Judges

José Azel received a BA from Cornell University a Masters in Journalism at the University of Missouri, he joined the staff of the Miami Herald, where he worked for four years. From 1981, Azel freelanced as a photographer for international magazines such as, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Life, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and GEO Magazine, as well as shooting corporate assignments for the outdoor industry. In 1993, he co-founded Aurora Photos, a stock photography company. Today with the founding of a second company, Aurora Novus the merger of traditional photography and digital media is complete.
As a consultant on photography and multimedia, Azel has worked for Apple Computer, Inc., Scholastic Inc. and Time Inc. Various substantial online projects have been conceived, negotiated, and lead by Azel throughout the years, including Central Park for Apple, the 1996 Olympic Games for MSNBC, PhotoVoyages for the Washington Post Newsweek Interactive and Women Speak, set of photographs with sound by women photographers.
As President of Aurora, Azel has overseen the start-up and operations of the company from a staff of one to its present staff of 15, and from three core photographic contributors to today's 200 plus photographers. The company also represents several of Europe's premier photography agencies
Based on shifting markets and with the supporting knowledge in photography and technology, Azel conceived and lead the design of the Independent Photography Network (IPN), www.ipnstock.com. After a successful launch, Azel negotiated the sales of IPN to a Dutch multinational publisher, VNU, parent company to Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter, PDN and other trade publications. After the acquisition Aurora Photos turned towards continuing to build a top-notch photo archive.
Within a complex and shifting photography marketplace that has witnessed the emergence of global stock photography giants, Azel continues to guide Aurora Photos while shooting select assignments.

Christopher Addison is a partner in and founder of the Addison/Ripley Gallery in Washington, D.C., opened in 1982. He has served as an art consultant for numerous corporations and institutions, including The Oliver Carr Company, the U.S. Treasury Collection, Lasalle Partners, Fannie Mae, Sallie Mae, the Kaempfer Companies, the State Department and USIA. He also held the position of Chief of Exhibitions at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian. He is currently the vice-president of the Greater Washington Art Dealers Association, but has served on many fine arts committee in the metropolitan area. He received his B.A. from George Washington University.

Rebecca Crumley is the Weddings Photo Editor at The Knot Inc., the leading wedding resource.
As Weddings Photo Editor, Crumley is responsible for selecting each Real Wedding story featured in The Knot Wedding Network: the brand of national and print magazines, theknot.com, and dozens of other related wedding websites. She maintains relations with hundreds of wedding and lifestyle photographers, reviewing weddings on a daily basis. With a photography background and prior experience at The Smithsonian Institution and Maine Media Workshops, Crumley is often called upon for her expertise. Highlights include being a participating judge for Photo District News; a featured editor for PhotoServe Editor's Choice, Picture magazine, and The Washington Post; will be a panelist at the 2009 Photo Plus Expo and is a returning judge to FotoWeek DC.

Kat's diverse background as an art student, artist's rep, photo studio manager, creative wrangler and art producer give her a 360-degree perspective of the advertising world. She's worked on the agency side, vendor side and the client side with Campbell Mithun, Carmichael Lynch, The Martin Agency, Target and Best Buy. Clients have included St. Ives, Nexxus, TREsemme, Vanity Fair Lingerie, Wrangler, Harley-Davidson, Saab, Finlandia Vodka and Seiko, and she's been fortunate enough to work with many incredible shooters over the years. As a consultant and advisor, Kat's given presentations and workshops all over the country to professionals and students interested in learning some of the ins and outs of advertising. In addition to serving as the Board Chair of MNfashion Kat is currently on advisory boards/committees for The Women's Foundation of Minnesota, The Advertising Federation of Minnesota, Stevie Ray's and Stage Place. She previously served on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Center for Photography and functioned on leadership roles in various school-related groups. Kat believes that sharing her experiences with others will help keep our industry strong.

Armed with a global perspective and a burning desire to tell the difficult stories unfolding on the world stage, Michael Davie is one of the freshest voices in documentary filmmaking today. His work includes films on child soldiers in Africa, war refugees in the Balkans, the plight of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the empowering impact of music in South African prisons, and the effects of the Congo's brutal civil war on both people and wildlife. He is a regular contributor to National Geographic Television. Michael's work has earned him multiple awards including two Emmys, the Overseas Press Club's 66th Edward R. Murrow Award, a New York Film Festival Gold Medal and AFI Best Director Award. He was also awarded the prestigious FIPA Human Rights award by the United Nations.

