We have finished our Still Division at the 71st College Photographer of the Year. After five days and going over thousands of photos, the judges have deteremined our College Photographer of the Year. Here are some behind the scenes photos of the final judging and our CPOY co-coordinator Rita Reed calling Nora Lorek, who received the call 2 a.m. her time in Sweden. Nora talked to all of our judges during the Congradulations call. 

Judges went through the Domestic Picture Story and Documentary categories on their fourth day of the 71st CPOY. The combined categories had around 1,100 images from all over the world covering a range of events and issues.

In the tradition of many Missouri hosted events, such as Missouri Photo Workshop, one of our student volunteers Jessi Dodge created buttons with the judges faces and logo from our sponsors, such as Nikon and National Geographic. 

CPOY judge Ruth Eichhorn, left, and CPOY co-coordinator Daniel Jamang talk during a break. Because of the student involvement in CPOY, students are able to have multiple interactions with our judges. 

On Friday, the judges decided the winnes for General News, Interpretative Eye, Interpretive Project and Sports Portfolio categories. Judges saw content from around the world that covered events such as the American Presidential Election, Syrian refugees and protests. Protest images were seen covering Black Lives Matter, women's rights, animal rights, etc. 

CPOY co-coordinators Rita Reed and Jackie Bell discuss why they love this competition and what they expect during its process.

Our second day was a long day, to say the least. The judges covered Feature, Sports Feature, International Picture Story and Illustration. They saw over 1,800 images. 

Student volunteer Mariah Brannan calls the ins and outs during the International Picture Story category. The winners can be seen on our website under the "Winning Images" tab. Photo by Anna Brett, a student volunteer photographer. CPOY could not be run without its students volunteers and coordinators. 

 CPOY judge Ruth Eichhorn, pictured above, talks about what she is looking for duirng the Sports Feature category:

"I'm not so much looking for competition, but looking for emotional moments."

On our first day, we judged Spot News, Portrait and Sports Action. We saw over 1,500 photos and spent 11 hours judging and deliberating the winners and honorable mentions.

We could not have this competition possible without our student volunteers, such as Alex Scimecca pictured above. Our voting box volulnteers said "out" at least 2,000 times. One of our student volunteers, Evan Cobb, shot a short video about judging process. 

We are so close to our first day! A lot of effort is put into the set up of this annual contest. Here's a video of our setup. 

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We are getting ready for our first day on Wednesday! Rita Reed went to buy snacks for the next two weeks. We are almost ready for this year's CPOY!