Jim Gehrz was a judge in the 2024 v01 Photography Competition Contest

WPJA Judge since 2005 -

Jim Gerhz is a freelance journalist who previously worked as a staff photographer for newspapers including the Worthington (Minnesota) Daily Globe; the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Journal Sentinel; the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune (both Minnesota). In 2005, his photo story about a female solder who was critically injured in Iraq was noinated as a final for a Pulitzer Price in Feature Photography.

In 1997, one of Gehrz's photos was named Photograph of the Year by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Gehrz has been named Minnesota's Photographer of the Year thirteen times and in 2004 received the Scripps-Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for Photojournalism. In 2005, the NPPA named him Newspaper Photographer of the Year. Gehrz has received four regional Emmy Awards for still photography and multimedia. In 2007, the NPPA recognized one of his multimedia stories in the annual Best of Photojournalism competition as “Best Audio Slide Show.”


In 2017, the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists highlighted Jim Gehrz's career and his favorite images from it as part of its "Tell Us Your Story" series.