Epoch Times Photojournalist Wins Honorable Mention in International Photography Competition

Epoch Times photojournalist John Fredricks won an honorable mention in the 2026 International Photography Awards (IPA) photo contest.

The look in the child’s eyes and the dirt she had on her face immediately grabbed his attention, Fredricks recounted to The Epoch Times.

“That kid had been through a lot.”

At that instant, the politics associated with the border issue disappeared from his mind, and his thoughts centered on the girl, he said.

“This kid should be in school somewhere right now, not crossing cartel-infested deserts of Mexico to sneak into a country,” he said.

Fredricks used a 70-200 millimeter lens to capture the moment, snapping four or five frames of the young girl. He was feet away from the U.S. Border Patrol agents who transferred a group of illegal immigrants to a processing center.

He intentionally focused on her expressive eyes while framing the photo with a border agent carrying a weapon blurred in the background, he said, to show viewers the context of the situation.

The child, who was holding on to her mother, was among a dozen other illegal immigrants transferred to the center, he said. The moments were chaotic, yet there was no tension, Fredricks said, adding that the illegal immigrants did not look scared by the federal agents. Instead they appeared to be relieved, as if help came their way.

The Epoch Times’ reporter Brad Jones and Fredricks were the only media present during that day at the Otay border gap. The migrants had to walk a downhill dirt road for a few hours to arrive at the Otay gap, he said. The dirt road ends at a paved road, which was a common area where Border Patrol agents would intercept the illegal immigrants and transport them to a nearby processing center.

The IPA conducts an annual competition for professional, amateur, and student photographers on a global scale and is one of the most comprehensive photo competitions in the photography world today.

For the 2026 contest, the IPA received more than 14,000 entries from 139 countries. An international jury of photography experts evaluated participants’ work.

John Fredricks is a California-based journalist for The Epoch Times. His reporting and photojournalism features have been published in a variety of award-winning publications.

He received his bachelor’s degree in visual media from Biola University in California in 2013.

Photojournalism is not for everyone, he said, adding the negative news of the world can be daunting.

“The only way that we’re going to be able to see hope is through God,” he said.

Faith in God is a driving force that keeps Fredericks going.

A successful editorial photograph should portray reality as much as possible but also allow the viewer to feel something: sympathy or even the frustration of an injustice happening, he explained, adding that a news image should make us ask a question rather than answer one.

Although there is a lot of “doom and gloom” in the world, he found hope in places where he least expected.

He credited God for being alive, especially when covering dangerous assignments, and said that without Him he would probably be dead “mentally, spiritually, and physically.”

Fredricks’ favorite word is “forward,” because there is no other way to keep going in what he is doing every day other than going forward, he said.

He hopes that his work will benefit The Epoch Times’ readers and help reach people who don’t read the newspaper yet.

“I would love to be in touch with this kid someday and to hear about her life and where she’s been since that moment,” he said of the immigrant girl he photographed in February 2024.

Janice Hisle contributed to this report.