Photo of the Year and Portrait of the Year at News Photographers Association of Canada

Charlie Bittern poses for a photo at the Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg September 23, 2023.

I am thrilled to announce my News Photographers Association of Canada National Pictures of the Year wins for Photo of the Year and Portrait of the Year.

My greatest thanks to Charlie for his generosity in sharing his story with me and for helping Canadians have a better understanding of just how devastating it was to attend residential and day school. Without you, this portrait could not have happened.

I am also grateful to my editor at the Winnipeg Free Press, Mike Aporius, for the photo assignment and for encouraging me to call Charlie so that I could add detail to the cutline and fully share the horrors of being a residential and day school survivor to hold the Canadian government to account. I am proud to be in a newsroom that prioritizes Indigenous stories and pushes for justice.

Finally I would like to thank my good friends and fellow photojournalists at the paper Mike Deal and Mikaela Mackenzie. Working in Winnipeg has not always been easy. I value our friendships and the support you have given me over the past two years.

Congrats to all of the other winners and nominees!

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Residential and day school survivor Charlie Bittern poses for a photo at the Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg at the residential schools display on September 23, 2022. He entered the day school system in Berens River, Manitoba, at 7 years old where he was not allowed to speak his language of Saulteaux. When he was 10, his day school teacher hit him on the right side of his temple with a yardstick because he was late coming back to school from lunch and he took out the wrong textbook during the lesson. Bittern now takes medication daily to help him with his weak eye which was caused during the hit. He spent eight years at day school during his elementary years and four years in residential school during high school. In 1967, Bittern, then 19, was forced to run 80 kilometres through a November snowstorm by the principal of his residential school from Bagot, Manitoba, to Brandon, Manitoba. He still has scars on his right leg from a station wagon driving into him when he dodged snow drifts during that run. “No matter what the government has done to us through the residential school system, we will never die out,” he says.

2022 Year in review

Barbados in April

2022 was one heck of a year. I travelled to five new countries and in between daily news assignments, was lucky to go up north to remote communities in Manitoba twice for The Winnipeg Free Press. I read 25 books and they were mostly enjoyable. I also moved into a new apartment and worked on (and published) a few photo projects I’m proud of. I was fortunate to be given a handful of fantastic opportunities but I also made a lot happen for myself. I advocated for myself more this year and it worked.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okmakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee (second from right) and then Assembly of Manitoba Grand Chief Arlen Dumas (second from left) leave Cross Lake First Nation with their team. A house fire had taken the lives of three young children the night before and the chiefs were in the community to give their condolences.

In February, I was assigned to fly up north to Cross Lake First Nation, 520 km north of Winnipeg. It was one of the most difficult stories I would photograph for the year. A house fire had taken the lives of three young children and I was sent to document the aftermath. I don’t like that part of my job involves photographing human suffering but I am grateful for the trust I was given by the communities who welcomed me into their lives this year. I am honoured to have been able to witness so many important moments and given opportunities to try to convey the story or moment into photos.

The mother and father of the three children who passed away from a house fire in Cross Lake grieve during a ceremony to remember their children while the grandmother comforts them.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okmakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee (left) is photographed on the plane ride back from an emotionally exhausting day at Cross Lake First Nation, where the Chief is from. Three children perished in a house fire in the community.

Jennifer Hansen is photographed isolating at her home. She tested positive for COVID-19 after two years of avoiding it.

Mom Olena Hrushytska tears up at her son Sasha’s first day of school. The family arrived in Winnipeg in April after escaping the war in Ukraine. They’ve been busy rebuilding their lives. Hrushytska started two part-time jobs and Sasha started attending a local Ukrainian school.

Makaylah Gerard-Roussin’s family and family embrace during a day-long vigil at the ATV trail where the 20 year old’s body was found.

Residential school survivor Charlie Bittern poses for a photo in front of an archival image of a residential school class. In 1967, when he was 19, Bittern was forced by the principal of his school to run 80 km in a blizzard from Portage La Prairie to Brandon. “My lungs were burning, and my legs were going numb,” he says. Bittern has scars on his right calf, as a result of a station wagon driving into him when he dodged snow drifts.

Visual artist Bistyek poses for a photo in front of a wall of posters advertising his new show F—- War. As a child, he lived in Afrin, a Kurdish village in northern Syria, until war brought him to Winnipeg.

In the summer, I went on several road trips - to Mount Rushmore, North Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming; then to Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw. Some places were new to me and were on the bucket list, but others were nostalgic trips. I found myself thinking about the person I was the last time I was there and how much had changed.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly poses for a photo at the Human Rights Museum.

Max Kerman of The Arkells is photographed during a concert in Winnipeg.

