2004 Arizona Photojournalist of the Year
11 entries
Judges: The photo staff of the Los Angeles Times, including Mark Boster, Gina Ferazzi, Alex Gallardo, Kirk McKoy and Lee Sinco.
Arizona Photojournalist of the Year
Pat Shannahan, The Arizona Republic
Pat Shannahan, 27, has been a photojournalist at The Arizona Republic for the past four years.
Before joining the Republic he was the chief photographer at The Vicksburg Post in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The judges were particularly impressed with Shannahan’s “Dying to Work” photo essay, which they said had “great emotions, striking images, real content. The photographer worked the story with depth and feeling of the subject, looking for details, and a closing image that pulled you back into why people risk their lives dying to work. It gives the viewer pause to rethink why they risk everything.” They also had high praise for his photo story on “Caged Kids.” “Highly polished presentation with strong images which stay with the viewer,” they wrote. “These two photo stories carried the photographer's portfolio to winner's circle.”
Shannahan graduated from ASU in 1999.
First runner-up
Michael Chow, The Arizona Republic
Michael Chow, 39, has been a staff photographer for The Arizona Republic and late Phoenix Gazette since 1989. He is a 12-time finalist and five-time winner of Arizona Photographer of the Year and also has been named the National Press Photographers Association Region 10 Photographer of the Year.
Judges praised Chow's artist eye and ability to capture moments they would have been proud to have in their portfolio. “This photographer has an ability to see beyond the normal,” they wrote. They also appreciated Chow’s great sense of artistic composition, shown in a rain shot of two young teens who got splashed by a car while walking home from school. “There is just not enough humor in today's paper,” they wrote. “The judges loved the photo.”
A graduate of San Jose State University's photojournalism program, Chow briefly worked for the Tacoma News Tribune
before the rain drove him to the desert. He is married to Republic photographer Cheryl Evans and has two kids, Brandon, 6, and Samantha, 3.
Second runner-up
Kelly Presnell joined the Arizona Daily Star in 2003 from the Virginian-Pilot.
Presnell is a five-time winner of National Newspaper Photographer Association Region Seven Newspaper Photographer of the Year. He also has won awards from the Arizona Press Club, Arizona Associated Press Managing Editors, Virginia News Photographers Association, Kansas Press Association and the Associated Press Kansas/Missouri Newsphoto Contest.
“Outstanding emotions and great visual composition is what Kelly Presnell is looking for in his photos,” the judges wrote. “His photos jump off the page at you saying, ‘Come look at this.’” Three examples: 1. A family friend trying to console the mother of a victim of a drive by shooting; (2) A five-year-old girl cries as her mother and father say a final goodbye before he is deployed for service in Iraq; (3) A woman wipes away tears as she talks about her husband, who disappeared trying to cross into the U.S. a week earlier. Judges also praised Presnell’s photo story about two boys smuggled into the United States to be with their mother, and his photo in which he showed an artist as part of her painting. “It is another one of those WOW images,” they wrote.