First Place
Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Aurora Shooting: The Century Aurora 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo., was the scene of a mass shooting on July 20, 2012. As people gathered to watch The Dark Knight Rises, an armed gunman opened fire, killing twelve people. Scores more were injured. In the aftermath of the shooting, the community came together to mourn.
Second Place
Jahi Chikwendiu, The Washington Post
Sandy Hook: Aftermath of a Massacre: Twenty-eight people died Dec. 14, 2012, after 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother Nancy, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and opened fire. Twenty children and 6 staff members died at the school and Lanza was found dead from a self-inflicted wound at the scene. The shooting became the second deadliest in U.S. history, after the rampage that killed 32 students at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. It happened in a country that had grown darkly accustomed to public shootings: just five months before, another gunman had killed 12 in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in July. But the sheer scale of Friday’s killing — and the nature of its victims, small children shot in the sanctuary of a school — deepened its horror, and unleashed a shaking kind of grief.
Third Place
Jahi Chikwendiu, The Washington Post
Occupy DC: Eviction of a Movement: When groups of protesters demonstrating against economic inequality took to the streets of Washington and other major cities on Oct. 1, it wasn’t long before their demonstrations and marches evolved into encampments. The protestors became Occupiers, and tents went up in Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square. Protesters were not given a permit to set up camps in either park, but were allowed to stay.
Award of Excellence
Ken Cedeno, freelance for Corbis
Superstorm Sandy Home Cleanup: A home sits destroyed on Front Street after Superstorm Sandy came through and destroyed much of Union Beach, N.J., on Nov. 8, 2012. The storm devastated many parts of northern New Jersey and north up to Rockaway, N.Y.