AP photographers honored with NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism Awards
![AP photographers honored with NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism Awards](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1481741057637-4S1VT7PGRMT3X14THSBT/AP_748836317811.jpg)
The National Press Photographers Association announced this week the results for its annual Best of Photojournalism contest and several AP photographers were awarded prizes.
The winning images are featured below.
Oded Balilty | Pictorial: 1st Place
Muhammed Muheisen | Portrait Series: 3rd Place
For more than three decades, Pakistan has been home to one of the world’s largest refugee communities: hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have fled the repeated wars and fighting their country has undergone.
Jerome Delay | International News Single: Honorable Mention
Hussein Malla | International News Single: Honorable Mention
Sergei Grits | General News Single: Honorable Mention
Daniel Ochoa de Olza | Sports Feature Single: Honorable Mention
Rodrigo Abd | Environmental Picture Story: Honorable Mention
A new threat now looms for the estimated 20,000 wildcat miners who toil in a huge scar of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa, an area nearly three times the size of Washington, D.C. Peru's government declared all informal mining illegal on April 19, 2014, and began a crackdown.
![A new threat now looms for the estimated 20,000 wildcat miners who toil in a huge scar of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa, an area nearly three times the size of Washington, D.C. Peru's government declared all informal mining illegal on April 1](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421213683-GA6DWH3RHDL57L1O35WU/nppabop_ap_024.jpg)
![In this May 5, 2014 photo, miners known as "Maraqueros" ready a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a "Chupadera," after hauling the device about 16-meters deep into a crater at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios regio](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421213917-TG0GOQNSAIKSSGD7BMHO/nppabop_ap_025.jpg)
![In this Wednesday, April 30, 2014 photo, gasoline used for illegal mining burns as it is destroyed by authorities in the Huepetuhe district of Peru's Madre de Dios region. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421214041-8XRVS7N3QT8UTKPCYQAL/nppabop_ap_026.jpg)
![Manuel Espinosa holds his four-month-old son, Edward, brought to him by his wife as he takes a break from mining gold in La Pampa, Peru in the Madre de Dios region on Friday, May 2, 2014. Madre de Dios state has an estimated 40,000 illegal miners, m](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421214218-I4I9G1KJCHCGUMYH1QK0/nppabop_ap_027.jpg)
![In this Nov. 12, 2014 photo, a column of policemen occupy a gold mining camp as part of an operation to eradicate illegal mining in the area known as La Pampa, in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Peru’s anti-illegal mining czar, retired army Gen. Augus](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421214363-0P8X6CHY2WBD0N3619MH/nppabop_ap_028.jpg)
![Miners leave the site where they lived and worked after police destroyed their illegal mining operation in La Pampa in the Madre de Dios region of Peru, Friday, May 16, 2014. Madre de Dios state has an estimated 40,000 illegal miners, most of whom a](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421214519-TCSXBEW004RDR2VNVRYI/nppabop_ap_029.jpg)
![In this May 3, 2014 photo, a jet stream of water passes above two miners known as "Maraqueros" who remove stones and chunks of tree trunks that have been released with the aid of a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a "Chupadera," in La P](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421214551-VE3ZMTT2PUG5PK7ELSI4/nppabop_ap_030.jpg)
![In this Nov. 11, 2014 aerial photo, a deforested area is shown dotted with blue tarps, marking the area where miners reside, and craters filled with water, caused by illegal gold mining activities, in La Pampa, in Peru's Madre de Dios region. In add](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421214686-9IUVF1ULSV2QEE8UNARC/nppabop_ap_031.jpg)
![In this May 3, 2014 photo, Prisaida, 2, sits in the shallow waters of a polluted lagoon as her parents mine for gold nearby, in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. The lagoon emerged as a result of miners bombarding the earth with jet streams](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421214826-QZ3O1ALJIU2J0YWNLA8X/nppabop_ap_032.jpg)
![In this May 3, 2014 photo, a rope hangs around the trunk of a tree at a illegal gold mining process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. An estimated 20,000 miners toil in this malarial expanse of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa. (AP Pho](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421214973-QK2L4RIMN240399RO7JX/nppabop_ap_033.jpg)
![In this May 3, 2014 photo, a miner roughly estimates his handful of gold he mined, after working for over 24-hours, in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421215417-CYP9H911AID4V00SAMEB/nppabop_ap_034.jpg)
![In this May 20, 2014 photo, a golden statue of a miner holding a shovel and plate stands in the empty central square of Huepetuhe in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. Thousands of people have left the Peruvian Amazon boomtown since the government ha](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a/1474421215955-Q9V0PFYFUN8UWJ6H1S8P/nppabop_ap_035.jpg)
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