Coming In June: Post Sports Photographer Jonathan Newton

The VPS guest speaker in June is Jonathan Newton, a veteran sports photographer for The Washington Post who has covered virtually every major sporting event in the United States including the Super Bowl, the Olympic Games of 2008 and 1996, the World Series, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, several Final Four competitions and many others.

During the 2008 Olympics, Newton posted his first daily photoblog, “The Games, Framed,” that chronicled the pageantry of the games and the human emotions that accompany victory and defeat in major sports competitions. One of his last Beijing blogs included an image of Ethiopian fans erupting amid a sea of green and red – their national colors – as one of their champion runners, Kenenisa Bekele, brought home the gold in the 5,000 meter race.

A professional photographer for 23 years, Newton has been a staffer for the Post for about eight years. Before that, he worked for the St. Petersburg Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Nashville Banner.

His numerous awards include the Morris Berman citation for his outstanding contributions to photojournalism, the 2006 first place Sports Portfolio for the Northern Short course and multiple first place awards from the White House News photographers association contest. Newton is a two-time winner in the Baseball Hall of Fame contest.

He appears with VPS on June 3 to discuss the tactics, techniques and technologies requisite for world-class sports photography.