Ruth Eichhorn is the Director of Photography of the German GEO magazines since 1994. She started her career with GEO in 1980 with the launch of the French version of the magazine. From 1988 to 1994 she worked out of GEO's New York office as their Bureau Chief. Before joining GEO, she worked as Photo Editor for several German magazines. Besides her work as a Photo Editor she curated and organised numerous photo exhibitions (among others "Earth from Above" and "The African View" in Germany) and edited several photo books for GEO, among them the book "The photographers - 60 extraordinary stories from 30 years of GEO". She served in numerous juries of national and international photo contests and was a member of the World Press Photo Award in 2004 and 2006. She is the Chairman of the German nominating committee for the Joop Masterclass for young photographers. She is a permanent member of the jury of the UNICEF Photo of the Year Award. She was born and raised in Kiel/Germany and lived and studied in Paris/France. German GEO was elected for "Best Use of Photography" by the Picture of the Year International Competition of the Missouri School of Journalism/USA and was elected Visual Lead-Magazine in Germany.

David Hicks is the photography editor for Washingtonian Magazine. Born in Arlington, VA, he grew up mostly in Middleburg, graduated from Loudoun County High School, and received a painting degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.
After college, he worked for a billboard company, where his assignments included painting the Marlboro man at RFK Stadium. Also an eight-foot chicken leg and a similarly proportioned ice-cream sundae.
His photo editing career began at stock agency Uniphoto/Pictor in the mid-90's. Landing at the White House as a photo editor for Clinton, he traveled often with the President and collected many fragile items. More recently, he was a photo editor at Washingtonpost.com and deputy photo editor at USA Weekend.

Cristina Goettsch Mittermeier is a Mexican-born photojournalist and marine biologist who combines her understanding of the scientific underpinnings of conservation to a boundless passion for photography and communication. She is the Executive Director and a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, a prestigious non-for-profit initiative she created in 2005 to recognize photographers working in conservation. Her own photography been published and exhibited in some of the world's most influential publications. Cristina serves on the board of the WILD Foundation and on the Chairman's Council of Conservation International. Her interests range from marine issues and loss of biodiversity to indigenous knowledge, but her life's passion is photojournalism and the documentation of the intersection between nature and human societies.

Eugene Mopsik, who took up his appointment as executive director of the American Society of Media Photographers, ASMP, six years ago, has a long and distinguished record with the trade association. A successful Philadelphia corporate/industrial photographer Mr. Mopsik served on ASMP's board for many years, including a term as president, 2000-2001. He has a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and admits being ill-equipped at graduation, in 1970, to become a professional photographer but proceeded with this chosen career, in spite of "good advice from family and friends."
As ASMP executive director, he has been involved in discussions with the Nielsen Corp., Getty Images, the New York Times regarding their freelance contracts, and worked to create new agreements between photographers and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) regarding the rights to images submitted for various AIA competitions. Recently he has also been very involved with the creation of strategy for the congressional discussions related to Orphan Works legislation along with overseeing educational programming for ASMP. Beyond the day-to-day management of ASMP's operations, Mr. Mopsik develops long-range strategy to maintain ASMP's position as the premier trade association for the world's most respected photographers. When not in the office or traveling for ASMP, he can found sailing or gardening.

Michael "Nick" Nichols is editor at large and a veteran photographer for National Geographic magazine. He has produced 25 stories for the Magazine, most recently, "Redwoods: The Super Trees" (October 2009). He has devoted himself to producing photography that effects environmental change, and his work with conservationists such as Mike Fay and Jane Goodall has resulted in many books, including Brutal Kinship, The Last Place on Earth, The Great Apes, and The Year of the Tiger, as well as the creation of 13 national parks in Africa and reforms in chimp conservation. He is a former member of Magnum Photos, and he founded the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginia. He lives on Sugar Hollow Farm in Virginia with his wife, artist Reba Peck.

For more than 25 years, Bob Sacha has made his reputation as a globe trotting, award-winning multimedia producer, documentary cameraman, internationally published photographer, multimedia and film editor and teacher based in New York City. He has produced photo essays, portraits and covers for National Geographic, Life, Time and Fortune and many other domestic and foreign magazines. His photographs have been exhibited internationally and honored with numerous awards.
From 2008-10, Bob worked at the Emmy Award-winning multimedia studio MediaStorm where his first piece, Bearing Witness: FIve Years of the Iraq War, won first place in the Online News Association Competition and the New York Photo Festival. He was the 2006-07 John H. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow at Ohio University and has won a 2010 Alfred I. DuPont Columbia University Award. He teaches photography and multimedia at the International Center of Photography in NYC and in workshops around the world. See more at bobsacha.com.

