Photo Students Garner Top Awards

By Patrick W. Galbraith
J-School Web Reporter

Photographers at the University of Montana’s J-School are some of the best in the country, according to the top honors many received recently in national competitions.

“It’s like Christmas-time, getting all these awards at once,” said Keith Graham, assistant professor in photography. “It validates that we are doing a good job here.”

Graham said it’s the aim of his section to prepare its 40 professional-level students for the real world of journalism by encouraging them to enter contests and gain exposure.

By his measure of success, the J-School’s photojournalism program – one of only 43 in the nation recognized by the National Press Photographers Association – has had an outstanding year. Students swept competitions from Indiana to California, claiming high honors in the College Photographer of the Year Competition, NCAA Hall of Champions Sports Photography Contest and Nikon Student Shoot Out. The work of two seniors was even selected for publication in professional photography collections.

J-School photographers made a strong showing in the 58th Annual College Photographer of the Year competition. Lisa Hornstein, 21, received first place gold in the Spot News category for her picture, “Please Come Back,” and Tom Baker, 23, received honorable mention for his entry, “Head-On.”

Lisa Hornstein

After spending long hours with rowdy co-workers at the Kaimin offices, Hornstein didn’t believe the news at first.

“The guys from the Kaimin are always teasing me, so I was like, ‘Yeah, I got first place in CPOY, whatever,’” said Hornstein, a four-year veteran of the paper. “It’s pretty prestigious. It’s what you enter if you’re a college photographer.”

To further her incredulity, Hornstein received her award in the Spot News category, which she said was her least favorite and most challenging division of the competition.

“Spot news is an unplanned event,” she said. “It’s the real news, and it’s one of the hardest things to shoot.”

The difficulty was complicated by location, said Hornstein, because, “There’s not a lot of breaking news in Missoula.”

So what’s a born-and-raised Missoula girl to do? Head to a livelier city.

Hornstein’s photo, “Please Come Back,” was taken in just such a place, Spokane, Wash., during an all-night ride-along with police there. The black and white image shows a domestic disturbance call in which a small child is begging departing officers to come back inside the house and help him.

“It’s an intense photo,” said Hornstein. “The content is what won.”

The College Photographer of the Year victory was a timely affirmation for the senior, who is set to graduate this spring.

“Winning was a nice pick-me-up,” she said. “I love photography – it’s the basis of my life. I’m on a photography high right now and I’m shooting everything I can, trying to be the best I can be.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Baker, who said his honor has acted as a career jump-start.

Tom Baker

“I can be proud to present my résumé now,” said the photography senior. “I look at it as the beginning of how I want my career to be.”

His submission, “Head-On,” was shot while covering a car crash for the Havre Daily News, where he did his summer internship.

“A small Ford Escort had a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer (semi-truck),” said Baker. “It was suspected that the woman fell asleep at the wheel. She died on impact.”

Baker also had two of his photos selected for the Montana edition of America 24/7 – one in a set of photo-anthologies of the nation – along with the J-School Web page’s own photographer, Kate Medley, who was published in the national collection.

The books encompass the largest collaborative photo project in U.S. history. Coordinated by Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen, authors of the New York Times No.1 best-selling “Day in the Life” books, America 24/7 is made up of photos culled from more than a million pictures shot during one May week by 25,000 photographers who went to homes, schools, factories and farms across America.

The entries included submissions by 36 Pulitzer Prize winners, photojournalism students and newspaper photographers.

In the Indiana-based 2003 NCAA Hall of Champions Sports Photography Contest, Josh Drake took overall Grand Prize and first place in the category of Practice/Training for his entry, “Hoosier.”

Josh Drake

“I’m from Indiana; I was born there,” said the 23-year-old. “My father still lives there and I went back for the summer.”

During the visit, Drake’s mother pointed out an advertisement for the national competition in the local paper and urged him to enter.

“I just thought, ‘Hey, why not?’ and sent in a shot when I got back to Montana,” he said.

The subject was his brother playing basketball in a dairy-barn hayloft his father converted into a court.

“It really just sums up Indiana basketball,” he said, explaining why he titled it “Hoosier.” “It’s a great picture. Light is coming in through the cracks in the barn walls. The lighting is just perfect.”

Apparently the NCAA agrees, and the Grand Prize honor secured $100 cash and a $200 digital gift package for the senior, who is graduating this month.

“It’s a nice confirmation to be recognized in such a competitive field,” said Drake.

The NCAA isn’t the only one that can recognize a winner, and the Petoskey News-Review in Michigan – the site of Drake’s summer internship – is planning to run his picture to inform readers of his success.

“Everyone has been really supportive,” he said. “I’m focusing all my energy now on school and getting another internship.”

And judges in California can spot UM students’ skill, too. The proof: on Nov. 8, senior Sean Sperry won the Nikon Student Shoot Out in Manhattan Beach.

photo by Tom Braid

Sean Sperry, left, won a brand new Nikon D100 digital SLR for the J-School in a California competition.

Sperry was one of 20 competing in a photography workshop there. Participants were given an assignment and had one hour to take photos and turn in a picture.

“Each student was representing a different university,” said Sperry, 25. “Everyone got the same digital camera and one hour to shoot.”

Sperry’s victory nabbed a new Nikon D100 SLR digital camera for the school, valued at more than $1,000.

“I’m just happy that the school could get another digital camera,” he said, adding that the honor hadn’t affected him at all. “I’m pretty enthused to go out and just shoot as much as I can.”

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