Chronicle photographer wins prestigious award
San Francisco Chronicle staff photographer Gabrielle Lurie was selected Local Photographer of the Year in the prestigious Pictures of the Year International competition, judges announced Saturday.
The contest by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism recognized the best photojournalism, online presentation and visual editing of 2020.
The “local photographer” category highlights photographers documenting their own communities.
Lurie was honored for her intimate portraits of essential workers risking their lives during the coronavirus pandemic, people of color in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood who were disproportionately affected by the coronavirus — a sobering disparity seen across the country — and portraits of Theo, a rambunctious, bespectacled 7year old boy who lives in tents and hotels in Berkeley with his mother.
Through powerful images that evoked emotions from heartbreak to humor, Lurie thoughtfully captured Theo’s life on the streets as he watched videos on a curb while his mother begged passersby for money, poked his head out of a hammock at an encampment and shuttled his belongings on an orange bike as he and his mom moved from a tent to a local inn.
“I think that homelessness is an issue that we all know about and being confronted from the perspective of a child is very surprising and heartbreaking, and also heartwarming because it’s not all bad,” said Lurie, 34. “Something I really tried to show was his childhood from all different perspectives.”
Lurie said she’s drawn to a range of subjects, from immigration to health care and
homelessness.
“I try to bring you in to walk in someone’s shoes,” she said. “I think that the easiest way to capture someone’s heart, is if they can relate to an image.”
Nicole Frugé, director of visuals at The Chronicle, said Lurie is a driven journalist committed to documenting the Bay Area’s diverse communities.
“She has an uncanny ability to gain access and trust in difficult situations,” Frugé said Sunday. “Her portfolio reflects some of the most compelling issues and events of the past year — homelessness, racial disparity in COVID19 deaths, and the plight of essential workers. Her work demonstrates an uncommon depth and emotional intimacy that is most clearly evident in her photo essays. I’m so pleased that the judges recognized her talent and even more importantly her empathetic approach to photojournalism.”
Lurie is only the seventh woman to win the Local Pho
tographer of the Year award — formerly Newspaper Photographer of the Year — in the contest’s 78year history, Frugé said.
Raised in Washington, D.C, Lurie picked up a camera when she was 17. She moved to New York City, where she continued photography and studied art history at New York University. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and the Guardian.
She joined The Chronicle in 2016.