Still Photojournalism Division Judges

Pablo Martínez Monsiváis

Pablo has been an integral part of the AP photo staff for more than two decades. He joined the AP in 1998 as a photographer in Washington, forging a career that has spanned four presidencies and taken him to all 50 states and over 70 countries. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, Pablo embedded with the 101st Airborne during deployment into Afghanistan, and in 2003, was part of President George W. Bush’s surprise Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad. He has covered major sporting events including the World Series, NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup in addition to World Cup Soccer, NCAA and MLS tournaments. With fellow AP photo staff, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for coverage of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment and has received awards from World Press Photo, the White House News Photographers Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He is a founding member of Iris Photo Collective, with whom he recently received a Knight Foundation grant for projects documenting Haitian and Cuban communities. Prior to the AP, Pablo worked as a staff photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times. He is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and was honored as the Alumni of the Year in 2009. He is currently the Assistant Chief of Bureau for Photography in Washington. He lives in Washington with his wife Jessica and son Luca.

Sandra Stevenson

"Sandra M. Stevenson is an award-winning Assistant Editor in the photography department at The New York Times. She oversees digital photo editors on the news desk, and works on visual content for Race/Related and the Gender, in addition to special projects such as ""Overlooked."" She’s originally from Albuquerque, NM and was raised in Cheyenne, WY. After receiving a BA in English from Syracuse University, Sandra spent four years working at NBC – first as a Page and then working on various news programs. From there, she became the program coordinator for the Black Filmmaker Foundation. During her time there, she held a deep commitment to helping people of color enter the film industry at various levels.  Sandra then returned to the news industry, by taking on a position at The Associated Press, where she spent eight years moving up from photo assistant to overseeing photo news coverage for Latin America and the Caribbean. She also took time to work on and an advanced degree in multimedia from L’Universite Toulouse in France.  Sandra was a contributing writer in the book ""Unseen: Unpublished Black History from The New York Times Photo Archives."" Most recently, she was the picture editor and co-curator on the book ""This Is 18."" She joined The Times almost 15 years ago. Current governor on the Overseas Press Club - AmericaCurrent board member of PhotoplusCurrent board member of LCU Fund for Women's EducationFormer board president at the Bronx Documentary CenterFormer board member of the American Montessori Society"

Paul Kitagaki Jr.

"San Francisco Bay area native Paul Kitagaki Jr. has traveled the world covering natural and human-caused disasters, documenting the lives of everyday Iraqis living under Saddam Hussein, Mexico City residents digging out of a deadly earthquake, Asian factory workers laboring for pennies to produce high-end athletic shoes for the U.S. and international athletes competing for gold at nine different Olympic Games. Kitagaki’s work has been honored with dozens of photo awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, and been nominated for Emmys. He’s been published in news outlets worldwide, including National Geographic, Time, Smithsonian Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Stern, People, Mother Jones, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and the Sacramento Bee.  His personal project, “Gambatte! Legacy of an Enduring Spirit” documents and illuminates a dark episode in our country's history, the relocation and internment of more than 120,000 ethnic Japanese Americans. A national traveling exhibition appearing at the Smithsonian and in cities throughout the country, Kitagaki has spent the last 15 years locating the families who lived through the internment camps, documenting their stories of survival and inner strength to overcome injustice, racism, and wartime hysteria. He is married to Pulitzer-prize photographer Renée C. Byer. "

Maria Mann

Photojournalism Consultant, Former Editor-in-Chief AFP France; former Director N/S America AFP Washington; former Global Director Corbis Sygma France. She was founding chair of the very first Best of Photojournalism at the Poynter Institute. She has curated exhibits for the Newseum, the UNHCR/Geneva, and judged World Press Photo. She is co-producer of an e-learning module for Poynter.

David Poller

"David Poller grew up in Miami and studied journalism at the University of Florida. He has worked as a photojournalist at newspapers and international wire services from Miami to Alaska, including the San Diego Union-Tribune, where he was photo editor. He has also taught photography overseas and in San Diego. Currently he is self-employed as a freelance photographer, covering editorial and commercial assignments from Southern California. Poller is a member of the NPPA and NLGJA - The Association of LGBTQ Journalists."

Natalia Jimenez

Natalia is a picture editor on the National desk at The Washington Post, where she covered the Trump presidency and 2020 election. Before joining the Post, she managed the photography team at NBC News and began art directing and commissioning illustrations. Natalia was faculty on the first Women Photograph workshop held in Latin America in 2019. She was first drawn to visual editing while an assistant to photographers Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb as they developed longform visual narratives through book publishing. Though she has focused on digital storytelling for most of her career, she retains an appreciation for the tactile experience of photography books and aims to apply that thoughtfulness to her everyday work.

Grace Aneiza Ali

Grace Aneiza Ali is a Curator and an Assistant Professor and Provost Fellow in the Department of Art & Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU). Ali’s curatorial research practice centers on socially engaged art practices, global contemporary art, and art of the Caribbean Diaspora, with a focus on her homeland Guyana. She serves as Curator-at-Large for the Caribbean Cultural Center in New York. She is Founder and Editorial Director of OF NOTE Magazine—an award-winning nonprofit arts journalism initiative reporting on the intersection of art and activism. Her awards and fellowships include NYU Provost Faculty Fellow, Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellow, and Fulbright Scholar. Ali has been named a World Economic Forum ‘Global Shaper.’ Her recent book, 'Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora' (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2020) explores the art and migration narratives of women of Guyanese heritage.

Joe Elbert

"Elbert is an award winning photographer, editor and musician. Okay, music is a stretch, but he did win the Indiana state championship in trombone at age 14. Elbert was the Assistant Managing Editor of Photography for The Washington Post newspaper from 1988 through 2007. Under his direction The Washington Post photography staff won more awards than any other newspaper in the history of journalism.  Those awards included 4 Pulitzer Prizes, 2 Best World Picture of the Year awards from the World Press Photo organization, 6 Photographer of the Year awards from the National Press Photographers Association and 17 White House Press Photographers' Association Photographer of the Year awards. In 1995 the National Press Photographers Association named Elbert Editor of the Year and in 2003 he received the Joseph A. Sprague award, the highest award given by the National Press Photographers."

Tyrus Ortega Gaines

Tyrus Ortega Gaines, a native Washingtonian is a documentary photojournalist/ commercial photographer and a features visual content editor. Drawn to the visual expression of photography since his youth, which guided him to visually document the everyday life of his cultural up bringing, and later open his eyes to a profession in photojournalism. While documenting events around the District of Columbia, his work caught the eye former Washington Post, Director of Photography, Matthew Lewis, which lead him to freelance weekend events for the Weekend section. The rest is history. Tyus has worked for USA Today, Florida Today and The Charlotte Observer. He has always occupied a dual role as a photojournalist, and visual photo editor with a discerning and creative eye. Tyrus was one of the African American photojournalists selected to be a part of, Songs of My People: African Americans: Self- Portraits. “It has been my journey capturing life’s daily adventures and moments in time throughout my career”."

Taimy Alvarez

I’ve been a photojournalist for 23 years shooting stills and video years as a staff photographer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, South Florida Sun Sentinel and currently as a freelancer shooting for clients such as AP, Business Insider and others. My passion for all that encompasses photography and video documentary, from beautiful lighting to genuine faces, has taken me to some unique and mesmerizing places throughout Florida, the Caribbean, and South America. It has allowed me to give a voice to the voiceless, capture and document key moments in history, and evoke emotions through my camera lens. I have the honor to say that my work has been recognized by members within the art of film, journalism, and photography such as The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmy) and The Pulitzer Prize (a Sun Sentinel group award).