NPPA student chapter of the National Press Photographers Association ritnppa@gmail.com

Last Updated: April 2, 2023 by ritnppa

2023 Category: Feature

First Place: Vincent Alban

Jamma Balkum, 8, the son of the late Jamen Balkum, dances while surrounded by friends and family at the 30th birthday celebration for his father in Rochester, N.Y., on Jan. 14, 2023. The past two years since Balkum’s passing, his mother, Michelle Balkum, has thrown birthday parties to celebrate the legacy of her late son.

Second Place: Vincent Alban

Jasmin Vega and her daughter, Za’Ryah Hernandez-Ruffin, 11, visit the gravesite of Za’Ryah’s father at Riverside Cemetery in Rochester, N.Y., on Oct. 23, 2022. DeaVoghn Hernandez-Ruffin was shot and killed on June 18, 2012, when Za’Ryah was only eight months old. The pair visited DeaVoghn’s grave to mark Za’Ryah’s 11th birthday. “It just hurts,” says Vega. “I know what it was like not to have my father around for a period of my life. Like he was active, very active. But then he went to prison for 10 years and I yearned for him. Like I literally yearn for him. So to have him and lose him. That hurts but I knew I was getting him back but to know that my daughter doesn’t even remember a hug or kiss anything from him that bothers me and it bothers her so badly.”

Third Place: Maya Giron

Victoria Pierce dances on her friend Mara Nannini at the Northside Festival, part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival, on Saturday, June 4, 2022, on the Northside of Pittsburgh, Pa. The 63rd annual Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, is a ten-day festival of live performances and visual arts centered in the Cultural District of Pittsburgh from June 3-12.

Honorable Mention: Georgia Pressley

Children line up in order of height before being assigned to teams at a Chautauqua Softball League Kids Pickup Game on June 30, 2022 at Sharpe Field.

Honorable Mention: Vincent Alban

The day after he was killed, friends and family of Raymond Walls Jr., cheer as a dirt biker performs a burnout on his bike in honor of Walls at his makeshift memorial site at the corner of Lyell Ave. and Whitney St. in Rochester, N.Y., on Sept. 4, 2022. When a fellow rider dies, motorcycle and dirt bike riders come out together to the site of where they died to perform burnouts as a tribute. Walls, 27, who went by the name Ray Ray Bae, was killed at the same street corner the night before. Walls had also been shot in 2017 and had survived.

Category: 2023 What We Do, Contests Tags: Georgia Pressley, Maya Giron, Vincent Alban