Axel Fassio / Aurora Photos / Humanitarian Documentary 1st Place

We are happy to announce that Aurora Photographer Axel Fassio has taken 1st place in the Humanitarian Documentary category and 3rd place in the Fine Art category in the 2011 Pollux Awards. Axel has also won awards in the IPA 2011 taking 3rd place in the Architecture and Bridges category. He also entered the Art of Photography Show 2011 and was selected and shown in their gallery.

Axel Fassio / Aurora Photos / Fine Art 3rd Place

To view more images from Axel Fassio, visit Aurora Photos.

Robert Gallagher / Aurora Photos

Aurora contributor Robert Gallagher took 2nd place in the portrait category at this year’s APA awards. His above image of Don Wildman, an athletic eighty-year-old working out on Malibu beach in California, is one stand out among the selection of amazing photographers at this years APA awards.

To view more images from Robert Gallagher, visit Aurora Photos.

Congratulations to Select photographer Clay McLachlan for his award from the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’. His portrait of Gina Gallo won the Artistry of Wine award for 2011.

To view Clay McLachlan’s portfolio, visit Aurora Select.
To view the other winners of the contest, visit Louis Roederer.

Aurora Photographer Ake Ericson was recently awarded Best Photo Essay for his piece Racism Against Gypsies. In the south of the Czech Republic millions people belonging to the Roman population live a very hard life, abandoned from the rest of the society. Many have been expelled from towns to special camps, like the one outside Breclav. The people living there experience a boring life, without future prospects: no work, no income. And they share accommodations in a converted cow-house, without hot water.Racism and discrimination across the EU is more widespread than previously thought, and the Roma or Gypsy population is a vulnerable ethnical group.The number of people is counting to almost 12 millions, and one in four Roma respondents said they had been assaulted, threatened or harassed four times on average in a year.Regardless the Romany have lived in Europe since the 14th century, they are still not accepted. It was not until 2008 a first European Union conference focused entirely on the situation for this ethnic group.

To view more Images from Ake Ericson, visit Aurora Photos.

Congratulations to Aurora Photos photographer, Logan Mock-Bunting, for winning 1st Place in the Sports Action category of the White House News Photographer’s Association Annual 2011 Eyes of History competition. Logan’s submission, a collection of 9 photographs, depicted a day in the life of freedivers taking part in spearfishing off the coast of North Carolina. To see Logan’s full submission visit the WHNPA Eyes of History 2011 page.

To view more of Logan Mock-Bunting’s work, visit Aurora Photos.

Ian Spanier/ Aurora Photos

Congratulations to Ian Spanier, photographer for Aurora Photos, who won 1st place in the “Travel Portraits” category of PDN’s World In Focus competition. To view PDN’s gallery of the World In Focus winners, click here. Congratulations again to Ian, and to all of this years winners!

To view more work from Ian Spanier, visit Aurora Photos.

Nick Hall/ Aurora Photos

Congratulations to Aurora photographers, Nick Hall and Ryan Heffernan! Both have been chosen as new and emerging photographers to watch for in PDN’s 30 2011 competition. You can check out their interviews and galleries by clicking here.

Ryan Heffernan/ Aurora Photos

To view more work from Nick Hall, visit Aurora Photos.

To view more work from Ryan Heffernan, visit Aurora Photos.

Congratulations to Blake Gordon, Aurora Select photographer, for his 2nd prize wining entry in the 68th Annual Pictures of The Year competition! Gordon’s, “With Traumatic Brain Injuries, Soldiers Face Battle For Care,” a piece done for NPR in June 2010, took second place in the ‘Issue Reporting Story-Multimedia’ category, documenting the story of Sgt. Victor Medina- an American soldier who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2009 while on a tour of duty in Iraq.

To see more work from Blake Gordon, visit his portfolio on Aurora Select.

Massimo Berruti/ Agence VU/ Aurora Photos

Congratulations to Massimo Berruti, photographer for our partner agency, Agence VU, for winning second place in the World Press Photo Contest! Massimo received the second prize in the General News category for his work entitled “Targeted Killings in Karachi, Pakistan.”

We would also like to extend our congratulations to Reinhard Dirscherl, contributing photographer for Aurora Photos, for winning second place in the Nature Singles category with his photograph “Atlantic Sailfish attack Spanish Sardines.”

The World Press Photo Contest is run yearly for photographers, agencies, magazines etc. to demonstrate an overview of how photographers in the press tackle stories across the globe. Winners are invited to attend the annual Awards Days in Amsterdam at the end of April. Well done Massimo and Reinhard!

To view more work from Massimo Berruti, visit Aurora Photos.

To view work from Reinhard Dirscherl, visit Aurora Photos.

Aurora photographer Jen Judge won first place in the Photojournalism category of the Images of the Year awards given by American Photo Magazine for her portraits of survivors of the earthquake in Haiti. “So much press had been focused on the physical destruction, individual tragedies were being overshadowed,” Judge told American Photo. “People had lost their homes and families. The empty background seemed symbolic of everything that had been stripped away from them.”

Aurora photographer Tyler Stableford also won runner-up in the Personal Project category for his image of an F-16 fighter pilot flying in Colorado.

To see more stock photography by Jen Judge and Tyler Stableford, visit Aurora Photos.

To see Tyler Stableford’s portfolio, visit Aurora Select.