The 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners for Photography

This week, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners were announced which included awardees in the Breaking News Photography and Feature Photography categories of photojournalism. Since its inception, the Pulitzer Prizes have helped recognize excellence in many fields, most notably in journalism. The tradition continues this year, with five winners sharing one prize, and both categories sharing a distressing theme.

The Pulitzer Prizes were established in 1917 as set out in the will of pioneering journalist Joseph Pulitzer. The earliest prizes were given in order to encourage excellence in the fields of journalism, letters, drama, education and traveling scholarships. Today, there are 21 categories for the Pulitzer Prizes, with the aim still to recognize excellence in journalism as well as literary and musical composition.

As in the past, this year's awards were given in several categories of journalism, as well as special awards in arts and music. In the field of photojournalism, there are two categories, namely Breaking News Photography and Feature Photography. This year's recognized Feature Photography prize went to Javier Manzano, with the Breaking News Photography prize being shared by five winners, namely Rodrigo Abd, Manu Brabo, Narciso Contreras, Khalil Hamra and Muhammed Muheisen.

While a prize being split among five photographers is in itself a bit unusual, the more important detail for this year's Pulitzer prize-winning photographs is that they are all about the ongoing Syrian civil war. Manzon's image (the cover image above) of Syrian rebels hiding in a storage room covered by a bullet-ridden metal sheet may have won the feature photography category, but the other images are just as telling of the Syrian conflict.

The Syrian Civil War is now more than two years into its ongoing conflict, but news of the violence and death there has somewhat slowed down as of late. These images show that the war is just as deadly as it was when it began. In their citation, the board of judges commended the photographers for "their compelling coverage of the civil war in Syria, producing memorable images under extreme hazard".

The news of these war photographs almost seems to magnify the violence elsewhere in the world. A few days ago, three people died while over 100 were injured in Boston when two bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon. On the same day, 55 people were killed and 300 were injured in a series of bombings in Baghdad. And just a few hours ago, a fertilizer plant exploded in Texas, killing at least 60.

While this week's news is depressing, they offer a stark reminder that violence can be found in any part of the world, and photojournalism's role is to capture these moments not for their entertainment value, but to offer a lesson to future generations in the hopes that these mistakes won't happen again.

The full list of 2013 Pulitzer Prize winners can be found here. The winning photography images can be found in the Breaking News Photography and Feature Photography sections. More information on the individual photographers can be found on their respective websites: Javier Manzano, Rodrigo Abd, Manu Brabo, Narciso Contreras, Khalil Hamra and Muhammed Muheisen.

Robin Hammond: Condemned Mental Patients of Africa

Images of war and conflict have helped sway the opinion of people towards acting for the benefit of the victimized groups. In today's world however, the prevalence of war photographs has become so commonplace that most viewers have become desensitized to these images. This is saddening since a lot suffering still happens even years after armed conflict has passed. In his series entitled "Condemned", Robin Hammond gives a different perspective as a he exposes the cruel treatment of mental patients of Africa.

Robin Hammond is a photojournalist who has worked on human rights issues focusing on East Africa. He had previously traveled to Zimbabwe to document the extreme poverty of mostly everybody there. In the few short months he was in the country, Hammond was imprisoned two times and then deported. While the affair shocked him, he went back to the East Africa for another mission which he discovered serendipitously.

Hammond began his work on the condemned psychological victims when traveled to South Sudan to document the birth of the young nation. During one of his trips, he visited Juba Central Prison. There, he encountered mentally ill patients suffering from the trauma of prolonged war and who were now being neglected for lack of trained medical personnel and proper facilities. It was then that Hammond decided that his mission was to document the condemned mental patients of the region.

According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 3 Somali citizens suffer some form of psychological illness, born out of the years of war, famine and rape. The period of violence and desolation is so long, that an entire generation of Somalis have been born knowing only conflict and suffering. Similar stories can be found in the other neighboring countries of South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, and Congo. When Hammond visited these places, he found men and women who had either lost lost loved ones to armed conflict, or were victims themselves of violence.

 While the physical manifestations of war were easy to see, the mental toll was somewhat harder to document. This was because most mentally ill citizens were locked away from the public. Hammond recounts one of his visits to these victims: "Stepping into Juba Central Prison was like stepping into some kind of Hell. The heat, the stench, and here are these men, many chained to the floor, some naked and covered in flies and excrement... unfortunately, I would discover that this was not a unique case." 

The default solution to the physiologically imbalanced is to chain them up and lock them away. For those still living outside of these prisons, they are tied up to a stick or post, and left their for years and years. In other areas, people resort to religious leaders to cure their family members. These healers use prayer and herbal medicines to treat patients, although many are also chained up during the process. For most families with mentally disturbed children, the only options are to lock them away in make-shift hospitals, hide them from the public, or simply abandon them.

