CATEGORY DESCRIPTION
A portfolio of no more than 40 images.

Ami Vitale relaxes Jordan last week next to the Dead Sea with friend Khari who is smoking a Nargilla pipe while she is "drinking my umpteenth glass of tea!
Credit: Photo by Pete Norman

Ami Vitale: "I am truly honored to receive this recognition. I just wish that it were for photographs that showed more of the beauty buried amongst all this madness."

Michael Sargent, Vice President for News Services / Getty Images---
I am delighted for Ami, she truly embodies the kind of person that we want working for us. She does look for the unique perspective and angles. She was one of the virtual unknowns, a new type for photographer with great enthusiasm.

Magazine Photographer of the Year

Ami Vitale
Getty Images

JUDGES' COMMENTS
"It stood out from all the other entries. Even though the majority of the pictures were all shot nearly in the same area, so many stood out on their own as picture stories. We came back and back to her pictures throughout the contest. She used the full color of the world around her. After we went through 40 portfolios in this category, a lot of them had too many stories, too big a story, not enough individual images, and a lot of clutter. People took (the rules literally that) you can have 40 pictures to heart and they entered 40. It diluted some people's work."
BETH A. KEISER, Photojournalist

"I don't think people have the courage to send less photos."
MARIA MANN, Photojournalism Consultant, The Creative Eye Consulting

"You don't send three or four photos. But you don't need 40 to win."
ROBERT SEALE, Staff Photographer, The Sporting News

"It's important to see that there is somebody documenting a conflict which is 40 years old now and nobody cares about. The ethnic violence that was in India made thousands of dead people and nobody cares. I'm glad this photographer gets the award because she deserves it. Kashmir - there is a picture that could have been picture of the year (No. 58707) - but she didn't enter it."
JEAN-FRANCOIS LEROY, General Manager, Visa Pour L'Image International Photojournalism Festival, France

"I think it's a powerful portfolio, obviously the best we saw. I only regret that, somehow, thematically, it's a little bit limited. I would love to see this photographer showing us a greater variety of issues around the world."
HORACIO VILLALOBOS, Director of Photography, Diario Popular, Argentina

"There were photographers who entered work from all over the world. This just goes to prove that in your own backyard, you can make photos that are poignant and you don't have to travel. So many try to put too much in there. She took things that happen every day around her and made a strong group of photographs. So many stand up on their own, individually." SEALE