Novice photographer beats Pulitzer-winning photojournalists in NAHJ contest
With two cameras strapped across her torso, Abigail Segoviano stood outside a bustling conference room at the Marriott New Orleans.
A man walked out, carrying a camera with a telephoto lens.
“Cousin! Eyyy,” he says. “Do you use your external flash or do you not use it?”
“Imma be honest with you, this is my first time using this,” said Segoviano, 22. “Cause I’m in the Student Project.”
Segoviano had primarily worked as a writer before coming to New Orleans to participate in the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’s premiere student training program. She had never before picked up a professional camera. But soon, she was taking photo after photo for The Latino Reporter.
On Friday, she won first and third place at the annual Steve “Gonzo” Gonzalez photo contest. She walked away with a Sony Alpha 7 RV, a 24-70mm lens and a $250 in gift cards.
She bested 59 other entrants, including chief Associated Press photographer Julio Cortez and Minneapolis Star Tribune photographer Carlos Gonzalez, both Pulitzer-Prize winning photojournalists.
Segoviano’s photo that won first place depicted an embrace between a Mardi Gras Indian and a man in the French Quarter during a second-line parade from the Marriott to the House of Blues during NAHJ’s opening ceremony on Wednesday.
“I was just taking pictures randomly,” Segoviano said. “Lowkey, that whole time at the second-line celebration I blacked out. I don’t know what I was doing. All I know is I was shooting with the camera.”
David Grunfeld, a photographer and videographer at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans who served as one of the three judges for the NAHJ Visual Task Force competition, described the winning image as a “clean” and “simple” photo that “personified New Orleans.”
The photo that won third place, showed NAHJ members dancing at House of Blues.
Before this week, Segoviano said, “I’ve always been too scared to pick up a camera.”
Carlos Ávila Gonzalez, a staff photographer at The San Francisco Chronicle and 17-year photo director for the NAHJ Student Projects, challenged her to take more photos. He said he was impressed with her talent and surprised by how well she composed, focused, framed and created images that showcased life and joy —moments that, he says, are difficult for young journalists to perceive and shoot.
“Things that we look for as seasoned professionals she was just inherently able to capture the first time she picked up a camera,” Gonzalez said. He helped edit Segoviano’s photos. “I was amazed and jealous at the same time because she just did some amazing work.”
Segoviano said she plans to continue exploring photojournalism, though it has not changed her ultimate goal: to working in sports journalism.
Latino Reporter editor Luis Giraldo contributed to this report.
Nikole Valiente is a senior at Florida International University. She is a rural reporting fellow at Boyd’s Station in Berry, Kentucky, and aspires to become a general assignment reporter covering her hometown of Hialeah, Florida. Reach her at nikolev1023 [at] gmail [dot] com or @ni.kole.v.