Hammond's photographs reveal the cruel toll of war years after the fact, but his images only cover East Africa. In the next few years, the photographer is looking to expand his documentary to West Africa, specifically Côte d'Ivoire, Chad, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria. In order to fund his project, Hammond is requesting the public to help cover his expenses (pledges can be made here). In doing so, Hammond hopes to increase awareness of the vulnerable people in these countries, which will hopefully lead to positive action.

This is Robin Hammond's website. Those who would like to help fund his continuing reportage of the condemned mental patients of Africa can do so here. He currently has one publication on his previous project entitled Robin Hammond: Zimbabwe: Your Wounds Will Be Named Silence.

Robert Capa: 20th Century War Photographer

Images and videos of war have become more commonplace in today's digital age compared to the situation years ago. It's now possible for ordinary citizens armed with a camera phone to shoot an armed conflict scene, upload it to Facebook or Youtube, and have thousands of views the next day. Decades ago, only a select few has the technology and willpower to do that. Here is the story of 20th century war photographer Robert Capa.

Robert Capa was born Endre Friedmann in 1913 in Hungary. He left the country because of his activist stand against the government and settled in Berlin, finding himself working with photography and art. The rising Nazi threat forced him to move again, this time to France where he changed his name to the more American sounding name "Robert Capa" in order to market his photographs better.

Capa then traveled to Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War, and it was here that he made a name for himself as a war photographer. His famous "Falling Soldier" photograph became an instant classic, although its authenticity would be questioned later on. Capa also traveled to China to document the Japanese invasion there. The photographer was slowly building a name for himself as a photojournalist, but his greatest achievement would happen later on during the Allied liberation of France starting with D-Day.

Some of Capa's most famous war time pictures include his Magnificent Eleven, a series of black-and-white photos showing the American forces landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Capa was in one of the landing crafts together with one of the invading platoons. He shot 106 frames of films that day, and was in London the next day to have his film developed.

The story goes that the darkroom technician assigned to process the film was so excited to see the resulting pictures that he applied too much heat to the film drying process, accidentally melting almost all of the frames. Only 11 images survived, and these precious 11 were among the first pictures of D-Day to be published and seen by the American public.

Capa continued to travel after the war was over, and in 1947, he co-founded Magnum Photos, one of the most prestigious photographic cooperatives in the world alongside other imminent photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson.

While Capa is considered to be one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century, some of his work's  integrity have been questioned, especially with his most famous photo, the "Falling Soldier" showing a Spanish Republican loyalist soldier falling to the ground as he's hit by a bullet (the header image above). When it was first published in Life magazine, it was described as the exact moment of the soldier's death, and quickly became one of the most famous war photographs of its generation.

Recent studies strongly suggest, however, that the scene was staged at a different location far away from the purported battlefield. These studies also invalidate the rest of the photos Capa's took around this time. Despite these recent findings though, Robert Capa's legacy has allowed newer generations of photojournalists to aspire to get closer to the action, because in his words, "If your picture isn't good enough, you're not close enough".

Magnum Photos has more images by Robert Capa. His 20th century war photographs can be found in Robert Capa: The Definitive Collection, Robert Capa at Work: This is War, Blood And Champagne: The Life And Times Of Robert Capa. For a 21st century look at war photography, check out James Nachtwey.

Tim Hetherington: The Face of War

When photography first developed into something portable, documenting the front lines became a reality and war photography became a reality. Nowadays, the world has become saturated with images of armed conflict, so much so that it's not uncommon to find people desensitized by the images. Still, war images have their place in photography, with the likes of Tim Hetherington showing the world the true face of war.

Tim Hetherington got his start in photography when he received £5,000 from his grandmother's will. He didn't use this money for photography equipment, but on travelling abroad; he went to China, India and Tibet learning about the different cultures there. The two years he spent in these countries changed his perspective on life and made him want to record the world that he saw.

He spent the next four years working at odd jobs in order to go to back to college, and spent a year learning photojournalism. He eventually got a job as a staff photographer for The Big Issue. Shorlty after, Hetherington spent much of his time in Liberia and Nigeria, covering the civil war engulfing the region.

In 2007, Hetherington began his series on Afghanistan, specifically in Korengal Valley which was said to be the most dangerous place in Afghanistan during that time. He spent his days with the men of the Second Platoon, Battle Company of the Second Battalion of the US 503rd Infantry Regiment. Hetherington made several trips to Outpost Restrepo together with other photojournalists.

In 2010, released the documentary film, "Restrepo", which depicted what life was like in the Afghan military outpost. It won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2011.

