Three Windsor Star photographers up for Ontario Newspaper Awards
Nominations show photography staff is ‘world-class,’ managing editor says
The Windsor Star’s three photographers have been nominated six times in four categories for the 2018 Ontario Newspaper Awards. Veteran Star photographer Dan Janisse is nominated in three categories: feature photography, sports photography and video production.
Janisse’s feature photo is of a team of baseball players sitting on the field as a massive storm cloud rolls in, and his sports photo is of a girl soccer player taking a kick to the face.
His nomination for video production is for a video that shows people dealing with and enjoying a record snowfall in February 2018.
Another veteran Star photographer, Nick Brancaccio, is also nominated in the categories of sports photography and spot news photography. Brancaccio’s sports nomination is for a pair of leaping baseball players giving each other a high five, while his spot news nomination is for a photo of a giant fireball exploding during a warehouse blaze on Argyle Road in September 2018.
Dax Melmer is nominated in the feature photography category for his photo of facial injuries of a girl who was mauled by a pit bull. “The Windsor Star photo staff is world-class and it shows once again,” Star managing editor Craig Pearson said Tuesday. “The multiple nominations for this year’s Ontario Newspaper Awards highlight the great work our photographers do.
“Whether it’s Dan Janisse’s perfectly timed shot of a kick to a soccer player’s face, Nick Brancaccio’s massive fireball in the sky, or Dax Melmer’s emotional portrait of a girl in the aftermath of a dog attack — and much more — the images the Star photo staff produces not only tell the community’s story but do so with creativity, compassion and an eye for detail.” All of the Star’s nominations are for newspapers with a circulation over 25,000.
The Ontario Newspaper Awards launched in 1953 with a competition between six newspapers in Southwestern Ontario.
The awards have since expanded to include all daily newspapers in Ontario outside of Toronto, honouring the best journalism produced by reporters, photographers, videographers, graphic artists and editors at three-dozen newspapers.
The awards will be presented on April 13 at Postmedia Place in Toronto.