Photographer of the Year

by Chelsea Williams

"New Pope Announced" taken by Barbara Davidson under the Newspaper Photographer of the Year category jumped out at me the most. A group of nuns in Enugu, Nigeria have just found out that a new pope was elected, and they are ecstatic. The reason this photo intrigues me so much is because nuns usually seem so stiff and proper, rarely showing any outward emotion. I associate them with religious settings, mostly churches, and to see them elsewhere caught me off guard. Their excitement seems so genuine, and the ear-to-ear smiles on their faces, along with their body language, put me at ease. Nuns seem super-human to me because of their devout religiousness and modest lifestyles, but this photo made me feel as though I could relate more to these nuns, even if only for a moment.

Another photo that just hit home for me was "Party," taken by Tamas Dezso under the Magazine Photographer of the Year category. It was impossible not to connect with the little boy in the picture. He is in the center of a bunch of wealthy adults, drinks in hand, simply taking it all in. He looks nervous, scared, and out of place, but his vulnerability allows people to see this situation from his perspective. The fact that all of the adults' faces are cropped out of the photo draws all of your attention to this boy; intimidated, yet standing tall in spite of it. You can tell he is trying to fit in and absorb this party that he obviously isn't comfortable at, even though none of the adults are paying him any attention. I feel like so much emotion is captured in this photo, making me just want to go give this little boy a hug and tell him it'll all be okay.