{"id":5136,"date":"2018-03-09T09:50:15","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T14:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=5136"},"modified":"2025-07-09T12:34:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T16:34:18","slug":"a-glimpse-of-life-pulitzer-prize-photojournalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2018\/03\/09\/a-glimpse-of-life-pulitzer-prize-photojournalism\/","title":{"rendered":"A Glimpse of Life: Pulitzer Prize Photojournalism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima Joe Rosenthal<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John White of the Chicago Sun Times said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got this front seat to history, front seat to history. \u00a0Every day we\u2019ve got a front seat to history.\u201d There is a reason that we always hear or have said ourselves that a picture is worth a thousand words. \u00a0One photo can change the course of history. In the short film \u201cA Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photographs,\u201d we are hit again and again with historical moments captured through the lens of a camera. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What does it take for a photograph to be worthy of the Pulitzer Prize? \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not a photography contest. It\u2019s about telling some of the biggest stories of the year,\u201d photojournalist William Snyder said. \u00a0Some photos are more than just pictures. They affect us in different ways. A photo of an Olympic runner, with every muscle in his body flexed, sweat pouring down his brow and the agony of the race shown in his contorted face, captured just as he breaks through the finish line ribbon. \u00a0Photos that make us feel pain and suffering and, perhaps, haunt us long after we look away. These are photos that are worthy for the Pulitzer Prize in Photojournalism. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1945, Joe Rosenthal of The Associated Press stood in the right spot at the right time on Iwo Jima, Japan, and shot one of the most recognizable photos of all time. \u00a0This photo is of United States soldiers, dressed in combat gear, in various positions, standing on top of a pile of twisted metal and rubble. It captures them mid-point forcing a metal pole through this pile of waste. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The soldiers are grasping the pole on which an American flag waves in the wind. \u00a0The contrast between the pile of rubble and the soldiers, with a clouded sky as a backdrop, is especially stunning. \u00a0Whether on purpose or not, the fact that we see none of the soldiers\u2019 faces represents that they could be any of the thousands of American soldiers. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In November 1963, as Lee Harvey Oswald was being escorted through a crowd of waiting photographers and reporters by police and FBI officers, he was likely the most hated man in America. \u00a0Photojournalist, Robert Jackson was among those waiting outside the Dallas Police Department where Oswald was being held for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Jack Ruby was also waiting in the crowd and within seconds of Oswald exiting the building, Ruby pulled out a gun and shot Oswald point blank in the stomach. \u00a0Robert Jackson captured the face of Lee Harvey Oswald at the very moment of the shot. He said, \u201cIt was very quick, and Ruby maybe took two steps. He fired, then I fired.\u201d He continued, \u201cIf I had planned it, I probably would have missed it.\u201d The photo was taken just beyond the darkened doorway, with an overhead light illuminating the scene, giving it the feeling of an old movie set. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nick Ut, a Vietnamese photojournalist, won the Pulitzer Prize for his photo of children fleeing the horror of war in Viet Nam. \u00a0The photo caused controversy for its content of a naked young girl running toward the camera. You can almost hear the screams in this still shot. \u00a0The children\u2019s faces display a horror that transcends words. The young girl’s clothes had been burned from the Napalm bombs dropped on their village. \u00a0The Associated Press, for whom Ut worked, and other publications waived their rule of no frontal nudity and published the photo. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Interestingly, after the shot, Ut picked up the girl and took her to the hospital where he was told they wouldn\u2019t be able to save her. \u00a0He insisted that they try anyway. Kim Phuc is the 9-year-old girl in the photo. She now lives in Canada with her husband and children and has a lifelong bond with the man she calls \u201cUncle Ut.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1975, Jerry Gay shot a photo that would receive the Pulitzer Prize. \u00a0At first glance, it looks like a black and white photo of exhausted soldiers during war. \u00a0They were just that, except the soldiers were Seattle firefighters, the weapons were water hoses and the enemy was fire. \u00a0You can feel the emotions in their faces: looking defeated, sitting on the ground against a fire-ravaged hillside with thick gray smoke between them and the fire. \u00a0Had the photo been shot in color film it could have lost all the emotion. Though color photos can add life to the subject, sometimes the lack of color brings out the feelings more sharply. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Michel du Cille and Carol Guzy won a Pulitzer for a photo taken in 1986 during the mudslides in Columbia. \u00a0It is of a dark-skinned arm rising from the caked mud. Imagine replacing the mud with cool blue water and you might think it was a picture of an Olympic athlete breaking through the water in pursuit of gold in the 800-meter freestyle. \u00a0It is stunning that one single arm can show the power and determination to survive. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The most moving part of \u201cA Glimpse for Life\u201d may be the words of photographer William Snyder from The Dallas Morning News. \u00a0In 1991 he photographed the children of Romania, orphaned by war. He said, \u201cI was so horrified, upset. But what was there was really hard to do\u2014obviously, it still bothers me.\u201d His eyes well up with tears as he excuses himself, putting his head down, unable to continue. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A picture of a short-haired boy who looks to be about 14 years old is hard to take your eyes from. \u00a0He stands behind a rough-looking picket fence with one hand reaching through the pickets. Over this fence runs strands of barbed wire. \u00a0He shows no emotion, no hope in his eyes, held captive in a scene not of his choosing. It\u2019s a simple picture really, but with enough power to stab into the coldest of hearts. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Photojournalist Stan Grossfeld sums up what drives photojournalists with this powerful statement. \u00a0\u201cIf I care about something, I can make half a million people care about it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John White of the Chicago Sun Times said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got this front seat to history, front seat to history. \u00a0Every day we\u2019ve got a front seat to history.\u201d There is a reason that we always hear or have said ourselves that a picture is worth a thousand words. \u00a0One photo can change the course of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8731,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136\/revisions\/8731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}