Joe Amon
Freelance
NPPA
Arvada, CO, USA
Growing up in Little Washington, Pennsylvania, Joe Amon joined the Marine Corps in 1976, at the age of 17. After serving six years, he returned home and took a job in his hometown steel mill. When the mill closed three years later, leaving Joe without a job, he saw a TV ad from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, which claimed, “We will teach you to be a photographer.” Wanting to document the kind of tragedies he had witnessed as a Marine in Beirut, Joe applied, was accepted and in 1989 graduated with honors with an associate degree and strong skills in both commercial photography and photojournalism. Beginning his first job as photojournalist at The Valley Independent in Monessen, Pennsylvania, he quickly rose to chief photographer. In 1998 he joined the staff of The Free Lance-Star where he worked as both a photojournalist and a picture editor until 2004, when he became a staffer at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Amon joined the photography staff at The Denver Post in 2008. His project “Aids Orphans” done while he was in Florida, received the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Photography and in 2012, his work on the use of “Heroin in Denver” was recognized by POYi in Issue Reporting Picture Story and honored with the Community Service Photojournalism Award by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and has been awarded twice by The Sidney Hillman Foundation for photojournalism. As a member of The Denver Post staff, Joe shares the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for coverage of the Aurora Theater Shooting. He was a member of The Denver Post photography staff named as finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography also for coverage of the Aurora Theater Shooting. In 2015, he was named a Pulitzer finalist in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of the use of CBD oil in Colorado to treat children with Dravet Syndrome, a severe seizure disorder.
Amon and lives in Arvada, Colorado.
2016 - Newspaper Photographer of the Year , 2015 - 2015 Best of Photojournalism 1st place feature, 2015 - 2015 WEBBY Best Use of Photography, 2015 - Pulitzer Prize Finalist Explanatory Reporting, 2014 - Cliff Edom’s “New America Award” Hon Mention, 2013 - Pulitzer Prize Breaking News Reporting, 2013 - CLIFF EDOM'S "NEW AMERICA AWARD" Award of Merit, 2013 - ASNE Community Service Photojournalism Award, 2013 - POY ISSUE REPORTING MULTIMEDIA STORY | FIRST PLACE, 2013 - National Edward R. Murrow Award, 2011 - 2011 National Headliner Awards, 2010 - The Sidney Hillman Foundation photojournalism, 2010 - Atlanta Photojournalism picture story 1st place, 2007 - BOP Best Published Picture Story first place , 2007 - Robert F. Kennedy journalism Award , 2007 - The Sidney Hillman Foundation photojournalism, 2004 - POY Editing Multiple Page Feature Story 1st place
- Breaking news
- Editorial
- Environment
- Events
- Landscape
- Medical
- Portrait
- Sports
- Underwater
- Wildlife