Coastal Review photographer Dylan Ray is the 2026 Hugh Morton Photographer of the Year in the North Carolina Press Association’s annual editorial contest.
According to the association, “The Hugh Morton Photographer of the Year award recognizes a photographer’s body of work for the contest year and is the most prestigious photography award we give.” The award is named for the photographer, developer and conservationist born in Wilmington in 1921 who “was part of the post-World War II era of tourism development in North Carolina and was friends and colleagues with notables from across the state,” according to a biography on the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources website. “He took close to a quarter-million photographs which are now part of the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives at UNC-Chapel Hill.”
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Judges, in selecting Ray for the photography award, were to consider content and composition along with technical quality and ability to convey a story.
Coastal Review competes against about two dozen other publications in the association’s online-only division. In all, Coastal Review received five awards.
Coastal Review Staff Writer Trista Talton was recognized with the first-place award in the News Enterprise Reporting category for “Oak Island residents say oceanfront lots unsuited for homes.”
Catherine Kozak received second place in the Beat Feature Reporting category for “Red Wolves Recovery Efforts,” an entry that included “Biologists heartened by red wolf program’s recent successes” and related coverage. Kozak was also recognized with a third-place award in Beat News Reporting “Barrier Island Challenges.” This entry included a two-part series, “Shifting sands, hardened beaches: A new review,” and other stories about erosion, the loss of homes and revived old coastal policy debates as pertaining to the Outer Banks.
Coastal Review Assistant Editor Jennifer Allen was awarded a second place in the Multimedia Project category for “‘Smell of money’: Menhaden Chanteymen’s music still echoes.”
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The awards are for work published between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026.
Editors and publishers were notified of the contest decisions this week, with results downloaded alphabetically by administrators and sent out. Coastal Review was notified around midday Thursday.
The association plans to announce all winners, including the General Excellence awards, Sept. 10 during the association’s annual convention at the Embassy Suites in Cary.
“We will have a full day of sessions, training, networking, and a reception to kick off the evening,” said North Carolina Press Association Member Services Director Katie Mozingo in the email notification.
Contest organizers expressed thanks to contest judges from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association “and numerous volunteers nationwide.”
Coastal Review is a daily, nonprofit, news and feature service covering the North Carolina coast and published with editorial independence by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group dedicated to protecting and preserving the North Carolina coast. Coastal Review provides objective reporting, information and commentary on issues, policy and notable figures and history with a specific focus on the environment and people of the state’s 20 coastal counties.
