Press Democrat’s Kent Porter wins third place in National Press Photographers Association contest

Press Democrat senior photographer Kent Porter has placed third in a national contest sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association honoring the best images of 2020.

Results were announced Wednesday.

Porter, who has worked at the newspaper for more than 30 years, was honored in the Photojournalist of the Year (Small Market) category, recognizing photographers for a newspaper or media publication with a print circulation under 50,000.

Porter, who won the contest once before for a week’s worth of work in 1995, calls the win a “bucket list” item.

“It is a very prestigious award and nice to be recognized by your peers,” he said.

In preparing his entry, Porter thought about it for a month and took two and half days to “painfully edit” all of his photos from the year.

“It was like applying for a job and trying to woo everybody with your pictures,” he said, telling the story of 2020 in 40 or fewer photos.

Porter’s work was submitted in a portfolio of 35 images which included images from Black Lives Matter protests and the North Coast’s record-breaking fire season.

He was especially proud of his picture story from the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. “I have a great deal of respect for people who put themselves out there,” Porter said.

The competition is supported through a partnership with the University of Georgia’s College of Journalism and Mass Communication and presented by Sony.

Hundreds of journalists submitted thousands of entries which were judged in over 100 different categories, including photojournalism, video, online and newspaper presentation and photo editing.

See his entry in the gallery above.