For the second year in a row, Natalie Fobes has received a Judges Choice award from the Professional Photographers of Washington. Other recent honors include two Accolade of Excellence Awards and two Exhibition Prints from Wedding and Portrait Professionals International.

In addition, the Seattle-based Fobes recently joined 50 other photographers from around the world to capture “A Day in the Life of the American Woman.” EpiCom Media will publish the images in a book scheduled for release this fall.

Michael Grecco’s latest advertising campaigns include the Kraft snack fairy, which is running in major magazines, and a Campbell’s ad that features chef Sandra Lee. Currently, Grecco, who is based in Los Angeles, is working on a cover for Time and a calendar, “Gold Medalists of the Women’s Pro Beach Volleyball League.” His work can be seen at www.michaelgrecco.com.

Lucas Jackson, a visual journalism major at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif., recently received the prize for the top portfolio at the Students in Photojournalism seminar sponsored by The Los Angeles Times, Hoy, Perfect Exposure Gallery and USC’s Annenberg School for Communication. The images in Jackson’s portfolio included sports, general news, environmental portraits, a spot news story on recent flooding in Ventura, and a photo essay on commercial fishing in Alaska.

Landscape photographer Eirik Johnson, of San Francisco, has won this year’s Santa Fe Prize for Photography, given by the Santa Fe Center for Photography. Johnson’s project, “Borderlands,” is a series of large-format prints depicting overlooked landscapes along the edges of the contemporary environment. A monograph of the work is to be published in July by Twin Palm Publishers and the Museum of Contemporary Photography.

Born and raised in Seattle, Johnson is a graduate of the University of Washington and received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. His work has been exhibited at the Rena Branstein Gallery, San Francisco Camerawork, Stanford University and the Headlands Center for the Arts.

Fred H. Lerner, president and CEO of Ritz Interactive, based in Irvine, Calif., has been elected president of Photo Marketing Association International. Prior to holding the position of president-elect from 2004 to 2005, Lerner served as the association’s vice president and treasurer.

Kevin McGowan, of Strode McGowan Photography in Tacoma, Wash., had four images chosen for exhibition at the 2005 Annual Pacific Northwest Print Competition Salon in Pasco, Wash., directed by the Professional Photographers of Washington. McGowan also was a speaker at the concurrent educational conference. The images included in the exhibition can be seen at www.smpstudio.com/award.htm.

Special Honors

San Francisco Chronicle photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice has been awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in feature photography for her photo essay portraying doctors’ efforts to heal a maimed 9-year-old Iraqi boy. Fitzmaurice earned a BFA in photography from the San Francisco Academy of Art’s University Academy, where she became a guest lecturer after her graduation. Her prize-winning photographs can be viewed at www.pulitzer.org/year/2005/feature-photography/works.

Karen Huntt and Michele Westmorland, of the Mytinger Project, have received Scott Pearlman Field Awards for Science and Exploration from the Explorers Club. Pearlman awards are given to professionals in media and the arts to support documentation of exploration and field research.

Westmorland also has been invited to speak at the 8th World Wilderness Congress, to be held in Anchorage, Alaska, this October. She will give her presentation, “On the Trail of Headhunters,” during the Conservation Photography forum. The theme of this year’s congress is Wilderness, Wildlands, and People: A Partnership for the Planet.

The Mytinger Project will recreate a four-year journey that was begun in 1926 by Caroline Mytinger and Margaret Warner to paint portraits of the indigenous peoples of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea before Western culture altered their ways of life. Photographers Westmorland and Huntt are scheduled to begin retracing Mytinger’s trek in May and June of this year.