{"id":6623,"date":"2021-04-09T09:52:09","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T13:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6623"},"modified":"2025-08-23T17:51:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T21:51:44","slug":"the-pulitzer-photographs-bringing-readers-into-a-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/04\/09\/the-pulitzer-photographs-bringing-readers-into-a-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pulitzer Photographs: Bringing Readers Into a Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Pulitzer Prizes are awards given by Columbia University to outstanding journalists, writers or musicians. To win a Pulitzer is an outstanding achievement. In this video, \u201cA Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photographs,\u201d we see many outstanding and inspiring photos journalists have taken over the decades: from the flag raising in Iwo Jima in 1945 to the twin towers on fire and crumbling in 2001. What exactly makes a photograph Pulitzer worthy? Well, with these next photos, you\u2019ll see through five decades that Pulitzer photographs truly tell an amazing story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s start with the 1950s, and \u201cParade,\u201d photographed by William Beall and published by the Washington Daily News in 1958. This photo truly embodies the Pulitzer with how beautiful it is. The pure joy from the small boy looking up at the officer just brings a smile to your face. That\u2019s one thing that a Pulitzer should do: make the reader feel an emotion, whether it\u2019s good or bad.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next Pulitzer photograph, \u201cSaigon Execution,\u201d was taken by Eddie Adams in 1969. \u201cWe see them pulling a guy right through the door of the building: a prisoner. As a photographer, as a newsman, somebody gets a prisoner so you photograph that prisoner until he\u2019s out of sight. All of the sudden to my left, somebody came out of nowhere and I see him go for his pistol and as soon as he raised his pistol, as soon as he brought it up, I took the picture. And I thought absolutely nothing of it. And then I went to lunch. So what, it was a war. I\u2019m being serious, that\u2019s how I felt.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cSaigon Execution”.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This photograph shifts to a different mood than in the decade before. In this frozen photograph of time, we see seconds before the end of a man\u2019s life. Just as Eddie Adams said, it was a war. That is the reason this photo deserves its Pulitzer. It brings readers into that moment, shaking them to their core and showing them one of the ugliest sides of war and life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This next photo is from the 1970s. \u201cChattanooga Parade\u201d was published by Chattanooga News-Free Press and taken by Robin Hood in 1977.\u00a0 \u201cThis guy was the real deal. He was an injured Vietnam veteran. As I began to photograph, a band came by and tears started coming out of his eyes. I learned later that he had been a star football player at a local high school. The moment I was taking the photograph, his high school band was the band that was marching by. And they were playing this patriotic song And it was just the combination of all that, it was more than he could bear.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This photograph is truly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize not just because of the pure emotions and feeling that are in this photograph, but also the meaning behind it. A Vietnam vet coming home after serving his country and breaking down into tears of happiness, sadness, joy, relief possibly. The raw soul that this photograph has makes it truly worthy of its Pulitzer award.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This next photo is for the 1980s. \u201cColombia Mudslide\u201d was taken by Michel du Cille and Carol Guzy in 1986.\u00a0 \u201cThere was this huge mudslide in Columbia. More than 20,000 people were killed. After we realized how huge the event was, it was decided that Carol Guzy should also go. Boy, I\u2019m glad that decision was made,\u201d du Cille said.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0\u201cMichael and I have a bond forever after that experience. You get to the edge of the site where you have to just start hiking and walking and you get to the point where it\u2019s just mud and you\u2019re walking over bodies and it\u2019s pretty\u2026pretty grueling,\u201d Guzy said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This photo is one taken of a deceased person’s arm reaching out from under piles of dried mud. This photograph shows you the last efforts from this dying human being before the individual drowned under piles of mud from this disaster. This photograph deserves its Pulitzer tenfold not just for freezing in time the last efforts of a dying human being but also the efforts and hardships of all the people in this disaster: the horror and sadness that come with a natural disaster like this. This picture also reflects the words Guzy said about having to walk over the mud and the bodies and how grueling all that truly is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For our last decade, the 1990s, we have the Pulitzer photograph \u201cWater Rescue.\u201d This Pulitzer-winning photograph was taken by Annie Wells in 1997.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThat photograph is Don Lopez\u2019 last effort to save a drowning girl. She\u2019s going to drown or she\u2019s going to be saved and that\u2019s the picture you need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Woman trapped in the Columbian Mudslide.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This photograph brings readers to the edge of other seats. Will she be saved or will she drown? That creates tension and uncertainty for readers as the story is being told. Just as Annie Wells said, that\u2019s the kind of picture you need to earn a Pulitzer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All of these photographs have two things in common. One is that they all won a Pulitzer Prize. The other is that they all have a story to tell. The difference between a Pulitzer photograph and a non-Pulitzer photograph is whether that story truly shakes readers to their core. Whether it\u2019s through inspiration and happiness or sadness and tragedy, that is what makes these photos Pulitzer worthy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Pulitzer Prizes are awards given by Columbia University to outstanding journalists, writers or musicians. To win a Pulitzer is an outstanding achievement. In this video, \u201cA Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photographs,\u201d we see many outstanding and inspiring photos journalists have taken over the decades: from the flag raising in Iwo Jima in 1945 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"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-6623","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\/6623","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\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8277,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6623\/revisions\/8277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}