Abbie Lankitus and Sam O'Keefe receive awards at the University Photographers' Association of America (UPAA) 2024 Symposium. Photo courtesy Michael Pierce / Missouri University of Science & Technology.
July 23, 2024
University of Missouri photographers Sam O’Keefe and Abbie Lankitus recently brought home five awards from the University Photographers' Association of America (UPAA) 2024 Symposium in Provo, Utah.
The UPAA symposium celebrates the best work in higher education photography over the past year. This year, judges selected the best from among more than 545 competition entries.
Representing Mizzou in the campus environment category with his photo of the harvest moon over Memorial Union, O’Keefe won first place. He went on to place second in the people/portrait category for his photograph of Vicki Kuhn, a graduate student in the MU Department of Physics and Astronomy, for his creative photography illustrating Kuhn’s research on emerging spiral galaxies that resemble the Milky Way.
Lankitus won three awards at the UPPA symposium. She was recognized for her work with Mizzou medical innovation specialist, Damon Coyle, for a spread in MIZZOU Magazine, winning two second-place awards for publication cover and general publication. She also brought home a third-place award in the general features/illustration category for her photograph of farmer Russ Kremer, which was featured in a MIZZOU magazine feature that covers Kremer’s effort to adopt sustainable farming practices.
