2005 Professional Winner

Marcus Bleasdale is a freelance photographer from London, England. He has worked extensively on stories about children and conflict in the Balkans. In China he worked on the effects of pollution and economic expansion on the population. In Africa, he has covered drought in Kenya; Ebola in Uganda; slave children in Ghana; diamond mining and the war in Sierra Leone.

He has now spent four years covering the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That work has been published in his book, "One Hundred Years of Darkness" which Photo District News recognized as one of the best photojournalism books of the year in 2002. Bleasdale's awards include the London Sunday Times Nikon Ian Parry young photojournalist of the year award in 1999; POY News picture story first place 2004; NPPA First place News Picture Story 2004; 3p Laureat 2004; and, UNICEF Photographer of the Year 2004.

He graduated in 1990 from the University of Huddersfield in England with a BA with honors in Economics and Finance In 1999 he received a postgraduate diploma in Photojournalism from the London College of Printing.

Bleasdale was in the final four last year for the Alexia professional grant. He represents himself in London.

The judges winnowed the professional entries down from 170 to nine top applications this year, then after much discussion, picked the winner without ranking the remaining eight. Those eight, in no particular order, are Helene Caux, freelance based in New York City, American permanent resident from France; Walter Astrada, Associated Press stringer and freelance photographer in Argentina; Benjamin Rusnak, staff photographer for Food for the Poor in Boca Raton, Fla.; Karim Ben Khelifa, freelance photographer from Paris; Ernesto Bazan, freelance who lives in Havana and New York City; Jon Lowenstein, documentary photographer and teacher from Chicago, Ill.; Seamus Murphy, freelance from London, England; and Janet Jensen, staff photographer at the News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash.

The judging was done at Syracuse University on Feb. 26, 2005. Judges were Mark Edelson, Presentation Editor at The Palm Beach Post, Vin Alabiso, and Bob Gilka, former National Geographic director of photography and adjunct professor of photojournalism and picture editing at Syracuse University. More details about the judging are available in the right column.