From tragedy to triumph, the documentary “A Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photos” features Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalists. They share the stories behind the iconic photos that won them the highest award in journalism.
To win a Pulitzer Prize for photography, the photo must be distinguished according to the Pulitzer Prize Board. According to Pulitzer Prize winner William Snyder, however, there’s more. “It’s not a photography contest. It’s about telling some of the biggest stories of the year.”
One such photograph by Stanley Forman is “The Boston Fire.” The event he captured that day would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1976. Stanley Forman thought he was photographing a rescue. But something went wrong. The fire escape collapsed. In the photo you see the woman and her two-year-old niece. They hang suspended as though gravity has no hold on them. That couldn’t be further from the truth. They fall several stories. This was supposed to be a fire rescue. Forman began to take photos of the fall but he didn’t shoot the end. He looked away. It shocked those who saw it. It was the photo that proved to Boston that there needed to be fire escape safety laws.
The woman was killed but the child survived the fall. She was cushioned by the body of her aunt. You’re forced to witness this moment. Eddie Adams, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, expressed the power of being fixed in the moment of a photo like this. “If it makes you laugh. If it makes you cry. It’s a good photo. You look at a film and you see it and it’s over. But a still picture is in front of you all the time….The most powerful weapon we have in the world is the still photograph.”
Pulitzer Prize winning photos not only capture humanity’s misfortunes but also our victories. According to Pulitzer Prize winner John White, “It’s a front seat to history.” Joe Rosenthal photographed the historic raising of the U.S. flag during the Battle for Iwo Jima in 1945. It was printed by the Associated Press two days later. The scene shows six men struggling over chaos to plant the U.S. flag. The U.S. Marines had fought for four days to take a 560-foot fortress. Joe Rosenthal waded through volcanic ash, wove between mines and Japanese bodies. He eventually found those six men holding the flag. He waited until they were ready and took the photograph. Rosenthal thought he was simply taking the picture that needed to be taken. He didn’t know at the time how significant it would be.
On September 11, 2001, history would be made again. It was the biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The attack was seen all over the world on televisions, newspapers and websites alike. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attack. The New York Times staff, with this Pulitzer Prize winning photo, captured the shocking moment. The scene is ruined by fire and black smoke. The second tower of the World Trade Center has been hit by a passenger plane. Flames pour out of the building. Debris falls onto the city below. The perspective is far away from the horror below. The New York skyline is brilliant red. It might be beautiful if it wasn’t so terrible. You feel small and powerless. As Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Carol Guzy explained (when you witness a disaster), “You rage inside at the helplessness. To try to deal with it, you seek out elements of humanity and courage.” There are many stories of humanity and courage that followed the event captured in this photo.
It would be difficult to find a greater contrast to the image of the World Trade Center than the photo by Stan Grossfeld. He took it during the Ethiopian famine in 1985. He won his Pulitzer Prize for a photograph of a mother and her child sitting on the ground. The image’s balance seems strange with the war and famine surrounding them. Their skin is pulled tight over their skeletal figures. The subjects are perfectly separated from the background. Nothing else exists in the moment. Nothing but the suffering of this mother and her son. The mother’s hands rest on the top of her child’s head. It’s as though she’s trying to protect him. The child is starving to death. This was a time of drought, war and hunger. This photo brings the viewer to a place of understanding, even if just a little. Stan Grossfeld gives the observer the opportunity to understand the pain. It invites parents to feel helpless with the mother. It invites humanity to want to end the suffering. Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Carol Cuzy described it this way. “Someone once told me that empathy was not imagining how you would feel in a particular situation, but actually feeling what the other person felt.”
Only six years later in Romania, economic and social conditions had degraded. The Romanian Socialist Republic had collapsed. The children were suffering from the economic uncertainty. In 1991, William Snyder visited the orphanage where he took his Pulitzer Prize winning photo. Many of the children had been living on the streets. Although the kids in this photo have shelter and place to sleep, the conditions were awful. A woman in clinical clothing stands holding a child in one hand while another drinks from a cup in the foreground. But Snyder chose to keep the background in focus. The rickety metal bed frames are missing paint in some spots and it appears that rust is forming. The beds and wooden cribs are placed end to end and side by side. The children seem despondent, especially the child she’s holding in her left arm. The children look sick, tired or both. These children needed to have their story told. According to Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist John White, “Everyone has a story. And we sing their song. If we don’t do it–if the journalist doesn’t do it–who’s going to?” This photo moved westerners to action and prompted charity groups to help. It also spurred Western Europeans and Americans to adopt many of the homeless children. Often, it only takes a glimpse of the stories of others to prompt us to action.
“A Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photos” gives a closer look at the prize-winning photos through the words of the photojournalists who took them. From raging; having a front row seat to history; seeking empathy, courage and humanity; singing the songs of people, “A Glimpse of Life: the Pulitzer Photos” is about telling the biggest stories of the year.
