AP photographers honored with 3 OPC awards
Apr 25, 2012, 6:20 AM
NEW YORK (AP) – Two Associated Press photographers won three out of the four Overseas Press Club photography awards for their work documenting North Korea’s reclusive society, Japan’s nuclear disaster and the fight against mass rape in eastern Congo.
Among others honored were Christiane Amanpour of ABC News for her coverage of the Arab Spring and CNN founder Ted Turner, who received the President’s Award for lifetime achievement, the OPC announced Wednesday.
AP Chief Asia Photographer David Guttenfelder won the Feature Photography Award for his portrayal of daily life inside North Korea. Guttenfelder, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his North Korea images, was also honored with the OPC Olivier Rebbot Award for best photography in magazines for documenting Japan’s closed-off nuclear zone. His Japan photographs appeared in National Geographic.
AP’s Pete Muller’s work documenting the fight against rape in Congo was honored with the John Faber Award for photography for newspapers or news services.
The fourth photography award, honoring enterprise and courage, went to Andre Liohn of the European Pressphoto Agency for his combat images of Misrata, Libya.
It was the first time since 1968 that AP Photographers won three OPC awards in one year and raised the number of OPC awards won by the cooperative to 40.
AP director of photography Santiago Lyon called the awards “a testament to the talents of AP photographers and particularly these AP photographers, David Guttenfelder and Pete Muller.”
Lyon said Guttenfelder has made numerous trips to North Korea and “has really shown us an interesting perspective and insight into the place.”
Muller’s portrayal of trials for people accused of rape in Congo “was touching, particularly his portrait of victims, whom he was allowed to photograph with the condition that he cover their faces. So it was a surprising series of anonymous photographs,” Lyon said.
“We are very proud of Pete and David,” he said.
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