Photos of the year 2021: Curtis Compton

If it’s sports – baseball, football, soccer, golf, basketball – visual journalist Curtis Compton can be found nearby. During 2020, COVID-19 seriously curtailed sports, but as 2021 unfurled and the use of COVID vaccines grew, some of the restrictions ease. Compton’s work reflects both of these worlds.

Compton is an award-winning visual journalist who has been with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for nearly 30 years. He joined the AJC as a photo editor in 1993 before returning to the field as a staff photographer. Previously he worked for the Gwinnett Daily News, United Press International and the Marietta Daily Journal. Compton is an avid sports photographer, but his skill isn’t limited to sports. He was the principal photographer for the AJC’s Emmy-award winning “Bronco Goes to Camp,” a documentary about a local heart-transplant patient who was going to summer camp for the first time. He has won a World Hunger Award for his coverage of the famine in Sudan and has documented the Iraq War, highlighting the efforts of Georgia-based troops. This year, he chronicled the Braves through their World Series-winning season. His images have been featured in New York Times and CNN photos of the year.