Married couple Nancy Delgado and Yair Vanegas take part in Salsa Sundays in Winnipeg during the summer.

On a longer break, I travelled to Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. I had been wanting to do this trip since before the pandemic and drove from Tirana along the coast until I reached Himare, making photographs along the way. I hadn’t travelled as much as I used to in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic and now that travel is possible again, I am making up for lost time.

Highway 73 in South Dakota

Tourists gaze up at Mount Rushmore.

Back in Winnipeg, I enjoyed the warm summer and quickly got back into the hum of newspaper life. Soon, I would begin two long-term projects I had pitched earlier in the year.

A road trip through Barbados in April.

A sunbather enjoys the waves at a beach off the Ionian Coast in Himare, Albania.

A rest stop in the Ceraunian Mountains, Albania.

In the fall, I flew to Pukatawagan to document a fly-in dentist who had been serving the community for the last 14 years. The area had unfortunately experienced a wildfire over the summer which led to their power lines being damaged. They were operating off of generators and as a result, frequent loss of electricity was a common occurrence. It was a challenge for me to document that story because of the elements I was working in, the long hours I spent photographing and also because I was a guest of a community that historically has been portrayed negatively in mainstream media, if they receive any coverage at all. I did not want to give them a reason to distrust future journalists.

Ruby feels her jaw after an intense round of tooth extraction in Pukatawagan, Manitoba, where I photographed dentist Wally Mah (left) on the job.

On assignment in Pukatawagan, Manitoba

I am incredibly grateful for all of the fun and interesting assignments that I’ve had this year and thankful to everyone I’ve photographed who has graciously brought their energy and given their time to me during our sessions.

A boy in Pukatawagan, Manitoba

Now that we’re at the end of the year, I find myself reflecting on the kind of work I want to be spending time on in the new year. I’m also thinking about the places I want to explore. I travelled to my 71st (UN recognized) country this year and while I realize I have come far, I also know there are many places I have yet to travel to, and many I would like to go back to.

Kotor, Montenegro

Congrats to everyone who made it to the end of this year and thank you for joining me on this journey whether you are a colleague, editor or someone I’ve photographed. These past few pandemic years have not been easy. Hopefully in a few years’ time, we can look back and maybe smile at it all because we survived. See you in 2023!

Swimming with sharks somewhere off of Nassau, Bahamas

Pukatawagan

Wally puts on a mask in his dental office to get ready for the day. The night before, the community had a power outage so he sits with the lights off. Though Mah can’t help patients without electricity, he prepares for a situation where the power comes back.

Dentist Wally Mah’s commute on Monday mornings begins at 7 am. He takes a taxi from his Exchange District condo to the Winnipeg airport where he boards a small plane to the northern First Nation of Pukatawagan. The community is about 820 km northwest of Winnipeg and is home to approximately 2,000 residents. It is only accessible by train or plane for most of the year but also winter road in the winter. I spent a week in Pukatawagan documenting Mah’s life serving the community for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Pukatawagan is about 820 km northwest of Winnipeg and is home to approximately 2,000 residents. It is only accessible by train or plane for most of the year, but also by winter road in the winter months.

Wally feels Ruby’s face for pain along her jaw after some X-rays. Ruby came in complaining about a toothache.

After locating the source of the pain in Ruby’s mouth, Wally tries a root canal at first but discovers the tooth must be pulled because it is fractured. “I’m sorry, Ruby,” he says.

Ruby holds her face after an intense round of tooth extraction.

The evening Pukatawagan loses power, Wally eats dinner in the dark in his room while replying to emails. The nursing station, which Wally’s room is in has an emergency generator to treat patients by the power doesn’t reach his room. In the summer, wild fires burnt down the power lines to Pukatawagan, so the community has been running off of generators ever since.

The nursing station where Wally works and where he lives.

After he finishes work for the week on Fridays, Wally gets on the 5 pm plane to The Pas, a town 520 km northwest of Winnipeg as there are no direct flights from Pukatawagan to Winnipeg. In The Pas, he takes a car transfer from the smaller airport where he landed to the larger one which has a direct flight back to Winnipeg.

In The Pas, Wally takes a long walk near the airport every week to decompress from work before getting on his flight to Winnipeg.

2021 Year in review

After a shoot for The Winnipeg Free Press at the St. Vital Park in Winnipeg, I posed for a photo in front of a backdrop photographer Mikaela MacKenzie and I had set up. Photo by Mikaela MacKenzie

I started January 2021 at home, with lots of hope that the world would soon return to normal with the arrival of vaccines. I had made goals of travelling later in the year to make up for 2020. I did end up travelling a little, but not in the way I expected. 

