A photographer who, last April, invoked California State Shield Law protections revealed one photo and his own name by entering and winning an award in the College Photographer of the Year competition. Alex Welsh, whose work we mentioned previously when it won the Gold Medal in Documentary Photography, photographed a murder scene while working on the Hunters Point story which has been widely recognized this year. Police investigating the crime asked Welsh to hand over images of the crime scene, but Welsh refused to do so, citing protections against releasing journalists’ unpublished material and notes. A San Francisco Superior Court judge sided with the photographer, deciding that Shield Laws applied in this case, and kept the photographer’s name withheld from other media and court documents for the photographer’s safety. The photographer, it turns out, had already released his name and at least one of the images in question to the College Photographer of the Year competition. Now, police again are trying to get Welsh’s cooperation in their investigation. The San Francisco Weekly has more.

Winning the Gold in the Documentary category at this year’s College Photographer of the Year competition was a moving and interesting set of images by San Francisco-based photographer Alex Welsh. He photographed the rapidly changing and troubled neighborhood of Hunters Point in San Francisco over a long period of time, gaining deep access to the community. This project stood out, far and away, from other cpoy work I saw this year for its depth, consideration and visual language. And more recently I’ve been impressed by this interview with Welsh published by The Visual Student blog from the NPPA.

At times, I was extremely scared for my own safety and well being, and over time the dangerous lifestyle that the kids around me were living began to take a toll on my sanity, but the more time I spent with the them, the more my convictions about the importance of the work deepened. No journalists in San Francisco really spent enough time in the neighborhood to gain access to the gangs, so it upset me that if I just bailed out of the project, the story simply wouldn’t get told.

This is incredibly strong, personal and important work from a young photographer and I look forward to seeing more from Welsh in the future. Be sure to visit his website for more images from this project and many others.

Congratulations to the new College Photographer of the Year Tim Hussin, announced yesterday from Columbia, MO.

Have a look directly at his work on his website. Hussin is a student of photojournalism in Florida.

Congrats too to all the other winners, including my friend Bill Reeves (website coming soon, he promises me) who won Awards of Excellence in Sports Action and Documentary. Check his work out.

I’m still working through all of the different pictures and projects for my ‘picks’, but one that jumps out at me immediately is Jenn Ackerman’s “Trapped” which won gold in Documentary. Interesting and powerful pictures from inside a Ohio prison.

(Oh, and I won an Award of Excellence in International Picture Story for my Kosovo: New Born project.)

Been a busy day round these parts, and I couldn’t say to expect this much blog activity from me on a usual basis, but I will be trying. One regular feature we want to offer here at the new DVAFOTO is links and reminders to upcoming deadlines for photo awards, grants, etc. Besides keeping tabs on the Photoshelter news today, I am busy preparing my proposal for the Blue Earth Alliance sponsorship.

DEADLINE: Postmark (no online submissions) by September 21, 2008. $60 entry fee for non-members. Full submission details.

This is something of an atypical award. The ‘winners’ will be brought in to partnership with this non-profit organization and given support by means of 501(c)3 nonprofit eligibility, a grant writer, access to mailing lists and some promotion. There is no cash prize, no publication, just sponsorship. But this is still a significant opportunity: with Blue Earth taking ‘fiscal accountability’ comes the chance, as the Submission Guidelines point out: “As a non-profit organization with 501(c)3 status, Blue Earth is eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions from private foundations, individuals, or other entities.”

For example, the project I am preparing for this entry takes place in a remote part of Russia and deals with environmental, oil and social concerns. It is of course ripe for Blue Earth’s aim of “sponsor[ing] photographic projects whose goal is to educate the public about endangered cultures, threatened environments, or current topics of social concern.” The real boon is that with the non-profit status of the Alliance, and their grant writer and help, I would be able to approach major international corporations (read: oil companies) for support — the very same ones operating in the region I hope to photograph — and appeal to their corporate vanity responsibility for documenting the effects of their operations.

See some of Blue Earth Alliance’s currently sponsored projects, which include work by both known and emerging photographers, notably (in my mind): Daniel Beltra, Jon Lowenstein and Stephanie Sinclair amongst many other fascinating projects by photographers I don’t know (yet). Also highly notable is the project Aftermath by Sara Terry, which focused on the post-war aftermath in Bosnia (a place dear to my own heart). More, her work there and commitment to the important idea of following up after the MSM (main stream media) have packed up from the ‘breaking news’ of a conflict have expanded into another award: College Photographer of the Year awards. Deadline: Friday September 26, 2008 (Free, online upload).