The Eyes of History Video Contest

About the Broadcast Video Photography Contest

The video photography contest made its debut in the late 1960s. While the stills contest began in 1943, it took technology and advancements in video 24 more years for the video contest to become a reality. In 1967, Ralph Santos of NBC News became the first WHNPA Video Photographer of the Year. Ben Martin of ITN Channel 4 News began his six-time winning streak in 2009. In 2010, Bethany Swain of CNN, was the first woman to win the Video Photographer of the Year award. Swain remains the only woman in the history of the association as the winner of this award. She also serves as the chair for the student video contest.

While 1967 marked the beginning of the video photography contest, it would take an additional 33 years, until 2000, for video editors to be recognized for their editing work. That was the year that a separate award category was created for Video Editor of the Year. Chris Shlemon of ITN Channel 4 News was the first winner and in 2018 he celebrated his sixth win as the WHNPA Video Editor of the Year. In 2001, Beverly Bryan of WJLA-TV, became the first woman to win Video Editor of the Year and Alexandra Garcia of The Washington Post won in 2011.

2023 Contest Information

Please watch this space for more information on the upcoming 2023 Eyes of History contests!

2022 Contest Results

Judging for the 2022 Eyes of History contest has concluded. Congratulations to all of our 2022 winners!

Ben Martin of ITN Channel 4 News was named the 2022 Video Photographer of the Year, and McKenna Ewen of CNN was named the 2022 Video Editor of the Year.

For complete contest results, please click here.

Contest Archive

As we process hard copy archives of past contest winners, the archive of previous winning images will be updated here. Prior year versions of contest rules are provided for reference.