The WPJA v06, final contest for 2023 weddings.
2023 v06 Photography Competition
Contest Judges
WPJA Judge since 2009 - David Stephenson is a freelance photojournalist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky's School of Journalism and Media. After hopscotching to jobs across the country for five years after graduating from WKU, Stephenson returned to his native Lexington and joined the staff of the Herald-Leader in 1997. He then left to join the Kentucky Kernel in... Read more
WPJA Judge since 2017 - Justin Merriman is a freelance photojournalist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a founding member of American Reportage, a collective of documentary photojournalists specializing in comprehensive storytelling of the American experience. After covering the September 11, 2001, crash of United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Merriman committed to... Read more
WPJA Judge since 2005 - Martha Rial first fell in love with the power and grace of photography as a teenager studying images in Life and Look magazines. Her desire to tell compelling stories has taken her from the mountains of Haiti, to African villages, to the streets of her hometown of Pittsburgh. Her photographs have received international acclaim, including a Pulitzer Prize for Spot News... Read more
WPJA Judge since 2008 - Preston Gannaway (b. 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning documentary photographer and artist. Her work often focuses on intimate stories about American families and marginalized communities while addressing themes such as gender identity, class and our relationship to the natural world. The story she did on the St. Pierre family, Remember Me, was awarded the 2008... Read more
WPJA contest judges have been recognized by their industry peers, winning top awards as staff picture editors, staff photojournalists, and newsroom mentors while working for these and other leading publications and journalism organizations.
