Stuart Villanueva
Recipient of the STAR PHOTOJOURNALIST OF THE YEAR award in The Charles E. Green Awards (2021)
Stuart Villanueva
Galveston County Daily News
Judge’s Comments:
[Stuart Villanueva/Galveston County Daily News]
Photojournalists, by definition, need to place themselves in the thick of a range of situations, from tense to tender, capturing moments from the dangerous to the delightful.
2021 Star Photojournalist of the Year Stuart Villanueva of the Galveston County Daily News put his camera and himself in the center of some of his community’s biggest news stories. His images bring the readers into these scenes, with immediacy and intimacy.
Dramatic framing puts us at the center of US Marshals detaining a suspect. We are within feet of the action while the identity of a man who proved to be innocent was obscured.
We wade alongside residents making their way out of a flooded neighborhood. We are surrounded by cheering softball players as a teammate flips overhead. We stand at a respectful distance as survivors remember students killed in a mass shooting and see the monument dedicated to them.
There are moments in each frame, from a row of fans bathed in the last light of sunset to the funny moment no one could see without a camera - a football player briefly blindfolded by a paper banner he has just run through.
Stuart Villanueva’s photographs reveal fresh perspectives on the news.
Geri Migielicz
Stanford University
Judge’s Bio:
Geri's career includes staff photographer positions at the Emporia Gazette (KS), and the St. Joseph News-Press & Gazette (MO); graduate student at Ohio University; photo editor at the Rocky Mountain News; and then a long run as photo editor and Director of Photography at the San Jose Mercury News. She has won numerous awards for her editing as well as garnering the first national Emmy Award for video production given to members of a newspaper photo staff. Geri was a Knight Fellow and is currently the Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor of Professional Journalism for the Graduate Program in Journalism at Stanford University.
To see photos from Stuart Villanueva’s prize-winning portfolio, please see the slideshow below:
