Omar Ornelas
Recipient of the STAR PHOTOJOURNALIST OF THE YEAR award in The Charles E. Green Awards (2023)
Omar Ornelas
El paso times
[Omar Ornelas/El Paso Times]
Judge’s Comments:
All of the photo portfolios are impressive, but the winner of this category is the photojournalist whose beat is the border: Omar Ornelas of the El Paso Times.
Ornelas’ image of the Texas National Guard adding wire to the crossing at the Rio Grande stopped me: this international divide is dividing America, too. This wire is the Berlin Wall of our time.
Ornelas proves himself adept at the dramatic overview shot and the emotional closeup. His photo of a distraught wife sobbing at the door of the ambulance carrying her husband shows the power of a still image. It’s clear he earned the trust of his subjects and did the hard work on the ground that, as executive editor Tim Archuleta says in his nominating letter, “allowed the El Paso Times to tell one of the most important stories of the year – an investigation into the record deaths of migrants in the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Paso sector.
Jan Tuckwood
Stanford University
Judge’s Bio:
Jan Tuckwood began her journalism career designing pages and editing photographs, including the work of several photojournalists who went on to win Pulitzer Prizes. As the longtime associate editor of The Palm Beach Post, in charge of special sections and features, Tuckwood won dozens of photo, writing and design awards. She is the editor of five books, including “Palm Beach County at 100: Our History, Our Home” (2009), the county’s official history book, and “Mean Season” (2004), the visual account of four hurricanes that ripped through Florida in 2004. She also has been fashion editor of The Denver Post, and she was instrumental in launching an advertising and marketing agency, Ideabar, owned by Cox Enterprises. Tuckwood is now an author who specializes in how culture, fashion and women’s roles collide. “Too Young to Be Old,” her book with Diane Gilman, the “Jean Queen” of home shopping, was released in December 2022.
To see photos from Omar Ornelas’ prize-winning portfolio, please click the links below:
LINK 1 to content online
LINK 2 to content online
LINK 3 to content online
LINK 4 to content online
LINK 5 to content online
LINK 6 to content online
LINK 7 to content online
LINK 8 to content online
LINK 9 to content online
LINK 10 to content online
LINK 11 to content online
LINK 12 to content online
LINK 13 to content online
LINK 14 to content online
LINK 15 to content online
LINK 16 to content online
