journalists in Washington.
2024 – David Burnett
2023 – Diana Walker
2022 – Joni Mazer Field
2019 – Margaret Thomas
2016 – Rodney Batten
2013 – Ron Edmonds
2010 – Pege Gilgannon
2007 – Frank Johnston
2004 – Sheldon Fielman
2001 – Arnie Sachs
1998 – Robert Gilka
1995 – Joe Bailey
1992 – George Tames
1989 – Ken Blaylock
1986 – Arthur Lodovichetti
1983 – Byron Rollins
2018 – Charles MacDonald
2015 – Larry Downing
2012 – Ed Eaves
2009 – Bob Daugherty
2006 – Gordon Swenson
2003 – Dirck Halstead
2000 – Wally McNamee
1997 – James Atherton
1994 – Max Desfor
1991 – Bernie Boston
1988 – Maurice Johnson
1985 – Jack Fletcher
1982 – Frank Cancellare
2017 – J. Scott Applewhite
2014 – Doug Wilkes
2011 – Dennis Brack
2008 – Holly and Paul Fine
2005 – Chick Harrity
2002 – George Fridrich
1999 – Steve Affens
1996 – Charles Tasnadi
1993 – Henry Burroughs
1990 – Paul Lyons
1987 – Larry Krebs
1984 – Murray Alvey
1981 – Andrew “Buck” May