Local photographer wins two prizes at Press Photographer of the Year Awards
Westmeath man James Crombie who lives in Ballycommon, Co. Offaly recently received two accolades at AIB's Press Photographer of the Year Awards.
The Rahugh native was awarded second prize in Sports Action and third prize in the Nature & the Environment category at the 46th annual awards celebration.
Alan Betson of The Irish Times was named the AIB Press Photographer of the Year 2024. An Tánaiste Micheál Martin TD was guest of honour at the event which took place at the RDS, Dublin on Friday last.
Broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan introduced the ceremony, with the award-winning and highly commended images encompassing some of the past year’s many highs and lows through the lenses of Irish press photographers from right across the island of Ireland.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, An Tánaiste Micheál Martin, said: "I want to congratulate all the winners of tonight’s awards. The skills and experience necessary to be able to capture and tell the truthful story of an event, a moment, an emotion in a single image, are truly invaluable.
They are especially so in an increasingly unpredictable world with emerging AI capability, social media manipulation and aggressive misinformation and disinformation campaigns. Our society benefits enormously from this vital work."
In thanking AIB and the event sponsors, President of the Press Photographers Association of Ireland, David Branigan, said: "This year’s winning and highly commended images truthfully highlight many of the very difficult moments of 2023, both in Ireland and internationally through the medium of powerful press photography.”
"At an increasingly rapid rate, these images and their creators are of growing value to society."
Awards were presented across ten distinct categories; News, Daily Life & People, Sports Action, Sports Feature, Portrait, Nature & the Environment, Politics, Arts & Entertainment, Reportage and Multimedia in addition to the AIB Sustainability Award.
Also recognised at the event, attended by over 200 press photographers and guests, was PPAI member Jerry Kennelly who was conferred with Honorary Membership in recognition of his commitment to press photography over many decades and his outstanding business success.
This edition of the awards is the final under the Press Photographers of Ireland Association organisation that has now been legally incorporated as 'Press Photographers Ireland CLG' that will continue the 46 year tradition and values of editorial photography.
The judging panel was again led by former picture editor of The Irish Times, Frank Miller alongside this year’s two judges Helen Healy who is former Head of Pictures at the Financial Times and Shaun Botterill of Getty Images. Journalist Philip Bromwell and former RTÉ cameraman Michael Lee led the judging of the Multimedia category. The judges had the challenging task of selecting the winning and highly commended images and video from over 1,200 entries entered by members of the PPAI.
All the winning and short-listed images from the ‘AIB Press Photographer of the Year’ 2024 can be viewed at the touring exhibition visiting various venues across the country over the coming year.
The first visit on the exhibition tour will be the Library at the RDS, Dublin, where it will be on display until Thursday, February 15 before visiting dlr LexIcon in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, in March. For further details on the exhibition and to view the winning images, please visit www.pressphotographers.ie.