Portrait/Personality
A compelling portrait that captures an aspect of the subject's character.
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First Place
David Gilkey
NPR
Afghanistan Military
Lance Cpl. Anthony Espinoza, Bravo Co. 1/5, wipes the salt and sweat out of his eyes which drips down out of his helmet at the end of a day long patrol out of Patrol Base Fires in Sangin District, Helmand province, Afghanistan on May 4, 2011. The 100 plus degree temperatures combined with the humidity of the flooded farm fields make walking and patrolling in the area a daily battle.
Second Place
Ken Cedeno
Freelance
Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas sits on a couch in the lobby of her home office building in Washington, on Jan. 13, 2011. Thomas, an Arab-American, covered every President of the United States from the Eisenhower administration until the second year of the Obama administration. Thomas retired in June 2010, after making negative reactions to comments she made about Palestine, Jews and Israel.
Third Place
Chris Usher
Freelance
New American Citizen
Newly Sworn-in American Citizen Peter Jagdhane poses during Fourth of July ceremonies at Mount Vernon, Va., on July 4, 2011.
Award of Excellence
Michael S. Williamson
The Washington Post
Out Of Gas
Ed Shepard, 88, waits for customers at his downtown gas station in Welch, W.Va. He has owned the place for 62 years and thinks the end is near for his shop. "I only had one customer today, and that's not going to pay the bills," he said. "This used to be a boom town. It's so sad to see what's happened to this city," he added. Welch is the seat of McDowell County, population 22,000, down almost 100,000 in 1950. Most of the businesses in downtown Welch are shuttered. McDowell County is the poorest in the state and one of the poorest in the country.
Award of Excellence
Chris Usher
Freelance
Doris
Doris Buffett, sister of business mogul Warren Buffet, takes a moment from her job of giving money away to charities and organizations in her 18th century home in Fredericksburg, Va., on March 14, 2011.
Award of Excellence
Nikki Kahn
MLK Legacy
The Rev. Joseph Lowery is photographed in Washington, on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011. Said Lowery, "When I gave the inauguration benediction, it was the first time I enjoyed hearing The Star-Spangled Banner. ... I still don't like the song, but my nation had changed. They told me I could see the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument but I could hardly see it...But I heard Martin's voice. I heard his words from 1963 summoning a nation to come up out of the low land of race and color to the higher ground of content of character. ... Here I was participating in the nation's response to that summons in the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. So the statue means a lot to me. It is the personification of that voice I heard."
