Photographer of the Year

Photographer of the Year

MICHAEL CHOW
The Arizona Republic

Michael Chow, 34, staff photographer at The Arizona Republic, is the Arizona Press Club's Photographer of the Year. He was the also named Photographer of the Year in 1997. This is the seventh year he has been a finalist in the contest.

"The first-place portfolio succeeded because of clean, easy-to-read images," wrote the judging panel, Doug Parker, Dinah Rogers and Eliot Kamenitz of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. "The photographer tackled a wide assortment of subject matter, with a clear visual center of interest in each photo and without visual clutter within each frame. This portfolio had the strongest set of singles and a very nicely told photo story on Kosovo war refugees returning home following the war. Although those were photos we would expect to see, the focus of the story was narrowly defined with no redundant images. This portfolio was the unanimous choice of the judges."

Chow worked for the Phoenix Gazette from 1989 until the paper's merge with the Republic in 1996. He has won many state and national awards, including the NPPA Region 10 Photographer of the Year in 1993. He lives in Gilbert with his wife, Cheryl, and their 1-year-old son, Brandon.

First runner-up
MONA REEDER
The Arizona Republic

Mona Reeder is first runner-up for Photographer of the Year. She was the 1998 Photographer of the Year and and has won numerous state and national awards.

The judges said: "Very strong entry, with the Columbine memorial photo the most striking. The only fault we could find if you want to define it as a fault, was the inclusion of too many similar photos from events that were too similar in focus and tone. We were particularly impressed with the images of the diabetes story. A very difficult story to tell, but done so with compassion and empathy for the subjects."

Reeder began her career as a general assignment reporter, but switched to photography and became a staff photographer for The Daily Republic in Fairfield, Calif., and then for the Dayton Daily News in Ohio and the Republic. She graduated from California State University, Sacramento with bachelor's degrees in fine art photography and journalism.

Reeder recently left The Arizona Republic for the Dallas Morning News.

Second runner-up
ANDY SAWYER
The Tribune

Andy Sawyer is second runner-up for Photographer of the Year. He was first runner-up for the award in 1997.

"Good, solid daily journalism," the judges said. " The portraits of the bus riders photo story was an interesting idea and well-executed. All in all, sound work representing a wide variety of assignments."

Sawyer, 31, began his photojournalsim career on the lowest of rungs, having never picked up a camera before taking a job at a 1,500 circulation weekly newspaper in Cashmere, Washington. After brief stays at the twice-weekly (and now defunct) Federal Way News in Federal Way, Washington and the daily Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, he joined The Tribune in May of 1997.

He has earned several awards, from the smallest division of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association on up to the National Press Photographers Association's Pictures of the Year. He owes his success to a few people who know who they are.

Although he finds Noam Chomsky's writing on linguistics a complete inspiration, he thinks Franz Kafka pretty much summed it all up when he said, "All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers is contained in the dog."

Amen.

About the judges:

Doug Parker, Dinah Rogers and Eliot Kamenitz are all of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans

Parker, director of photography for The Times-Picayune, was photo editor of "Oceans of Trouble," an eight-day series about the impending collapse of the world's fisheries. It won the Pulitzer Prize for public service as well as national honors in the National Press Photographers Association and the Society of News Design. Rogers has been The Times-Picayune's assistant photo editor for nine years. Kamenitz has been a Times-Picayune staff photographer since 1980.