The best magazine work in the West was honoured Friday at the 26th annual Western Magazine Awards, which took place at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C.

Transcontinental Media's Vancouver Magazine, which led the pack with 21 nominations, won seven golds, including Western Canadian Magazine of the Year. The best new magazine award went to Venture Publishing Inc.'s Unlimited, while the Magazine of the Year winners for each province were Border Crossings (Manitoba), Blackflash (Saskatchwean),  AlbertaViews and Vancouver Magazine. Enterprise was named best trade magazine.

A full list of winners is available here.

Below you'll find photos from the event, all taken by Aaron Leaf. Stay tuned to MastheadOnline for Aaron's reports on what went down at Magazines West, the annual two-day professional development conference hosted by the British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers (BCAMP) and the WMAF. 

Western Living's Anicka Quin with freelancer Tyee Bridge, who was the star individual of the night, taking home three golds.

Shelley Youngblut, editor of Swerve (which won four golds), with frequent contributor Bill Reynolds.

From Vancouver Magazine: Ashley Cox, Eve Abrams, Tara Schmidt and Sheryl English.

From Avenue (Calgary) (one gold): Käthe Lemon, Jennifer Hamilton, Chris Bowerman and Tannis Bidde.

Malcolm Brown (Unlimited), Tom Gierasimczuk (RedPoint Media Group Inc.), Eric Rumble (Up!) and Dan Rubinstein (Unlimited).

From Enterprise Magazine: Amanda Euringer and Diane Luckow.

Michael Harris (Vancouver) and Guy Saddy (Elle Canada).