Top Honors
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Photographer of the Year - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Political Photo of the Year - Brendan Smialowski, AFP
Portrait/Personality
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First Place - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Second Place - Cary Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Third Place - Kenny Holston, The New York Times
Award of Excellence - Frank Thorp V, NBC
Award of Excellence - Patrick Smith, Getty Images
Award of Excellence - Sam Corum, For Consolidated News Photos
Pictorial
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First Place - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Second Place - Patrick Smith, Getty Images
Third Place - Stephen Voss, Freelance
Award of Excellence - Andrew Harnik, The Associated Press
Award of Excellence - Astrid Riecken, For The Washington Post
Award of Excellence - Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Feature
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First Place - Carolyn Kaster, The Associated Press
Second Place - Claire Harbage, NPR
Third Place - Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Award of Excellence - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Award of Excellence - Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters
Award of Excellence - Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images
Award of Excellence - Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Sports Action
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First Place - Mark Goldman, Goldmine Photos
Second Place - John McDonnell, The Washington Post
Third Place - Julio Cortez, The Associated Press
Award of Excellence - Alex Brandon, The Associated Press
Award of Excellence - Jack Gruber, USA Today
Award of Excellence - Julio Cortez, The Associated Press
Sports Feature/Reaction
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First Place - Doug Mills, The New York Times
Second Place - Jack Gruber, USA Today
Third Place - Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post
Award of Excellence - Al Drago, The New York Times
Award of Excellence - Kent Nishimura, Los Angeles Times
Award of Excellence - Patrick Smith, Getty Images
Presidential
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First Place - Brendan Smialowski, AFP
Second Place - Oliver Contreras, For Sipa USA
Third Place - Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
Award of Excellence - Andrew Harnik, The Associated Press
Award of Excellence - Kevin Lamarque, Reuters
Award of Excellence - Samuel Corum, For Bloomberg News
Insider’s Washington
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First Place - Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images
Second Place - Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
Third Place - Doug Mills, The New York Times
Award of Excellence - Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
Award of Excellence - Win McNamee, Getty Images
Award of Excellence - Bill Clark, Roll Call
On Capitol Hill
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First Place - Bill Clark, Roll Call
Second Place - Rod Lamkey Jr., for Consolidated News Photos
Third Place - Bill Clark, Roll Call
Award of Excellence - Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters
Award of Excellence - Bill Clark, Roll Call
Award of Excellence - Melina Mara, The Washington Post
Award of Excellence - Bill Clark, Roll Call
Domestic News
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First Place - Salwan Georges, The Washington Post
Second Place - Stephen Voss, Independent
Third Place - Julio Cortez, The Associated Press
Award of Excellence - Tyrone Turner, WAMU/DCist
Award of Excellence - Jack Gruber, USA Today
Award of Excellence - Bill Clark, Roll Call
International News
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First Place - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Second Place - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Third Place - Salwan Georges, The Washington Post
Award of Excellence - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Award of Excellence - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
Award of Excellence - Salwan Georges, The Washington Post
Picture Story/Politics
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First Place - Andrew Harnik, The Associated Press
Second Place - Rod Lamkey Jr., Consolidated News Photos
Third Place - Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post
Award of Excellence - Brendan Smialowski, AFP
Award of Excellence - Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
Award of Excellence - Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post
Picture Story/Feature
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First Place - Carol Guzy, for NPR and ZUMA Press
Second Place - Jim Watson, AFP
Third Place - Carolyn Kaster, The Associated Press
Award of Excellence - Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Award of Excellence - Carol Guzy, for NPR and ZUMA Press
Picture Story/News
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First Place - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press
Second Place - Salwan Georges, The Washington Post
Third Place - Kent Nishimura, Los Angeles Times
Award of Excellence - Alex Brandon, The Associated Press
Picture Story/Sports
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First Place - Kent Nishimura, The Los Angeles Times
Second Place - Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post
Third Place - Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Award of Excellence - Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters
Political Portfolio
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First Place - Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post
Second Place - Win McNamee, Getty Images
Third Place - Andrew Harnik, The Associated Press
Award of Excellence - Brendan Smialowski, AFP
Award of Excellence - Doug Mills, The New York Times
Portfolio
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First Place - Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post
Second Place - Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters
Third Place - Win McNamee, Getty Images
Award of Excellence - Kent Nishimura, Los Angeles Times
Award of Excellence - Carol Guzy, for ZUMA Press and NPR
2023 Stills Contest Judges
Susan Biddle
Susan Biddle was a Washington Post staff photographer for thirteen years and is now an independent photographer for various publications and organizations. She began her career photographing for the Peace Corps and later worked as a staff photographer for the Topeka Capital-Journal and the Denver Post. After five years at the Denver Post she left to become a White House photographer documenting the Presidency for the last year of the Reagan administration and all four years of the George H.W. Bush administration.
