Two Detroit Free Press photojournalists recently earned national recognition for their coverage of a key Detroit Lions blunder and the recovery of a survivor of gun violence.
Photojournalist David Rodriguez Muñoz this month earned top honors from the National Press Photographers Association, while photojournalist Junfu Han last month was honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors.
Rodriguez Muñoz earned first place in the National Press Photographers Association’s Best of Photojournalism General News Story category for his work capturing the life of Amedy Dewey, who was shot by her stepfather in a murder-suicide that killed her mother.
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His work, accompanied by a five-part written story by Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel, took the audience inside the young woman’s attempts to not only reconstruct her nose and face, but her life. Viewers accompany the now visually impaired young woman to campus, to the grocery store and inside the operating room where doctors used a part of her rib to give her a new nose.
Han is among 10 winners of the Action Photo category in the Associated Press Sports Editors yearly contest. The rankings among the winners will be released at a later date.
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) catches the ball over Detroit Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor (29) in the third quarter of the NFC Championship game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Sunday, January 28, 2024.
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Han captured a painful gaffe, among many that day, when the Lions gave up their first-half lead and fell to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game after the 2023 season.
In the image, viewers can see the whites of the eyes of cornerback Kindle Vildor — who is now headed to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — as his fingers stretch toward the ball that just bounced off his facemask. In the image, the ball is already in the grasp of 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Free Press photojournalists honored for Lions, survival story coverage
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