Twenty-four year old freelance photojournalist Adrien Veczan has been awarded the first Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award, the Canadian Journalism Foundation and The Canadian Press (CP) announced.

As winner of the award, Veczan will complete a six-week paid internship at The Canadian Press.

This was the first year for the Tom Hanson award. Graeme Roy, director of news photography at The Canadian Press said:

“”We had an incredibly positive response to the award. The volume of submissions we received far exceeded our expectations.” He noted that the choosing the winner came down to a “frame-by-frame comparison.”

Veczan is currently based in Toronto and his work has been published in the Calgary Herald, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, The Washington Post and other publications.

View his work at his website, Adrien Veczan Photography.

The award is in honour of CP photographer Tom Hanson, who died suddenly at age 41 in 2009.