Judges

Frank Franklin II / Associated Press

For the past 19 years, Frank Franklin II has been a Staff Photographer with The Associated Press (AP) in New York City.

Prior to that, he worked for AP as a staff photographer in Raleigh, N.C. In 2001 he was a photo intern for AP in Seattle, Washington, while working towards MA in photography at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication.

Frank grew up in Queens, New York. He discovered photography while majoring in Business Management at Howard University in Washington D.C.

Frank has covered events including Hurricane Ike in Texas, Hurricane Sandy in New York, Super Bowls, London 2012 Summer Olympics, Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, World Series, Stanley Cup Playoffs, March Madness basketball, and NBA Playoffs.

William B. Plowman / freelance

William B. Plowman is a freelance photojournalist based in Washington, D.C. He studied international relations and political science at Boston University but turned his eye toward photojournalism. He began his career in Boston photographing a wide variety of news, sports and politics stringing for the Associated Press and the Boston Herald. Since 2001 William has covered both domestic and international stories with a focus on issues of human rights, migration, economic inequality, social justice and disenfranchisement. His work has taken him to Africa, South Central Asia, the Baltics, the Caribbean, Central and North America. William has been the still photographer for the nation’s longest running television show “Meet the Press” since 2010 and is a contributing photographer for NBC and MSNBC news. His work regularly appears in the world’s leading news publications and outlets.

William’s work has been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association, Pictures of the Year International, the Boston Press Photographers Association, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, the Gordon Parks Photography Contest, and Anthropographia: Human Rights Through Visual Storytelling. In addition he has been the recipient of the NPPA Short Grant and the Yunghi Grant.  The award winning documentary film “Ghosts of Cite Soliel” features his work covering the 2004 conflict in Haiti and his photography covering white supremacy appears in the film “Erasing Hate.”

His ongoing reportage on migration, asylum seekers and the push factors behind these moves have been featured in the Curators Without Borders traveling exhibition “Push Factors: Perspectives on Guatemalan Migration” as well as “The Darien Gap: Seeking Refuge” in the permanent collection of the Museum of Freedom and Human Rights in Panama.

William is currently splitting his time between covering politics in the nation’s capital and a documentary project in Appalachia.

Helen H. Richardson / The Denver Post

I am a staff photographer at the Denver Post. Over the years I have covered large breaking news stories, including the Aurora theater shooting, the 1,000 year floods in Colorado, Colorado's worst wildfires including the Waldo Canyon Fire, Black Forest Fire, Pine Gulch and East Troublesome fires and more recently The Marshall Fire which has now become Colorado's most destructive wildfire on record that occurred just after Christmas of this year. I have covered national and international events including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the 2004-05 tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand; the death of Pope John Paul II in Rome; and the effects of AIDS and lack of water in African nations as well as two Olympic games. I particularly enjoy covering stories that converge with my interests, which include rock and ice climbing, extreme sports, nature, animals and the environment.