The work of two Contact photographers was recognized at this year’s 66th annual Pictures of the Year International awards, organized by the Missouri School of Journalism.
Sean Hemmerle was awarded 1st place in the Magazine Feature Picture Story category for his story “Rust Belt.”
“Left to rot, the cathedrals of Industrialism, and the American Century dot the landscape from Pennsylvania to Illinois,” writes Hemmerle. “Gone are the days of Carnegie and Ford and American exceptionalism. An examination of the landscape of American hyper-productivity and past glory contained within an oxidized palette.”
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| Detroit, Michigan, March 19, 2008 |
2009 © Sean Hemmerle |
Contact’s co-founder, David Burnett, received an award of excellence in the Presidential General Election category for his image of Barack Obama backstage at the Roanoke Civic Center in the final days of the campaign. He also placed third in one of the competition’s most prestigious categories: Magazine Photographer of the Year.
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| Roanoke, Virginia, October 17, 2008 |
2009 © David Burnett |
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| Contact/s at DC FotoWeek |
All Photographs © Dustin Ross |
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| Opening night in D.C. |
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Appearing in its first US venue, “Contact/s: The Art of Photojournalism” opened in Washington D.C. on November 15th, 2008, as part of the inaugural FotoWeek DC festival. Drawing a large enthusiastic crowd to the FotoWeek Central Gallery in Georgetown, including photography-lover, Tipper Gore, the exhibition, which will be on view until November 22, features 25 giant contact sheets made by Contact photographers since 1976, as well as 67 single images drawn from the contact sheets and the agency’s archives.
The exhibition has previously toured in China, Bangladesh, Australia, and France. |
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| Also, on November 19 Contact photographer David Burnett will speak with Eugene Richards as part of a special presentation and discussion about their work and photojournalism. The event is at US Navy Memorial, Burke Theater, 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. |
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With the 2008 Beijing Olympics underway, Contact is engaged in it’s seventh coverage of the quadrennial summer event through August 24.
Since 1984 in Los Angeles the agency’s co-founder David Burnett has anchored the coverage establishing for himself the reputation of being one of the best “sports photographer” in the world. He is teamed up in China with expert veteran Olympic shooter, Ken Jarecke who is attending his fifth summer games. Belgian-based Italian photographer Paolo Pellizzari has joined the small Contact team in Beijing bringing his distinctive style of panoramic photography.
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| David Burnett, National Stadium, 2008 Beijing Olympics |
© Kenneth Jarecke |
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| Paolo Pellizzari, Shunyi Rowing Park, 2008 Beijing Olympics |
© David Burnett |
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| Kenneth Jarecke (center) shooting Michael Phelps, 2008 Beijing Olympics |
© David Burnett |
Contact has been invited to set up offices at the headquarters of China Daily, the largest English-language newspaper in the country, that was chosen to produce “The Olympian,” the official English-language publication for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Operating independently, the agency supplies the paper’s two-part special supplement everyday with unique photo stories and individual images.
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| Contact in China, L to R: Robert Pledge, Tim Mapp, David Burnett, Kenneth Jarecke |
© Li Shi |
To coordinate and edit the coverage in the Chinese capital is also Olympiad veteran Robert Pledge, the agency’s other co-founder and editorial director, who gathered a small and energetic staff which includes editor and digital director Tim Mapp from Contact’s Paris office, researcher and translator Li Shi, and logistics-assistant Eric Powell.
A selection of the work by the three photographers can be seen here as well as tear-sheets from China Daily carrying their published imagery.
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| All published photos by David Burnett & Kenneth Jarecke |
This summer’s historic Olympic Games in Beijing (August 8-25) is the handy pretext for Faster, Higher, Farther, an exhibition that takes a fond look back over the last quarter century’s worth of indelible Olympic-related images made by four unique photographers associated with Contact Press Images: David Burnett, Kenneth Jarecke, Annie Leibovitz, Dilip Mehta.
