ASEAN PHOTOGRAPHY: MANILA – Filipino-American dominates US photo contest White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA) for Rohingya crisis

Photo by Cheryl Diaz Meyer

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A FILIPINO-American freelance photojournalist topped a photo competition in the US recently with her heart-tugging stills on Rohingya refugees.

Cheryl Diaz Meyer dominated the competition, “2018 Eyes of History” under the category “International News” by the White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA).

Meyer’s photo showing refugee Anwara Nurhassan taking a boat from Bangladesh to a refugee camp on October 3, 2017, won first place.

Photos of a Rohingya boy crying to his father and of a refugee carrying his wife to a rickshaw finished second and third respectively.

Two of Meyer’s photos consisting of two men carrying a 60-year-old refugee to the southernmost part of Bangladesh and an 8-year-old boy with burn wounds in his face while at a refugee camp were also cited.

All five photos were posted on Meyer’s website, which has a complete portofolio of photos of the Rohingya crisis.

On her Twitter and Instagram accounts, Meyer expressed her gratitude to the WHNPA.

“Thank you to the judges of the White House News Photographers Association for this immense honor. I’ve never been awarded an entire category in any competition, and I’m deeply moved,” she wrote. “I hope this increases awareness for the plight of the Rohingya refugees, who Bangladesh wants to repatriate to Myanmar.”

Based on Meyer’s personal website, she was born in Quezon City on February 25, 1968 and moved to the US at the age of 13. She studied at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in German.

She is best known for her coverage of the 2003 Iraq War and documentation regarding women adversity around the globe. She was given the Pulitzer Prize in 2004, along with colleague David Leeson for Breaking News Photography.

In 2006, while working at the Dallas Morning News as a senior staff photographer, she again won the Pulitzer Prize, with her team, for Breaking News Photography, for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Her photos have been exhibited worldwide, including at the the Newseum’s Pulitzer Prize Exhibit in Washington, DC.

View Cheryl Diaz Meyer’s full portfolio here

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