I’m thrilled for Damon Winter’s third-place price on the Pictures of the Year International 2011 contest. Some people don’t agree with me, for the photos that won were taken with an iPhone, using the Hipstamatic application that makes the format square and changes the contrast of the photo.

You can see the photos in the POY website. The Hipstamatic app can change the looks quite a bit. I’ve been using it for a series of self-portraits. While I don’t consider mine to be photojournalistic, I suppose they could count as editorial portraits. Winter’s photos are well deserving of the price and they are photojournalistic. He didn’t add a hockey puck, moved a pyramid, blended two pictures into one or added smoke to an explosion, like it’s been done by different photographers and publications in the short history of our profession.

Winter took the photos as he saw them. He conveyed the reality of war, even if the pictures have a slight green tint to them. Hey, Robert Capa’s D-day photos were completely screwed up in processing and had an unrealistic look to them, with all the grain and all, and they still conveyed reality.

I mostly agree with Winter’s letter written to explain his choice of “film.” Congratulations, Damon. More power to you.

PS. I’m bringing back the phototao blog that I had started at http://taoofphotography.blogspot.com/ and which I had interrupted with the birth of the isaachernandez.com blog. Somehow it felt inappropriate to blog about other photographers in my portfolio page. When I have a chance, I will upgrade the looks of this blog and will continue posting stories about photojournalism and photography that I find worth telling.