Posts tagged pulitzer

Tragedy By The Sea by John L. Gaunt. 1955 Pulitzer Prize Los Angeles Times photographer John Gaunt is enjoying the sun on April 2, 1954 in his front yard in Hermosa Beach, California. Near the water, Gaunt finds a young couple by the shoreline. Just a few minutes before, their 19-month-old son was playing happily in their yard. Somehow, he wandered down to the beach and was swept away by the fierce tide. The little boy is gone. There is nothing anyone can do. Gaunt, who has a daughter about the same age, takes four quick photographs of the grieving couple. “As I made the last exposure, they turned and walked away” he says. The little boys body is later recovered from the surf.

Tragedy By The Sea by John L. Gaunt. 1955 Pulitzer Prize

Los Angeles Times photographer John Gaunt is enjoying the sun on April 2, 1954 in his front yard in Hermosa Beach, California. Near the water, Gaunt finds a young couple by the shoreline. Just a few minutes before, their 19-month-old son was playing happily in their yard. Somehow, he wandered down to the beach and was swept away by the fierce tide.

The little boy is gone. There is nothing anyone can do. Gaunt, who has a daughter about the same age, takes four quick photographs of the grieving couple. “As I made the last exposure, they turned and walked away” he says. The little boys body is later recovered from the surf.

Tagged
Death Leap From Blazing Hotel by Arnold Hardy. 1947 Pulitzer Prize. No more than 119 people lose their lives in the December 7 Winecoff fire.  26 year old Georgia Tech student Arnold Hardy was having a great Friday night with his fellow college students. He arrives home in the early hours of the morning to hear fire trucks racing through the streets. ”I came upon it all at once. Fire was raging from the upper floors. From almost every window, men. women and children screamed tor help.” The Winecoff Hotel has no fire escapes, no fire doors, no fire stairs. The hotel is 15 stories high; the ladders ot the Atlanta Fire Department do not reach above the ninth floor. The blaze spreads rapidly. Guests on the upper floors have no way out. “The trapped victims,” remembers Hardy, “were descending ropes of blankets and bed sheets in desperate attempts to reach the fully extended ladders.” The sheets tear; people plunge to the pavement. Other guests try jumping to the building next door; most fall to the street below. As Hardy watches, he hears a woman shriek. “I looked up, raising my camera. A woman was plummeting downward. As she passed the third floor, I fired, using my last flashbulb.” The woman is lucky: Her fall is broken by a pipe and a railing. She lives. Hardy was the first amateur photographer to win a Pulitzer prize.

Death Leap From Blazing Hotel by Arnold Hardy. 1947 Pulitzer Prize.

No more than 119 people lose their lives in the December 7 Winecoff fire.  26 year old Georgia Tech student Arnold Hardy was having a great Friday night with his fellow college students. He arrives home in the early hours of the morning to hear fire trucks racing through the streets. ”I came upon it all at once. Fire was raging from the upper floors. From almost every window, men. women and children screamed tor help.”

The Winecoff Hotel has no fire escapes, no fire doors, no fire stairs. The hotel is 15 stories high; the ladders ot the Atlanta Fire Department do not reach above the ninth floor. The blaze spreads rapidly. Guests on the upper floors have no way out. “The trapped victims,” remembers Hardy, “were descending ropes of blankets and bed sheets in desperate attempts to reach the fully extended ladders.” The sheets tear; people plunge to the pavement. Other guests try jumping to the building next door; most fall to the street below.

As Hardy watches, he hears a woman shriek. “I looked up, raising my camera. A woman was plummeting downward. As she passed the third floor, I fired, using my last flashbulb.”

The woman is lucky: Her fall is broken by a pipe and a railing. She lives. Hardy was the first amateur photographer to win a Pulitzer prize.

Tagged

A Mother’s Journey by Reene C. Byers. 2007 Pulitzer Prize.

The series of photographs tells a story about young Derek Madsen and his mother Cyndie French during their 11 month battle against neuroblastoma which was diagnosed in November 2004. . Except for a few minutes while hospice nurses are with him, Cyndie spends nearly every moment of the day at his side. “I was exhausted beyond belief but I had to do this. He would call my name and always expects me to be there,” Cyndie said.

Cyndie French fights her emotions May 10, as she prepares to flush out Derek’s catheter with saline solution before hospice nurse Sue Kirkpatrick, left, administers a sedative that will give the 11-year-old a peaceful death. “I know in my heart I’ve done everything I can,” Cyndie says. Derek died soon after in his mother’s arms on May 10, 2006.

Tagged
The Kiss Of Life by Rocco Morabito, 1968 Pulitzer Prize. Jacksonville Journal photographer Rocco Morabito is on his way to photograph a railroad strike when he notices Jacksonville Electric Authority linemen high up on the poles. “I passed these men working and went on to my assignment,” says Morabito. “I took eight pictures at the strike. I thought I’d go back and see if I could rind another picture.” But when Morabito gets back to the linemen, “I heard screaming. I looked up and I saw this man hanging down. Oh my God. I didn’t know what to do.” The linemen. Randall Champion, is dangling upside down in his safety belt — felled bv 4,160 volts of electricity. “I took a picture right quick.” says Morabito. “J.D. Thompson (another lineman) was running toward the pole. I went to my car and called an ambulance. I got back to the pole and J.D. was breathing into Champion.” Cradling the stricken lineman in his arms, Thompson rhythmically pushes air into Champion’s lungs. Below. Morabito makes pictures — and prays. “I backed off. way off until I hit a house and I couldn’t go any farther. I took another picture”, it is a prize-winning photograph, but Morahito’s real concern is the injured lineman. Thompson finally shouts down: “He’s breathing.” Champion survives.

The Kiss Of Life by Rocco Morabito, 1968 Pulitzer Prize.

Jacksonville Journal photographer Rocco Morabito is on his way to photograph a railroad strike when he notices Jacksonville Electric Authority linemen high up on the poles. “I passed these men working and went on to my assignment,” says Morabito. “I took eight pictures at the strike. I thought I’d go back and see if I could rind another picture.”

But when Morabito gets back to the linemen, “I heard screaming. I looked up and I saw this man hanging down. Oh my God. I didn’t know what to do.” The linemen. Randall Champion, is dangling upside down in his safety belt — felled bv 4,160 volts of electricity.

“I took a picture right quick.” says Morabito. “J.D. Thompson (another lineman) was running toward the pole. I went to my car and called an ambulance. I got back to the pole and J.D. was breathing into Champion.” Cradling the stricken lineman in his arms, Thompson rhythmically pushes air into Champion’s lungs. Below. Morabito makes pictures — and prays.

“I backed off. way off until I hit a house and I couldn’t go any farther. I took another picture”, it is a prize-winning photograph, but Morahito’s real concern is the injured lineman. Thompson finally shouts down: “He’s breathing.” Champion survives.

Tagged
Faith and Confidence by William C. Beall for the Washington Daily News. 1958 Pulitzer Prize. During a Chinese festival, officer Maurice Cullinane stooped down to coax tiny Allen Weaver back onto the curb to avoid the spluttering fireworks. The picture, widely reprinted, earned photographer Beall a Pulitzer Prize.

Faith and Confidence by William C. Beall for the Washington Daily News. 1958 Pulitzer Prize.

During a Chinese festival, officer Maurice Cullinane stooped down to coax tiny Allen Weaver back onto the curb to avoid the spluttering fireworks. The picture, widely reprinted, earned photographer Beall a Pulitzer Prize.

Tagged