Photos: Pictures of the Year Announced

Sports Photographer of the Year

Photograph courtesy Donald Miralle via POYi

Swimmers glide over a school of fish at the mass start for the 2011 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

In Donald Miralle's picture, "I think that the judges particularly liked the juxtaposing of the little fish, which are swimming against the people," Shaw said.

This year's POYi panel of judges was made up of 17 renowned photographers, who were assigned genres—for example, sports or news features—based on their experience.

Unlike some photo competitions, POYi judging is transparent, providing a unique learning opportunity for photojournalism students at the Missouri School of Journalism.

"Anyone can come in and witness the judging,"  Shaw said, "and we do an online webcasting of the judging."

Published March 5, 2012

First Place: News Picture Story, Freelance/Agency

Photograph courtesy Yuri Kozyrev for Time via POYi

Demonstrators in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi call for the overthrow of the Qaddafi government in this photo by Yuri Kozyrev for Time magazine.

"Yuri put himself in the middle of civil disobedience at its height and was really able to record and reflect the extreme emotion of the people, ranging from a contemplative foreground to an exuberant background," Shaw said of Kozyrev, who has recently covered multiple Arab Spring revolutions.

"Lenin witnessed two revolutions," the Russian photographer told the New York Times. "I had a good chance to witness four."

Published March 5, 2012

Global Vision Award

Photograph by Steve Winter, National Geographic

A tiger peers at a camera trap it triggered during a morning hunt in the forests of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

Taken by Steve Winter forNational Geographic magazine and the Panthera wild cat conservation group, the picture won the Global Vision Award "for extensive long-term projects that focuses on the environment, science, or natural history," Shaw said.

(See more tiger pictures from Winter's assignment.)

"What's great about [Steve Winter's] work is that it's not only about the animals but also humankind's interactions with the natural world, both in a positive and negative sense."

Among the two Global Vision runners-up is David Guttenfelter for his National Geographic assignment "Japan's Nuclear Refugees" (see pictures). (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Published March 5, 2012

First Place: Issue Reporting Picture Story

Photograph by Stephanie Sinclair, National Geographic

Preteen brides pose beside their husbands in their village outside Hajjah, Yemen. The photo, by Stephanie Sinclair, is from a series for National Geographic magazine that won multiple awards in this year's POYi competition. (See more pictures from the child-brides assignment.)

"Stephanie's artistry as a photographer is just extraordinary," Shaw said. "She has an amazing ability to get access to cultures that for most people would be off-limits."

Of this particular picture, he said, "if you look at the faces of the two girls, you know they're just children.

"I also like the way the hills sort of intersect with the heads and faces of the people. Those subtleties are what take a great picture to an even higher level."

Published March 5, 2012

First Place: Science/Natural History

Photograph courtesy Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman via POYi

In a photo by Jay Janner of the Austin American-Statesman, underweight cattle wait in a pen to be auctioned at the Gillespie Livestock Company in Fredericksburg, Texas, on August 10, 2011, during one of the driest periods ever recorded in the state.

"The drought  has had a real impact on rural and agricultural communities in Texas, but how do you show that?" Shaw said.

"How many pictures of scorched earth and cracked fields have we seen? That's almost a cliché. So a photograph that can tell a story without resorting to clichés really helps it resonate with an audience."

Published March 5, 2012

First Place: Magazine Feature-Story Editing

Photograph by Lynsey Addario, National Geographic

An Iraqi man feeds seagulls at dawn in a Lynsey Addario photo from the National Geographic article "Baghdad After the Storm" (more pictures). The coverage won the freelance photographer—as well as senior photo editor Sarah Leen and design director David Whitmore—honors for editing.

For Addario, the Baghdad assignment was bittersweet, coinciding as it did with the Egyptian Revolution.

"I have been covering the Middle East and South Asia for 11 years now, and while Egypt in particular wasn't my story, it was extremely difficult to watch history being made on TV," she told National Geographic. "I am used to being in the middle of it!"

Published March 5, 2012

First Place: Science/Natural History Picture Story

Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty Images/National Geographic

In a photo by Brent Stirton for National Geographic, a man holds up a white rhino horn removed to save the animal from poachers in Klerksdorp, South Africa, on March 25, 2011. (See more rhino pictures from the assignment.)

"Sometimes with these images, less is more," Shaw said. "The arm, the grip on the horn, the way the horn is bent the same way that the grasslands in the background is waving—it's very simple, yet very powerful."

(Read more about Africa's rhino "wars" on the Nat Geo news blog.)

Published March 5, 2012

Third Place: Portrait Series

Photograph courtesy Liu Jie, Xinhua via POYi

Hou Keming, a low-income laborer in Chengdu, China, sits beside an image of his daughters in rural Sichuan Province on December 6, 2011.

The photo, one of a series taken by Liu Jie for the Xinhua News Agency, won third place in the portrait category of this year's POYi contest.

Taken by Liu Jie for the Chinese government's Xinhua News Agency, the picture is part of "an extraordinary series showing family separation in China," POYi's Shaw said.

"He went and found the family members and photographed them, and then he went to where the father or husband of those families was working and juxtaposed the images ... I can't imagine the labor that was involved."

Published March 5, 2012

Second Place: Issue-Reporting Picture Story

Photograph courtesy Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times via POYi

Somalis are shown during a 200-mile (322-kilometer) walk through the desert to reach a refugee camp.

"This is just classic Barbara Davidson photography," Shaw said. "The perfect composition, the quality of the light, the texture of the land, the faces of the people, and the body language—it all works together to really draw the viewer."

Published March 5, 2012

First Place: Magazine Series Editing

Photograph courtesy Jens Neumann and Edgar Rodtmann, National Geographic via POYi

The seemingly instant city of Dubai springs from the Arabian Desert in a picture from National Geographic's "Population 7 Billion" series, which won dozens of photographers, designers, and editors top honors for series editing.

"One of the key things in editing is respect for the vision of the photographer. That's one of the criteria that we ask the judges to examine," Shaw said.

The public too will be able to examine many of this year's POYi winners at an exhibition in Washington, D.C., where Shaw estimates the pictures will be seen by more than 400,000 people.

"While the awards and the plaques or the trophy is certainly nice, a photographer wants their photographs to be seen," Shaw said.

Published March 5, 2012

See More National Geographic Winners

Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic

Published March 5, 2012