We are delighted to reveal our panel of curators for Assignments 2024: The BPPA Exhibition will be David Burnett, Suzanne Plunkett, Steve Back, Jane Barlow and Justin Setterfield. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our curators for being involved in this project and feel they are a true reflection of the industry in 2024. We look forward to seeing their final selections in London and Wirral later this year.
David Burnett
David Burnett (born Salt Lake City, Utah 1946) learned photography at the Olympus High School yearbook, and later shot pictures for the yearbook (mostly sports) at Colorado College (BA Poli Sci ’68.) His career as a rocket scientist was thwarted by a not-to-be-named math professor who mumbled during Calculus class. He began working as a freelancer for Time, and later LIFE magazine in the late 1960s, spending two years covering the war in Vietnam. Following the demise of LIFE Magazine weekly in 1972, he joined the French photo agency Gamma and traveled the world for them before subsequently founding Contact Press Images, in New York in 1975. His work for news magazines in Europe and the US has included politics, sports, and portraiture as well as the news. He has covered every Summer Olympic Games since 1984, as well as the 2002, 2014, and 2018 Winter Games, and photographed every American President since John F Kennedy. His awards include ‘Magazine Photographer of the Year’ from the Pictures of the Year Competition, the ‘World Press Photo of the Year’, and the Robert Capa Gold Medal from the Overseas Press Club. He has produced photographic essays for Time, Fortune, GEO, Paris-Match and ESPN Magazine. He served on the World Press Photo Jury in 1997, 1999, and chaired the Jury in 2011. In 2018 he was awarded the Sprague Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Press Photographers Association. He is the author of three photographic books: “Soul Rebel – An Intimate Portrait of Bob Marley”, “44 Days : Iran and the Remaking of the World,” pictures taken during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and the recently published “l’Homme Sans Gravité” (“Man Without Gravity”) a collection of five decades of sports pictures.
Suzanne Plunkett
Suzanne Plunkett is a veteran photojournalist who has worked as a staff photographer for the Associated Press in New York where she took one of the iconic photographs of the attacks at the U.S. World Trade on September 11, 2001. From 2003-2005, as Chief Photographer for the AP in Indonesia, Suzanne managed a team of five Jakarta-based photographers and a large network of freelancers following the Bali Bombings and during the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Suzanne worked as Bloomberg’s UK senior photographer before joining Reuters as a staff photographer in London for seven years, where she covered the 2012 Olympics, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, London Fashion Week, one royal wedding (Will and Kate), two royal births (George and Charlotte) and spent many rainy days outside Downing Street and rainy evenings covering Premier League matches. Suzanne left Reuters in 2015 to teach and to freelance in London for clients that included the New York Times and CNN. She founded the UK chapter of Women Photograph – an organization that works to mentor and support the work of women and nonbinary visual journalists. Suzanne returned to Reuters last year and took on the role of chief photographer for the UK and Ireland.
Steve Back
Steve Back has spent 54 years in the business, including 30 years as a staff and freelance photographer on the Daily Mail. He can now be found most weeks on Downing Street covering politics. Steve said “It’s been an amazing journey which thankfully is still not over! Best job in the world.”
Jane Barlow
Jane Barlow has been a professional press photographer for over 20 years. After working for local papers and agencies including seven years with The Scotsman, Jane joined the Press Association in 2016 as a staff photographer covering news, politics, sport and features across Scotland and sometimes beyond.
Justin Setterfield
Justin Setterfield is a sports photographer for Getty Images covering events around the world with a focus on Football. He recently won the SJA Sports Photographer of the Year and SJA 2023 Football Portfolio awards.
