Honoring a Fallen Photographer\'s Spirit

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Tomás Munita has won the second annual Getty Images and Chris Hondros Fund Award, and Bryan Denton was named a finalist. The award is a memorial to Chris Hondros, who was killed two years ago while photographing in Misurata, Libya.

Mr. Munita, 38, who is based in Santiago, Chile, will receive $20,000 and Mr. Denton, who is based in Beirut, Lebanon, will receive $5,000. Both are freelance photographers who shoot frequently for The New York Times.

In an e-mail to Mr. Munita notifying him of his prize, the jurors wrote: “We believe in your fierce commitment to photojournalism and endless drive to tell a story. Your images speak volumes about the exceptional quality of your work and the rigor with which you approach these stories, but what also comes through - in an exceptional way - is your nature as a photographer who cares for his subjects and colleagues in a spirit of humility and grace.”

There are many contests and awards that recognize photographers who make superior news photographs, but what sets the Hondros Fund Award apart is that the jury looks not only at the quality of the work, but also at the qualities of the person. To make truly important images on a consistent basis, one cannot be separated from the other.

“We're looking for someone who's a great photographer, but we're looking beyond aesthetics and we're looking at the personality and their connection to their subjects,” said Todd Heisler, a Hondros Fund board member and a staff photographer for The New York Times, who was close to Mr. Hondros. The jury, he added, also sought someone who showed a seriousness about the world and was well-read, unflaggingly dedicated to telling the truth and generous with colleagues and subjects.

In addition to Mr. Heisler, the jury included Pancho Bernasconi, director of photography at Getty Images; Christina Piaia, executive director of the Chris Hondros Fund and Mr. Hondros's fiancée at the time of his death; and the photographer Jeff Swensen.

Mr. Munita, who was featured on Lens last year, started out as a newspaper photographer. He began working for The Associated Press in 2000 and became the agency's chief photographer in Afghanistan in 2005. He eventually left The A.P. to devote more time to personal projects.

In a phone interview, Mr. Munita said that he never met Mr. Hondros, but that he was honored to receive the award.

“This is different from other awards because of the work that Chris did,” Mr. Munita said. “It's a lonely kind of job. I sometimes feel like I'm lost. I'm on my own when working on a story and not sure how good it is. This makes me feel that maybe I was not so lost.”

Bryan Denton for The New York Times A doctor tried desperately to revive a fatally wounded man in Misurata, Libya. April 15, 2011.

Last year, Mr. Munita won the Visa d'Or daily press award at the Visa Pour l'Image photo festival in Perpignan, France. With the winnings, he bought an old van and took his wife and three young children to the Patagonia region of Argentina to accompany him while he started a project photographing Tierra del Fuego. With the prize money from the Hondros Fund award, he intends to complete that project and another on dams, mining and deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon.

Mr. Bernasconi, who was Mr. Hondros's editor at Getty Images, said that Mr. Munita was a good choice because he “is so present in the moment that he's making the photo, whether in the Amazon or a war zone. He knows exactly why he's there and can convey that to his reader or editor.”

Ms. Piaia said she saw similarities in how Mr. Munita and Mr. Denton, the finalist, approach their work. “Both of them have an extraordinary way to tell a story that sometimes is missing in photographers today - their sense of narrative, sense of historical context and their intellectual curiosity,” she said.

The 6-foot-6 Mr. Denton, 30, first worked alongside Mr. Hondros while covering the conflict in Georgia in 2008, and often turned to the more experienced photographer for advice. They also worked together on the ever-shifting front lines of the Libyan conflict.

Mr. Denton was already in Misurata, working with the New York Times correspondent C. J. Chivers, when Mr. Hondros took a ship to the port city. On board, Mr. Hondros e-mailed Mr. Denton to find out about the working conditions there. The Times journalists left Misurata on the same ship that had carried Mr. Hondros in. Not long after, Mr. Hondros and the photographer Tim Hetherington were killed, and Mr. Chivers and Mr. Denton helped to arrange safe transport for the bodies and a memorial service in Benghazi.

Mr. Denton continues to cover the effects of the Arab Spring and has recently worked in Syria. Next month, he will marry Maria Abi-Habib, a Middle East staff correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

The ceremony will be held in Roumieh, Lebanon, Ms. Abi-Habib's ancestral village, on the edge of a knoll in an old-growth olive grove that belongs to her family, next to a small, old chapel.

When Mr. Denton received the news of his finalist award in a phone call from jury members, including Ms. Piaia, he was in that olive grove. The news, he said, “was bittersweet.”

“I was honored,” he said, “but I couldn't help but think of all of the things that Chris missed - including his own wedding to Christina.”

Tomás Munita From Mr. Munita's ongoing series shot in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. 2013.

The Chris Hondros Fund will present the awards on June 7 with a reception and silent auction at the New York Public Library. An online auction will launch May 22.

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