The Magazine nets ‘Ellie’ honor

ESPN The Magazine has won a National Magazine Award — an “Ellie” — for Feature Photography, for the “Bodies We Want” portfolio in “The Body Issue.”

Feature Photography honors portraiture; fashion, travel and nature photography; and food, shelter and other still-life photography conceptual photography; and photo-illustration.

The awards ceremony was held Monday night in New York City. Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, was the emcee. More than 700 magazine editors and publishers attended.

Gary Belsky, Editor-In-Chief, ESPN The Magazine, said: “More than anything this honor recognizes the outstanding work of Catriona Ni Aolain, whose brilliant vision informs the entire Body Issue; Sue Hovey, whose masterful guidance of the issue in general and this package in particular was extraordinarily intelligent and nuanced; Nancy Weisman and Darrick Harris, whose conception and execution of photo shoots was both provocative and sublime; Chris Berend, Ashley Williams and Jenn Holmes, for their stewardship of the process; Siung Tjia, for his subtly cohesive design; Morty Ain, for his revealing reporting; and Joel Weber, for his deft text editing.”
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ESPN The Magazine beat out an impressive collection of nominees, including three — National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine and W — whose reputations as homes for feature photography are venerable.

This was The Magazine’s fourth Ellie in its 13-year history, and first for photography.

“It was a joy to see those images up on the screen at the awards ceremony, a nod to the power of magazine photography and a reminder of the bravery of the many athletes who have trusted ESPN to treat them fairly at their most vulnerable,” added Belsky.