Amanda Sosa Stone is a consultant to photographers on creative and business aspects of their careers. She has a degree in photography from the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies. With the understanding that she did not want to become a photographer she moved to New York City, after graduation, to pursue a career in the industry.
Amanda worked with industry icon Elyse Weissberg, before becoming an art buyer for FCBNY (now Draft FCB). She is also the founder of the online resource guide called ShootinFlorida.com. She continues to strive to raise the bar in our industry.
Additionally, Amanda worked as the contributing photo editor, on a book by Elyse Weissberg, which was released in Feb 2004. Currently she co-Authored the book "The Photographer's Survival Guide" with Suzanne Sease, on book shelves now.
Amanda lives in Orlando, Florida with her husband and son.

Bonnie Stutski is the senior photogrphy editor for Smithsonian magazine, where she researches, assigns, directs and edits photography to illustrate articles and photo essays. Bonnie has more than30 years' experience in photography and publishing, working at various times as a freelance photographer, photo agent, documentary film producer, and as a photo editor (and occasional writer) for National Wildlife Federation Books, the National Geographic Society and Time-Life Books. Bonnie is a member of ASPP (American Society of Picture Editors), NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association), and is on the affiliae Council of ILCP (International League of Conservation Photographers). Besides judging Smithsonian magazine',s annual photography contest, she has judged and curated a number of other photography contests and exhibits mounted by organizations such as Nikon, regional Artists' Guilds , and galleries and museums around the country.

Susan has been a long-time Photo Editor at National Geographic Magazine. After graduating from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1970 with a BFA in photography, she spent five years as a staff photographer at the Philadelphia Daily News. Before joining National Geographic, she worked as a photo editor for another five years at the New York Post.

As Senior Photo Editor for National Geographic Traveler magazine, Dan Westergren is responsible for the magazine's photographic vision. While under his watchful eye, National Geographic Traveler has won numerous awards for photography.
Besides photo editing, Dan is an accomplished photographer who has photographed a variety of articles for Traveler magazine. He particularly enjoys cold, high places, having photographed the summits of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Blanc, and the Matterhorn for the pages of Traveler. He is also an experienced teacher, having led workshops for National Geographic Expeditions and Santa Fe Photo Workshops in Santa Fe, Tuscany and Alaska.

Alison Wright has journeyed the world as a photographer for more than two decades, focusing her efforts on human rights issues and documenting the traditions of changing cultures around the world.
Wright's photography is represented by National Geographic and Corbis as well as being published in world-wide periodicals such as National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, Islands, Smithsonian, American Photo, Natural History, Islands,Time, Forbes, O: The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, Yoga Journal, Outside, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
She is a recipient of the Dorothea Lange Award in Documentary Photography for her photographs of child labor in Asia and a two-time winner of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award.
Her writing and photographs have been published in her books, "Faces of Hope,Children of a Changing World" "The Dalai Lama; A Simple Monk," and "The Spirit of Tibet,Portrait of a Culture in Exile," as well as through the Discovery Channel Photo Journeys series.
On January 2, 2000 Alison's life was nearly cut short during a horrific bus accident on a remote jungle road in Laos. Alison's recent memoir, "Learning to Breathe; One Woman's Journey of Spirit and Survival," chronicles this inspirational story of survival and years of rehabilitation, and her ongoing determination to recover and continue traveling the world as an intrepid photojournalist.

Amy Yenkin is the Director of the Open Society Institute's Documentary Photography Project, based in New York City. She joined OSI in 1994 as the deputy director of scholarships and later held the positions of Associate Director of the Open Media Research Institute (an OSI-related organization based in Prague) and Associate Director of OSI's U.S. Programs.
Yenkin helped establish the Moving Walls documentary photography exhibition in 1998 and in 2004 developed and launched OSI's Documentary Photography Project where she oversees several grant and exhibition programs.
Prior to OSI, she worked in Washington, D.C., as the Director of Government Relations for NAFSA: Association of International Educators, where she represented U.S. colleges and universities in lobbying the U.S. Congress and government agencies on immigration policies affecting foreign students and the hiring of foreign faculty and researchers. She received her BA in history from the University of Michigan.