Picture Story: POYi Reactions

For the past three weeks, the students of Mizzou secluded themselves in a dark room to watch Pictures of the Year International. I watched the entirety of the judging for the freelance/enterprise feature picture story category, and I wouldn't hesitate to call the winners refreshing. The stories still contain a certain darkness, but they are nowhere as bleak as past winners have been. The top three winners are little slices of life from Chernobyl, Afghanistan and Georgia, and the award of excellence went to a quirky story about bike culture.

As young photojournalist, it's easy to convince myself that a story needs tragedy to be powerful, but that's not the case at all. Beautiful, sensitive photos can make a difference, angst or no angst. After the winners had been decided, the judges approached my friends and I in the back to ask us what we thought of their choices. After stumbling over my words for a few seconds because I couldn't believe such esteemed photojournalists would want my opinion, I told them how pleased I was to see such a different assortment of stories.