This year, I worked with lots of amazing editors and was fortunate enough to publish stories which really interested me. I also was lucky enough to accomplish two long-awaited career goals. Part of my photo project Targets of Hate was published in National Geographic, in an online article about racism against Asians; and after years of wondering when my time would come, I was finally was sent to photograph Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is photographed amongst local Liberal Party Members of Parliament candidates at Blue Note Park in Winnipeg on September 19, 2021, the night before the federal election. The Liberals’ federal PR team is well-versed in making the best impression. There were plenty of bright lights set up at the event, so that the PM and the candidates could be photographed well-lit.

The big news for my year would be Winnipeg though. In August, I moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, to start a staff job as a photographer at the Winnipeg Free Press, the region’s largest daily paper. I packed up my life and my two cats and drove us all west on a three-day road trip through Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, and small Northern Ontario towns. It was beautiful and brought back memories of pre-pandemic life when I would drive all over the U.S., stopping in all the towns I knew by name but had never actually travelled to.

But before that, I enjoyed summer in Toronto, fortunate to be photographing “boat life” and exploring alternative housing options in Toronto for Toronto Life Magazine. I spent many days on the Toronto Islands on what started as a personal project, and it was pure bliss. I also documented several protests related to housing and witnessed strong community action and brutal shows of police force.

Protestors gather February 28, 2021 below the residence of Toronto Mayor John Tory to serve a cardboard cut-out of Tory with notices of action to drop a lawsuit against a local carpenter who built tiny shelters for the unhoused; create housing for the unhoused; and to repeal by-laws that prevent people from camping in parks.

Karyna and Francois pose for a photo in their boat home, docked in Mimico, where they live year round.

Charlie lowers the ladder on her boat home, which is docked at the Toronto Islands. She and her partner Sia live on the boat for six months each year during the summer.

Talia and Michel pose for a photo on their boat home, which is docked at a marina near Harbourfront. They live year round on their boat.

Sia and Charlie pose for a photo on their boat home which is docked at the Toronto Islands. They live on their boat for six months out of the year.

Though this year did not go quite the way I expected, all in all, I am very grateful to have been able to make all the work that I did this year. Here are a few other images I made this year that capture my 2021:

After the horrifying violence against Asian spa workers in Atlanta in early March, thousands protested and spoke up in cities around the world including Toronto.

This is a portrait I really liked. Ontario Tech chancellor Mitch Frazer, photographed for The Globe and Mail.

Soon after moving to Winnipeg, on the second day of working at the Winnipeg Free Press, my editor sent me to photograph a rally against vaccine mandates.

Dr. Eric Bohm, a surgeon, is photographed outside Concordia Hospital. Bohm says he would like to do more surgeries amidst a growing waitlist of patients but because of a provincial budget cap, he and other surgeons are not allowed.

Elder Wa Wa Tai Ikwe (Northern Lights Woman) of the Bear Clan, also known as Louise McKay, is photographed at St. Vital Park.

Margaret Swan, a senior political advisor at Southern Chief’s Organization, acting director of Child and Family Services and chairwoman of the board of Southern First Nations Network of Care.

Conservative party MP candidate Joyce Bateman is photographed in her home office before elections.

Liberal MP Terry Duguid is photographed on election night after winning his riding of Winnipeg South.

Chris Tacan with his horse Prince during a rest stop with the Sioux Valley Dakota Unity Riders.

Travis Mazawasicuna tends to his horses at the end of a ride with the Sioux Valley Dakota Unity Riders.

The Sioux Valley Dakota Unity Riders ride to bring awareness to issues affecting Indigenous people and to connect with their ancestors.

Gavin during a visit to Winnipeg in November. Shot on Portra 400 film.

Polar bears play in snow in Churchill, Manitoba.

An electric tundra buggy travels in Churchill, Manitoba.

Bombers player Zach Collaros emerges from smoke, holding the Grey Cup.

Bombers player Rasheed Bailey flexes some muscle at an event at IG Field, celebrating the team’s Grey Cup win.

Bombers player Mike Benson holds his son during a celebration of the Bombers’ Grey Cup win. The Bombers kickers celebrate behind him.

Santa walks past a discarded mask on December 22, 2021.

2021 was definitely an improvement to 2020 for me and I created some of my strongest work this year. I am so grateful to all of the editors who hired me and gave me opportunities to prove myself. I know I am fortunate that I get to make art for a living and am thankful every day. I’m hoping that 2022 will finally be the year that we can travel more freely and gather without restrictions. In any case, we made it to the end of 2021. That deserves some celebration. Thanks for reading. See you in 2022!

The only time I got on a plane this year was to go to Churchill, Manitoba, to photograph some polar bears and an electric tundra buggy for The Winnipeg Free Press. Never in a million years would I have predicted this trip at the start of 2021.