The 2018 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced yesterday, and in the two photography categories, images of violence and escape from violence took home the coveted gold medals.
In the Breaking News Photography category, photojournalist Ryan Kelly won for his shocking image of a car plowing into counter-protestors of the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, VA on August 12th, 2017. As Poynter reports, this photograph was actually taken on Kelly`s final day as a staff photographer for The Daily Progress. He left the job due to the `state of the industry, stress and schedule,` but not before capturing a photograph seen around the world:
The photo was taken by then-staff photographer @RyanMKellyPhoto on his last day at the paper.https://t.co/yLvrwy228U
- The Daily Progress (@DailyProgress) April 16, 2018
In the Feature Photography category, not one photographer but an entire staff received the award. The medal went to `The Photography Staff of Reuters` for the publication`s coverage of Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar. Reuters has shared several GIFs and still images on the Reuters Pictures Twitter (embedded below), but you can see the full series at this link.
.@reuterspictures was awarded a Pulitzer for the photographs that exposed the world to the violence Rohingya refugees faced while fleeing Myanmar. See the photos here: https://t.co/zDAsss9wWk pic.twitter.com/dNN90R5Rmz
- Reuters Top News (@Reuters) April 17, 2018
The winners highlight the importance of photojournalism on vastly different scales. As Kelly told Poynter, his Pulitzer Prize win `is a super valuable reminder for people of the power of local journalism.` The Reuters win, meanwhile, highlights the role photojournalism can play on a global scale, exposing the rest of the world to realities it might otherwise never see, or choose to ignore.
As always, the winners each receive $15,000 prize money and the coveted gold medal.
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