Denver Post photographer RJ Sangosti has won the Associated Press Media Editors AP Member Showcase Photo of the Year for an image of a woman widowed by the Aurora movie-theater massacre.
The winning photo shows Chantel Blunk, wife of Jonathan Blunk, as she waited July 27 on the tarmac at Denver International Airport for her husband’s body to be loaded into a plane.
“It was just one of the quiet moments,” Sangosti said. “Nothing was happening, but everything came together.”
Blunk, a U.S. Navy veteran, was among the 12 killed in the July 20 shooting rampage at the Aurora Century 16.
Sangosti, humbled by the prestigious award, said he was proud of the entire Denver Post staff and their coverage of such a horrific event. Sangosti’s photo, the AP’s winner for the month of August, was chosen from a field of 12 pictures — one from each month from September 2011 through August.
Tim Rasmussen, Denver Post assistant managing editor of photography, complimented Sangosti for earning the trust of the Blunks’ grieving family, without which that poignant moment could not have been captured.
“The picture is more about sharing a moment with all of us to see at a time that was really painful following the awful event,” Rasmussen said.
