Missouri Method News Releases Photojournalism

POY/CPOY Photo Festival to recognize winners, share poignant storytelling

Photo of a little girl taking a selfie in a decorated graveyard by Tamir Kalifa.

By Austin Fitzgerald

POY/CPOY Photo Festival

COLUMBIA, Mo. (Sept. 3, 2024) — The Pictures of the Year (POY) and College Photographer of the Year (CPOY) Photo Festival, which will feature presentations from five celebrated photojournalists and awards for this year’s winners, will take place Friday, Sept. 6. The presentations will occur at the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Smith Forum from 9:30 a.m. until 3:30pm, while the awards ceremony will be held at Ragtag Cinema from 5-7 p.m.

The festival aims to celebrate photojournalists and their work, and as impactful visual storytelling covers the full spectrum of human emotion, at least one highlight of the day will plumb sobering depths. Reporter Kimberly Mata-Rubio and Tamir Kalifa will discuss their work and experiences from the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, in which Mata-Rubio’s 10-year-old daughter, Lexi, was one of 19 children killed. Since that day, Kalifa has documented Mata-Rubio’s work (including a run for mayor of Uvalde) and the community’s journey toward recovery for the New York Times, work that earned him POY’s Community Awareness Award.

Other presentations will cover a diverse range of subject matter, from deadly confrontations between humans and elephants in Sri Lanka to Italian photojournalist Nicolo Filippo Rosso’s five years of work covering migration from Central and South America.

Four photos by Nicolo Filippo Roso, Kimberly Mata-Rubio, Vincent Alban and Federico Forella.

“I cannot imagine a more powerful storytelling experience for our students and community,” said Lynden Steele, director of photojournalism and news archiving at RJI. “These journalists are sharing work that touches on three of the most pressing issues of our time: the environment, human migration and gun violence.”

Each presenter, with the exception of Mata-Rubio, will also be honored as a winner of POY or CPOY, two of the oldest and most prestigious photojournalism competitions of their kind. In addition to Kalifa and Rosso, the latter being this year’s recipient of the World Understanding Award, CPOY Portfolio winner Vincent Alban will also present his work.

For a full schedule of events, including a pizza party at Shakespeare’s Pizza on Saturday, Sept. 7, see below.

Friday, Sept. 6, Smith Forum

9:30 a.m. Coffee and Pastries outside of Smith Forum

9:45 a.m. Welcome by Jackie and Lynden

10–10:45 a.m. CPOY Winner Vincent Alban, communities coping with gun violence in Rochester, NY

11–11:45 a.m. Nicolo Rosso, 5-year story on human migration across the Americas.

Noon–1:15 p.m. BBQ lunch at McDougall Center Gallery in Lee Hills Hall

1:30–2:15 p.m. Federico Borella, Human Elephant Conflict in Sri Lanka

2:30–3:30 p.m. Tamir Kalifa and Kimberly Mata-Rubio, Grief and Grace Uvalde

5–6 p.m. Reception at Ragtag Cinema

6–7 p.m. Awards at Ragtag Cinema

7:30–9 p.m. First Friday Art Walk

Saturday, Sept. 7, Shakespeare’s Pizza

11:45 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Come out to meet the speakers and share some pizza!

Updated: September 3, 2024

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