4/24/98
ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University visual communication graduate student Penny De Los Santos has been named national College Photographer of the Year in competition sponsored by the National Press Photographers Foundation and the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Ohio University photographers won 24 awards in the 53rd Annual College Photographer of the Year Awards contest, more than any other school.
De Los Santos, who will receive a master of arts degree from the university in June, will receive a $1,000 scholarship, a camera and 100 rolls of film for winning. She will be honored at a presentation at the National Geographic Society in June in Washington, D.C.
De Los Santos won the award for a portfolio that included documentary projects, photo essays and single photographs. She also won first place in the documentary category for an entry titled Innocence Lost: Displaced Children on Mexico's Border," and Award of Excellence honors in the picture story and feature photo categories.
I've had an incredible year, mostly due to my peers and faculty at the School of Visual Communication," De Los Santos said in an interview Thursday night from the Mexico-Texas border, where she is working on a photo project. They demand excellence and you don't want to show them anything bad. I was honored to win the award."
Following graduation, De Los Santos will begin an internship with the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee and then begin work at National Geographic magazine in August. Her assignment for National Geographic will take place in France. A native of Harker Heights, Texas, De Los Santos also has worked for small newspapers in Texas and New Mexico and as a commercial photography assistant in New York City and Dallas.
Much of her work has focused on the plight of displaced children and women along the Mexico-Texas border.
The College Photographer of the Year Awards were announced Wednesday night. Two other Ohio University photographers Susanna Frohman and Ting-Li Wang won Award of Excellence honors in the College Photographer of the Year category.
Frohman and Aaron Muntz from Ohio University won first-place awards in the pictorial and food illustration categories, respectively. Second-place awards went to Ohio University students Richard Tsong-Taatarii, general news; Mia Song, feature photo; Daniel Melograna, sports action; Bruce Bennett, personal vision category; and Mike Kepka, documentary.
Ohio University students won 12 awards in the contest last year.
We're very proud of the hard work and creative success of all of our students," said Larry Nighswander, director of the School of Visual Communication. Every time an outside organization can validate that feeling about your program, that's very heartwarming."
A complete list of this year's winners is available on the Internet at http://www.cpoy.org/98winners.html