For the third time in the 12-year history of the Alexia Competition for photography, a Syracuse University student has won top student honors.

Justin Yurkanin succeeded last year’s winner, former SU student Tom Mason, as the winner of the international competition, making it the second consecutive year that the top-rated student photographer has come from the university that hosts the annual contest.

Applicants must submit a proposal for a photo story as well as a portfolio of their work that is then judged by three professional photographers. It is the idea before the photos are shot that a hopeful is judged by, said David Sutherland, the event organizer and an SU professor.

“We want the students to think,” Sutherland said. “It is about thinking not reacting.”

The Alexia Foundation, which sponsors the contest, was founded in honor of Alexia Tsairis, a victim of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Thirty-five students returning from SU’s Division of International Programs in London died in that bombing.

Sutherland taught Tsairis, as well as two other students who died in the attack, during Tsairis’ time in London. Sutherland has run the competition since its beginning in 1991.

The winner of the competition is awarded $1,000 to complete their proposal and $9,000 in tuition expenses should they choose to study in London.

The level of work presented is nothing short of impressive, said Anthony Golden, a professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications who attended the event as a guest.

“There was some really impressive work turned in,” Golden said.

This year’s professional judges were Jim Preston, assistant managing editor of the Baltimore Sun; Michelle McNally, picture editor for Fortune Magazine; and Bob Gilka, former photo editor for National Geographic. The judges went through four stages to get five ranked applications from the initial crop. The judges went through each proposal, which to provide anonymity were only identified by a number. A crowd, including some who were being judged, watched the three pan or praise each one.

“You have to go through four rounds in your seat squirming without saying anything,” said Zach Ornitz, who was ranked fifth overall.

Jamie Rose, a graduate student, placed fourth.

Ornitz, who roomed with Yurkanin when the pair spent last semester in London, said his proposal entailed him shooting the town of Nogales, Ariz., on the border between the United States and Mexico.

Both Ornitz and Mason have served as photo editors for The Daily Orange. Mason was also the co-creator of the comic strip Pho-Dough and a D.O. designer.

Although Ornitz had an opportunity to meet one of the judges, McNally, during a photo editing class earlier in the week, he said that having three SU students in the top five is by no means a conspiracy. It would be impossible to match the numbers that are attached to the portfolios with the people who created them, he said.

He will receive $500 and $1,600 in tuition support should he decide to study in London again, but the positive comments by the judges was something special in itself.

“I was proud just to see it all up there,” Ornitz said.

Published on February 24, 2002 at 12:00 pm