She began working for The Washington Post in 1996. Prior to that she freelanced and her work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Life, National Geographic and other publications worldwide. She has participated in various book projects including Day in the Life of America, Day in the Life of Thailand, Hong Kong – Here Be Dragons, Day in the Life of the American Woman and America at Home.
She has won awards with White House News Photographers Association and National Press Photographers Association. She has been a judge for various contests as well as having taught on various workshops and study abroad programs.
David Burnett
David Burnett has been an internationally acclaimed photojournalist for seven decades. He has worked on contract with LIFE, Time and PEOPLE, and continues to work for a variety of magazines in the US and Europe. He is the recipient of the Press Photo of the Year award from World Press Photo (Holland), Magazine Photographer of the Year from the Pictures of the Year (USA), the Robert Capa Gold Medal from the Overseas Press Club of America (USA), the latter of which has also awarded him two Olivier Rebbot awards for work done around the world.
He’s photographed every American President since John F Kennedy, covered every Summer Olympic Games since 1984 in Los Angeles. He has twice chaired the Jury of World Press Photo. In 2018 he was awarded the Sprague Award from the National Press Photographers Association for Lifetime Service in Photojournalism.
In the past few years, he has authored two large-format photography books: “Soul Rebel – An Intimate Portrait of Bob Marley,” – the world-renowned Reggae musician and songwriter, and “44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World” – a photo memoir of the Iranian Revolution. In 2016 he published (with Hachette in France) “Man Without Gravity,” a collection of his sports photography. He is a Sony Artisan of Imagery, splits his time between New York, Florida, and a lot of airport departure gates.
Ruth Fremson
Ruth Fremson, a native New Yorker, never expected to go into photojournalism until her senior year of college. After studying graphic design at Syracuse University for most of her undergraduate career, expecting to pursue a career in the visual arts, she serendipitously took a photography course taught by legendary former Director of Photography for National Geographic, Robert Gilka. In less than three weeks she was convinced that she had found a new path in life. After Syracuse, Ruth attended the graduate program at Ohio University, landing an internship at The Washington Times during the summer of 1988. This led to her first staff position at The Washington Times where she worked from 1989 until September 1994 when she joined the staff of The Associated Press.
Ruth was first based in Charlotte, N.C., photographing a lot of sports but also covered the reinstatement of President Aristide in Haiti by the American armed forces and the end of the civil war in Bosnia. In 1996 she was transferred back to Washington, to cover the White House and spent the next two and a half years documenting the Clinton administration with short stints in London for Princess Diana’s funeral, the Pope’s historic visit to Cuba and the Atlanta. Ruth was part of the AP’s team to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for their coverage of the Clinton impeachment. In 1998 she was posted overseas in the AP’s Jerusalem bureau where she covered the Mideast conflict, stories in Egypt, Jordan and the war in Kosovo.
She worked there until The New York Times hired her in 2000 and brought her back to the U.S. to work at her ‘hometown’ newspaper. Since then, her assignments have ranged from the presidential campaigns of John McCain, Al Gore, and Howard Dean, the terrorist attacks on September 11, and its aftermath in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Salt Lake City Olympics, the war in Iraq, the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti and more trips to the middle east where she continued to cover the Palestinian-Israeli conflict until 2007. From 2005 through 2011 she made repeated trips to India, recording this changing and developing nation. In 2012 she worked on the groundbreaking ‘Snowfall’ project which earned writer John Branch a Pulitzer Prize. She spent a year documenting the life of a homeless child, Dasani, in 2013, which helped change New York City’s policy towards homeless children. Besides being part of both teams to win the spot news and feature photography Pulitzer Prizes for The New York Times in 2001, she has earned awards from the WHNPA, the NPPA and the New York Press Photographers Association. Her work has been exhibited in several shows and can be found in numerous galleries.
In 2015 Ruth transferred to Seattle, and now covers the Pacific Northwest along with assignments throughout the U.S. More recently she has begun to occasionally write stories that she pitched to her editors.