I WON GOLD!

I won gold at the Atlantic Journalism Awards! I also received 2 silver awards for a total of 3 awards out of a possible 6 in total! This is my first time receiving a reward as I don’t usually participate in submissions for awards.

To provide some context, I was nominated 3 times for the Atlantic Journalism Awards in 2 separate categories. Each category has a possible 3 nominations. To be nominated for half of the photography awards is rather incredible!

To my happiness and surprise, I was nominated for 1 image per maritime province (so 3 nominations). I had received two out of three category nominations for best portrait and another nomination for photojournalism news (out of three possible contenders again).

PHOTOJOURNALISM PORTRAIT – SILVER WIN: USA/CANADA BORDER CLOSURE (New Brunswick)

This image was captured in March of 2020 for The Globe & Mail. The idea was to head to the USA/Canada border in St. Stephen, New Brunswick and capture someone on the border interacting with their boyfriend/girlfriend. It also involved a lot of sitting and waiting. From my previous trips around New Brunswick, I knew how interconnected Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick are. They share fire trucks and yet are in 2 different countries. When I departed Charlottetown, PEI for St. Stephen, New Brunswick there was no interprovincial border closures or check points.

After photographing a couple of other scenes around St. Stephen, I sat and waited. I watched as cars pulled up and left. But in this particular instance, I watched someone pull up and was talking on the phone. I thought, this could be it. Pulling up to a parking lot with another lot across the river would be a great spot for 2 lovebirds. And sure enough, I was right.

See original blog post on this image.

PHOTOJOURNALISM PORTRAIT – GOLD WIN: RETURNING TO SCHOOL (PEI)

In September, 2020 the children of Prince Edward Island were going to head back to school. We were the first to open our schools up so capturing the students getting ready to board the bus or jumping on the bus would be a great opportunity to capture some images for Reuters. Firstly we wanted to get some parents on board with allowing the photographs to go national or international. So I put out a call on Facebook. I ended up down in Vernon River/Bridge photographing some lovely families. The photograph was nominated as a Top Photo of the Day by Reuters to a top photo of the week by NBC News. It was utilized in many locations from the cover of the Globe & Mail to the landing page of New York Times. It went around the world and back again multiple times. Massive thanks to the parents for allowing me to capture their munchkins.

PHOTOJOURNALISM NEWS – SILVER WIN: NOVA SCOTIA SHOOTINGS

We’ve heard so much about the Nova Scotia shootings over the past year. On the first day of the shootings, I was looking for the fake police car that was used by the shooter. It wasn’t until the second last stop that I had come across it after a conversation with an RCMP officer. As police were looking inside the vehicle, I was able to capture images as they investigated. This was an incredibly tragic time for the Maritimes. I still tear up a bit thinking about those tragic days, as I am writing these words.