2005 Frank Gunn

FRANK GUNN
by Don Goodwin

Toronto-based CP photographer Frank Gunn , the recipient of the 2006 Sports Media Canada Outstanding Sports Photography Award will need a larger trophy shelf. He also won a top prize in Canadian journalism in June for a feature photo he took last year. It was his second National Newspaper Award.

Frank Gunn

Frank Gunn

On staff with Canadian Press since 1992, Frank has had three National Newspaper Association nominations and won the Award twice – one for a sport shot and one for a feature photo and has been a Canadian Press Photographer of the Year Award winner

Gunn grew up in Ottawa and began taking pictures when he was ten. He started following CP photographer Fred Chartrand around at the tender age of 14 and took up freelancing with CP at 16. Never fazed by an assignment, even as a rookie photog, no matter how imposing it might seem — he once went to then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s house to get pictures of the PM when he was barely older than the PM’s own children.

Frank won the Canadian Press November Enterprise Picture of the Month with his photo of Jordan Donich doing his karate training early in the morning on the beach by Lake Ontario in Toronto. He also won the News Picture of the Month for November, giving him a total of eighteen Canadian Press Picture of the Month wins, the most by any photographer.

Frank has illustrated an inclination toward and an aptitude for capturing notable sports moments. His Blue Jays and Raptors shots are regularly picked up by AP, the giant U.S. news service, and he’s a regular at major tennis and other events of sports significance. He’s covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games, Stanley Cups, World Series, Grey Cups and World Championships of many sports.

It’s his fascinating photo of U.S. swim star Michael Phelps in the World Aquatic Championships in Montreal earlier this year (see our cover) which is our Outstanding Photography Award for 2005.