A compelling portrait that captures an aspect of the subject’s character.
First Place
Katherine Frey, The Washington Post
Ketcham: Ketcham Elementary School third grader Khoel Priester gets his hair cut at Ketcham Elementary School where children gathered together for the first time in nearly a year due to COVID-19 restrictions, on April 7, 2021 in Washington. The school, in one of the poorest sections of the nation’s capital, had once been a hub of the community before the pandemic hit. His teacher and the principal worked to continue that tradition even though the area was among the hardest hit by Covid-19. Khoel’s family lost seven relatives to the virus.
Second Place
Samuel Corum, For Bloomberg News
Untitled: Steve Bannon, former adviser to Donald Trump, speaks to the press after appearing in federal court in Washington, on Nov. 15, 2021. Bannon surrendered to authorities this morning on criminal charges stemming from his refusal to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Third Place
Salwan Georges, The Washington Post
Untitled: Jean Clairmont, 67, poses for a portrait as he carries sugar cane sticks to the back of a truck at one of Central Romana’s sugar cane fields in El Seibo, Dominican Republic, on May 28, 2021. Clairmont has been doing the same work for 21 years, swinging and cutting and hauling from sunrise until dark in sweat-soaked shirts and rubber boots. This year, he said the company gave him a hat for the first time with “CR” in red, white, and blue letters. Clairmont said he was grateful because hats cost about 500 Dominican pesos and he only earns about 1,000 a week, or just under $18. “Whatever they give to us, we have to take it, but that doesn’t mean it is enough,” he said in Creole.
Award of Excellence
Frank Thorp V, NBC News
The Grieving Manager: Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., in a photo on March 19, 2021, at the U.S Capitol in Washington, was on the House floor when the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol happened, receiving condolences from other lawmakers because his 25-year-old son had died by suicide only days before. He later went on to be an impeachment manager in the Senate trial after the House voted to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection, charges Trump was later acquitted for. “There was chaos and pandemonium on the floor, people trying to put on gas masks and figure out how they work,” he said of Jan. 6.
Award of Excellence
Frank Thorp V, NBC News
The Coffee Guy: It was more than lawmakers and their staff who were affected by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Dion Montague, in this photo outside the locker room in the basement of the Capitol in Washington, on April 12, 2021, works in the Capitol cafeteria and hid in a staff area when the rioters breached the building. “The only point that I was scared when I was in this locker room hunkered down,” he said. Montague, who’s know for making the coffee that Senators and aides drink in the Capitol, said he worried about the intent of the rioters and whether they wanted to harm him. “Who knows what those guys had in store. So I'm kind of over it but not over it. And I keep a vigilant eye too, I keep an eye out all the time.”
Award of Excellence
Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Cory Booker: Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) poses for a portrait in the balcony of National Statuary Hall on July 27, 2021 in Washington. He has fought to have Confederate statues removed from the United States Capitol. He is also considered a rising star within the Democratic Party.
Award of Excellence
J. Scott Applewhite, The Associated Press
Leahy Smile: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Senate, smiles as he arrives with his Capitol Police detail at the Senate at the Capitol in Washington, on June 7, 2021. The senior member of the Senate is a passionate photographer and likes to chat with the cameramen on the Hill.