Two Starphoenix photographers win national awards
The work of Saskatoon Starphoenix photographers Michelle Berg and Matt Smith has been recognized at the national level.
Berg and Smith have both been awarded national pictures of the year awards from the News Photographers Association of Canada. The prestigious national awards ceremony took place as a virtual event Sunday night.
Smith won first place in the single multimedia category for a video produced for The River is Hungry, a feature story about the decline of the Saskatchewan River Delta in the province's north and its effect on Indigenous land users and wildlife.
Berg won multiple awards across the three categories in which she was nominated.
She received first place in the feature photo story category, second in the single multimedia category and third in the sports action category, for images and a video connected to Indian relay racing at Marquis Downs.
Her feature photo story followed the Poitras family from Saulteaux First Nation. With the impending closure of Marquis Downs — Saskatchewan's only thoroughbred racetrack — the family gave Indian relay racing a try to keep four generations of horse racing alive.
Her winning sports action image captured Joshua Jackson racing to the finish line during the Aug. 21, 2021 Indian relay races at Marquis Downs.
Berg also received third in single multimedia, for a project chronicling one woman's involvement in Wheels in Motion, a wheelchair dance group, while living with spina bifida.
In recent weeks, Starphoenix reporters and staff have been nominated for several awards.
Reporter Zak Vescera was awarded the Goff Penny Memorial Prize in the large market category for his work at the Starphoenix over the past year. The Goff Penny honours work published in daily newspapers by Canadian journalists between the ages of 20 and 25.
Vescera's work that was recognized included stories from a series entitled Trapped, which examined unsafe housing, HIV transmission and incarceration through the lens of addiction and overdose.
Trapped was nominated in the Local Reporting category of the National Newspaper Awards. Vescera, reporter Thia James, Matt Smith and Dave Breakenridge were also nominated for their contributions to the series.
Trapped has also been nominated for a Canadian Journalism Foundation Award for Excellence in Journalism. The Starphoenix was also part of the Clean Water, Broken Promises Consortium, which was nominated in the large media category at the CJF awards.
Former Starphoenix reporter and editor Andrea Hill was part of a team investigating water issues on First Nations. Hill still works for Postmedia as national executive producer for verticals.
The CJF awards ceremony takes place June 7.