Newsday's National Headliner Award winners include top honors to photographer Thomas A. Ferrara
Fireworks explode over Citi Field and its new Tom Seaver statue at the close of the New York Mets game against the Texas Rangers on July 1, 2022. It's one of 15 pictures in Thomas A. Ferrara's first-place winning Photo Portfolio in the 89th National Headliner Awards. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
The announcement of the 89th National Headliner Award winners Thursday included honors to a number of Newsday staffers, including the "Individual Photo Portfolio" first-place prize to photographer Thomas A. Ferrara, who also had three second-places finishes and a third-place finish as Newsday was honored with nine photo prizes for "Photography and Graphics for Daily Newspaper, Magazines, News Service and Syndicates."
Newsday also had a third-place finish for best "Online Video of 10-30 Minutes" for "4 Deaths, 4 Serious Injuries," a documentary on the culmination of a 2-year Newsday "Inside Internal Affairs" investigation into Long Island police departments that found the actions or inactions of Nassau and Suffolk police department members led to those deaths and injuries.
Newsday staffer Barbara Barker was honored with a third-place finish in the "Daily Newspapers and News Syndicates" category for Sports Opinion.
“We are very proud that Newsday photographers had such an impressive showing in a competitive, national contest," said John Keating, director of Multimedia Newsgathering at Newsday. "Our team won awards in eight different categories, which is a testament to their skill and talent. I’m especially pleased to see Thomas A. Ferrara recognized for all of his hard work, as he took top honors in the photo portfolio division, along with five other prizes.”
In honoring Ferrara for best photo portfolio, contest judges wrote: "Thomas A. Ferrara — with a sports-heavy portfolio — wins the individual portfolio because his pictures capture great moments which are both well composed and fun to view. His subjects come to life through their gyrations and antics."
Third-place honors in the category went to Newsday photographer Alejandra Villa Loarca, who also was honored with a third-place finish in "Spot News Photography" for “Funeral for FDNY firefighter Jesse Gerhard of Islip.”
Ferrara also had second-place finishes in the "Multiple Day Photo Story" category for “Destination Williamsport, Scenes from the 2022 Little League World Series,” the "Pictorial" category for "Citi Field," for "Feature" for "Prayers for the Ukraine" and third-place in the "Sports Action or Sports Feature" category for "Mo Donegal." Newsday photographer J. Conrad Williams took second place in the photo "Portrait" category for "Portrait of Nafiah Ikram."
The Newsday Staff also landed a third-place finish for best "Staff Photo Portfolio" for its entry titled “Dunia, A Journey of Courage.”
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
Body parts suspects in court ... Rangers advance ... Knicks win Game 4 ... Penn upgrades
Body parts suspects in court ... Rangers advance ... Knicks win Game 4 ... Penn upgrades
