Meet the Judges!

Come meet the judges and have drink, let’s talk 2023 in photos! Pitchers and Pictures! 6pm at 2Twenty2! (4 Liberty Sq, Boston 02109)

About the Judges:

Jessica Phelps

Jessica Phelps has been a staff photographer for the San Antonio Express-News for the past three years. Before arriving in Texas she worked for her hometown paper in Newark, Ohio for eight years. Jessica’s work focuses on long term stories, most recently covering homelessness and tenants rights and housing issues. Jessica’s path into photojournalism was all but traditional, but she knew she wanted to be a photographer since she took her first photograph at the age of 7 with her mom’s 35mm camera. Jessica received her BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design before spending her 20s traveling through Europe and Central and South America. Jessica’s work has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International where she was awarded Newspaper Photographer of the Year, and the National Press Photographers Association where she received the 2023 Cliff Edom New America Award and Small Market Photographers of the Year twice. Jessica was also named the Ohio News Photographers Association’s Small Market Photographer of the Year 7 years in a row.

Jasmine Goldband

Jasmine Goldband joined The Philadelphia Inquirer as a photo editor in Aug. 2022, after working for five years as the special projects photo editor for the Houston Chronicle in Texas. The Chronicle staff earned a Pulitzer nomination in 2018 for breaking news coverage of Hurricane Harvey. Jasmine set high standards for visual journalism across departments in print and online, earning state and national awards each year. She has served as the local representative for the Online News Association and is involved in the National Press Photographers Association. A native of Pennsylvania, Jasmine previously worked as a photojournalist and visual producer in Pittsburgh. She spends her free time hiking in local, state and national parks.

Robert Scheer

In his 30-year career, the past 25 at The Indianapolis Star, Robert Scheer has done a variety of video and still work on the “War on Terror” in Iraq, a complicated look into a sexual abuse failure-to-report issues surrounding USA Gymnastics and disgraced doctor Larry Nassar, and a deep dive into the pattern of deaths inside Indiana county-run jails. An Emmy winner in 2022, Scheer pitched and oversees a massive newsroom project called the 317 Project that tells small slice-of-life stories, one Indianapolis neighborhood at a time.