David Burnett wins top photojournalism prize with plastic Holga camera

David Burnett, born in 1946 in Holladay, Utah, is a renowned photojournalist who co-founded Contact Press Images in New York in 1976. He has won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for covering the 1973 Chilean coup, the World Press Photo of the Year in 1980 for Cambodian refugees, and captured the iconic image of Mary Decker at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. During Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, Burnett used a Holga camera—a cheap plastic camera made in Hong Kong by Lee Ting-mo in 1982—alongside his professional Canons. The Holga, known for its vignetting and light leaks, was initially rejected in China but became a cult object among experimental photographers. Burnett's Holga series on Gore's campaign won first prize at the Eyes of History 2001 awards by the White House News Photographers Association. After this, Holga sales soared globally. In November 2015, the original factory ceased production and destroyed the molds, but in 2016, Sunrise resumed production using preserved molds. Burnett's achievement underscores that the photographer's eye matters more than the equipment.