NPPA ‘Best of Photojournalism’ competition hosts live webcasts of judging

‘Best of
Photojournalism’ will announce winners of 12 categories during live broadcast
March 5 at 6 p.m.

The National Press Photographers
Association headquartered at Grady College is hosting live webcasts of its ‘Best
of Photojournalism’ judging now through March 4.

The feed can be viewed on the two NPPA YouTube channels: Room 1 and Room 2.  Both feature images of the photos being evaluated
and conversations by judges in print, online and picture editing categories which
include features, politics, environment, breaking news, portraits and others. A
full schedule of the categories being judged and when can be found on the NPPA
webcasting webpage.

A total of 26 judges will work to evaluate the merits of
8,810 entries in still and video categories.

A live broadcast announcing the winners of the still and
online competition categories will be broadcast by Grady Newsource on March 5
at 6 p.m. In addition to the winners, the broadcast will feature interviews
with several people associated with the competition. The awards announcement can
be viewed live through the Grady
Newsource Facebook page and on Charter Cable 15.

Nearly 30 volunteers are helping with the judging and include
several Grady College photojournalism alumni, Grady students who are taking photojournalism
classes and are members of the NPPA student chapter at UGA and four students
from collegiate photojournalism programs at Howard University (Washington,
D.C.), Syracuse University (New York), Rochester Institute of Technology (New
York) and Madison College (Wisconsin). Grady College sponsored the four
out-of-state students to travel to Athens, Georgia, as an outreach to other
photojournalism program.

“I feel like I am getting a semester’s worth of learning in
just a few days,” said Emily Dimond, a photojournalism student form Madison
College.

For Danielle Devries, a photojournalism student at Rochester
Institute of Technology, accepting the offer to volunteer was an opportunity to
get to know the mindset of what professional photographers look for in
award-winning work and also to make connections.

“It’s comforting to be in an environment where everyone
understands the industry,” Devries added.

While the still images are being judged now, the broadcast
video editing and video photojournalism categories will be judged March 16-20.

This is the first year that Grady College has hosted the “Best of Photojournalism” competition. Entries from this year’s competitions and future competitions will be housed at the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library.

Follow the NPPA Twitter Account, @nppa, #NPPABOP, for category winners.