A picture that exploits the graphic or aesthetic qualities of the subject with emphasis on composition.
First Place
Tasos Katopodis, Freelance for Getty Images
Fireworks at 1600: Fireworks are seen above the Washington Monument and the White House at the end of the final day of the Republican National Convention held on the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.
Second Place
Jim Lo Scalzo, EPA
Richmond Removes Another Confederate Statue: Movers secure a controversial statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart onto the back of a flatbed truck as they remove it from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., on July 7, 2020. The statue was the third memorializing the city’s former role as the capital of the Confederacy that workers removed in one month.
Third Place
Jim Lo Scalzo, EPA
Breakers: An ocean fisherman prepares to cast his reel in the Outer Banks, N.C., on June 18, 2020. The rough seas and hidden shoals surrounding the Outer Banks have caused more than 2,000 shipwrecks, earning it the nickname 'The Graveyard of the Atlantic.'
Award of Excellence
John McDonnell, The Washington Post
Floyd Memorial: The image of George Floyd, who was killed by police, along with the Black Lives Matter letters are projected on to the Robert E. Lee Statue, which became the center of protests to remove Confederate memorials and police accountability in Richmond, Va., on June 10, 2020.
Award of Excellence
Jim Lo Scalzo, EPA
Utah’s Great Salt Lake is Shrinking: Visitors watch the sunset from newly exposed salt flats on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Utah, on Oct. 4, 2020. Utah’s Great Sake Lake has lost 50 percent of its volume since the arrival of Mormon pioneers in 1847. Two decades of drought are not the only reason for the lake’s shrinking shoreline—above average temperatures, and water diversion for agriculture and drinking water, are also to blame.