10 heartbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning photos

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Every year, people take billions, and perhaps trillions of photographs, but only a few of the pictures are able to touch the quick. The Pulitzer Prize, established in 1942, is the most prestigious award in journalism for truly outstanding photographs. Here are 10 award winning photos and their interesting stories in our review.

1. Help from the holy father

Called Help from the Holy Father, this photograph was taken by photographer Hector Rondon Lovera. The photo, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1963, shows a priest holding a soldier dying from a sniper's bullet to absolve him of his sins before dying.

This scene was filmed on June 4, 1962, during the El Portenazo military uprising in Venezuela, when the rebels tried to storm the city of Puerto Cabello. The priest in the photo is Venezuelan Naval Chaplain Luis Padillo. The priest at this time was in the line of fire of the rebels, but it was very unlikely that they would shoot at him, since his death could be used as a means of propaganda. In addition, the enemy soldiers were Catholic and would most likely refuse to kill the priest even on orders.

2. Execution in Liberia

In 1981, Larry S. Price won the Pulitzer Prize for a photograph taken during the 1980 coup in Liberia. The coup was carried out by 18 Liberian Army NCOs led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe. Liberian President William R. Tolbert Jr. was killed along with 28 people from his inner circle. Thirteen former government ministers, who were accused of corruption, treason and human rights abuses, were brought to trial, at which they were barred from even having lawyers. All 13 ministers were sentenced to death. They were stripped naked and paraded through the streets of Monrovia, after which they were taken to the seashore, where they were tied to execution posts. However, there were only 9 pillars at the place of execution, so 4 former ministers were waiting for their turn, watching the execution of their colleagues. One of the ministers, Cecil Dennis, met death with courage, looking the killer in the eye.

3. Fire at Seton Hall University

Matt Rainey received the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for a series of photos of his 2 neighbors, Sean Simons and Alvaro Llanos, who were injured on January 19, 2000 in a fire at Seton Hall University (South Orange, New Jersey). The photographs were taken at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, where the youths were undergoing rehabilitation. A total of 3 students were killed and 58 injured in the Seton Hall fire. The fire, which was the result of a prank by two students, started at 4:30 am in the lobby of the hostel, which was known for its false alarms. At first, the students ignored the fire alarm, thinking it was another false alarm, and began evacuating when the fire could no longer be extinguished.

4. Shooting at Kent State University

Photographer John Paul Philo won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for a series of photographs he took at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. The photo shows the woman Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling next to the lifeless body of Jeffrey Miller. On April 30, 1970, President Richard Nixon announced on national television that 150,000 soldiers were to be sent to Vietnam to participate in the war, which was then in full swing. He stated that the United States intends to invade Cambodia. Students reacted with hostility to the statement, staging protests and burning down officer training centers on campuses across the country. Protests reached Kent State University as well. Ohio Governor James Rhodes banned the protests, but the students did not comply. The National Guard soon arrived and pelted the students with tear gas grenades. When the gas did not help, fire was opened. 4 students were killed and 10 injured.

5. Explosions at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania

In 1999, Associated Press photographers won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of photographs taken after the bombings at the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. On August 7, 1998, two bombs went off at two different embassies: the first in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the second in Nairobi, Kenya. The explosions killed 224 people and injured more than 4,500. More than 900 FBI agents were dispatched to the affected areas as a result of the incidents. Later it was possible to prove that the attacks were organized by al-Qaeda.

6. Crash of the fire escape

In 1976 Stanley Foreman won the Pulitzer Prize for photographs of 19-year-old Diana Brian and her 2-year-old goddaughter Tiara Jones falling from a collapsed fire escape. On July 22, 1975, while Stanley Foreman was walking home from work at the Boston Herald, he was informed that a fire had broken out near his house. When he ran to the scene, he saw Diana and Tiara standing on the fire escape, soon joined by firefighter Bob O'Neill. Suddenly the fire escape collapsed. Bob managed to catch the ladder with one hand, and Diana and Tiara fell to the ground from a height of about 15 meters. Diana was seriously injured in the fall and died of her wounds on the same day. Tiara survived because she fell on Diana.

7. Eliane Gonzalez

In 2001, Associated Press's Alan Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of US federal agents armed with machine guns who forcibly took the boy Elian Gonzalez from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida. The story began in 1999 when six-year-old Elian was found at sea. He was on a boat that sailed from Cuba to the United States. The boat sank, killing Elian's mother and nine other people, but the boy escaped. After Elian was rescued, he was handed over to relatives living in Miami. Nevertheless, his father Juan Miguel announced his desire to return the boy to Cuba, while Elian's relatives in Miami did not want to return the boy to his homeland. This led to a scandal between Cuba and the United States. Fidel Castro himself held several protests, demanding the return of Elian to Cuba. After months of legal battles and protests in Cuba and Miami, it was decided to return Elian to his father. Since the relatives refused to hand the boy over to the Ministry of Justice, this had to be done by force.

8. The death of Andrea Doria

Photographer Harry A. Trask won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1957 photographs of the sinking ocean liner Andrea Doria from an airplane nine minutes before the ship disappeared completely under the waves. After the crash of this Italian ship, people began to prefer to fly by plane across the Atlantic. When Andrea Doria was built, it was declared the largest, fastest and most unsinkable ship. It was equipped with the most advanced navigation equipment, including two radars. In case of a collision of a ship with another ship, 11 watertight compartments were provided, which would allow the ship to stay afloat even if 2 compartments were flooded. His lifeboats were made in such a way that they could be lowered into the water even with a strong inclination of the ship's hull.

On July 25, 1956, Andrea Doria collided with Stockholm, a much smaller ship. Stockholm damaged the Andrea Doria's shell at the location of the fuel tanks, as well as destroyed several watertight compartments. Then the water began to fill the almost empty fuel tanks, as a result of which the ship found itself on the verge of death. However, almost all of the people on board the Andrea Doria survived thanks to lifeboats from several ships, including the Stockholm itself and the Ile-de-France. Of the 1706 passengers on board the Andrea Doria, only 46 were killed, most of them in the initial collision. 5 crew members were killed on the Stockholm.

9. Saffron Revolution

The saffron revolution in Burma (today Myanmar) began after the government lifted fuel subsidies on August 15, 2007, which increased the price of gasoline and diesel by 66 percent and natural gas by 500 percent. The cost of food and transportation has also increased dramatically. Protests broke out in the country, and about 15,000 monks marched through the streets calling for the overthrow of the military government. On September 26, 2007, the military junta began to violently disperse all protests, ransack temples and arrest monks.

The Pulitzer Prize in 2008 was won by Andris Latif of Reuters for a photograph of the fatally wounded Japanese videographer Kenji Nagai, who was shot dead while suppressing a riot. Kenji was filming a protest in Rangoon when government troops suddenly appeared and opened fire on the crowd. Video footage of the incident later showed Kenji pushing the soldiers to the ground and then deliberately firing at point-blank range.

10. Screaming girl

Afghan photographer Masood Hossaini won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of 12-year-old Afghan girl Tarana Akbari screaming after a suicide bombing that killed more than 70 people, including 7 her family members. Her family was in Kabul for the Ashura festival. Many celebrants crowded at the Abu Fazl shrine when a suicide bomber used explosives in his backpack. Massoud was just photographing the celebrating people and, despite his injury, managed to take a picture a few seconds after the explosion.

10 historical photographs that capture the darkest pages of history were not awarded the main journalism prize, but this does not diminish their significance in history.