During his lifetime, Hetherington's achievements did not go unnoticed. He won many awards, including the prestigious World Press Photo on different occasions. In 1999, he won the 2nd prize in the Sports stories category for his series on Liberian children using football to provide stability in their lives amidst the civil strife. In 2001, he won 1st prize in the Portraits series for his photographs of students in a Sierra Leone school for the blind. In 2007, he won twice; 2nd prize in the General News stories for his photographs of OP Restrepo (most of the images in this post), and the 2007 World Press Photo of the Year for an image of a soldier resting wearily in the Restrepo bunker (the header image above).

Sadly, Hetherington was killed while covering the Arab Spring uprising in Libya. Another photojournalist, Chris Hondros, also died when they were walking along the front-line together with rebel fighters. Hetherington covered war not because he loved it, but because he felt that he had the responsibility to show the rest of world the violence of armed conflict. His now immortal photographs are a continuing testament to his work.

The Late Tim Hetherington is remembered through his official website and his memorial site. Find the face of war in Tim Hetherington: Infidel, Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold, and Restrepo [Blu-ray].

Sergey Larenkov: World War II Scenes in the Present

The previous feature on the Dear Photograph blog was a nice, happy and nostalgic look at some personal family events in the past as seen in the present. But what about historic world events as seen through the lens of the present? Sergey Larenkov shows how its done by embedding World War II scenes in the present in his blog, "Link to the Past".

Sergey Larenkov is an amateur photographer in name, but his pictures line up with old photographs so perfectly that the term "amateur" doesn't quite cut it. His passion for photography and history led him to travel to different cities in Europe which experienced the heaviest fighting in World War II, looking at scenes in old pictures as his guide and taking the same ones in the present.

Larenkov's labor of love took almost two years as he had to travel to these different locales, and he continues to do so because of the positive responses he's received for his photoblog. Larenkov has visited a number of cities, including Paris, Berlin, Prague, and Leningrad (present day St. Petersburg).

Larenkov was inspired by the stories of his grandparents on both sides who were working or fighting in the beseiged city of Leningrad. This led him to look at old photos of the city blockade, which eventually led him to putting the old in the perspective of the new. After a while, his images of World War II blended into the present went viral.

In order to achieve the desired effect, Larenkov had to travel to the exact spot the original photographs were taken and point the camera at just the right angle. In some cases he had to travel to the area several time to get the best shot, but his hard work paid off as all of his pictures-in-pictures line up perfectly, giving viewers the exact view of the past and the present at the same time.

The passion that Larenkov put into his work contrasts greatly his the subject matter. In many, if not most of his scenes, gunfire, violence, panic and destruction take center stage in the decades-old images, which are then surrounded by peaceful, idyllic, joyful, and even mundane scenes of the present. It's hard to imagine that in some areas today, death was an almost everyday occurrence.

These photographs within photographs are indeed awe-inspiring, but Larenkov created them not just to attract the praise of online viewers, but to remind everyone about the gruesome causes and effects of war, so take your time and look through the images, and give a nod of appreciation to the men and women who laid down their lives for the future generations living in the now.

There's a lot more World War II scenes in the present over at Sergey Larenkov's photoblog, Link to the Past. For a more lighthearted look at pictures within pictures, you might want to check out the Dear Photograph blog.

James Nachtwey: The Shadows of War

The previous post highlighting the 2011 Military Photographer of the Year was a positive look into an industry that's been part of humanity since men first learned to fashion tools and weapons. But don't let that fool you; war has always been a deplorable and gruesome solution for victors and losers alike. A lot of images depicted war are too censored or edited to provide a real glimpse into the violence, but photojournalist and war photographer James Nachtwey sidesteps all of the romanticism of armed conflict and get to the heart of the shadows of war. (WARNING: SOME OF THE IMAGES IN THIS POST ARE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC).

James Nachtwey is one of this generation's most well-known war photographers. His images have been published in Time Magazine, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, and countless other journals and news media. He was a member of the prestigious photography guild Magnum Photos and has received numerous awards for his outstanding work depicting the harsh conditions in conflict-torn countries.

Nachtwey graduated with a degree in Art History and Political Science, but seeing images from the Vietnam War moves him so much that he decided to become a photographer. He worked at different jobs while teaching himself photography, and since the 1980s he has covered wars and famines in South America, Africa, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Since 1984, he has been a contract photojournalist with Time. On most occasions, the magazine sends him on assignment to areas of conflict or distress to cover events that had already been known to the general public (such as the Rwandan Genocide or the Kosovo War). For other stories though (such as the famine in Somalia), Nachtwey financed the trips himself because no magazines or organizations showed enough interest in the story to back him up.

Nachtwey's photographs are eerily intimate; he gets in close to his subjects, but not without their consent. In most cases, he becomes an accepted part of the landscape and situation he's entrenched, becoming a silent but powerful witness to the horrors that humanity can bring on fellow men.

During the few times that he's compelled to speak, Nachtwey is no less convincing than his images. His words are brief, but moving, and always about the deplorable state of his subjects.

Nachtwey's photographs are not beautiful. They depict the worst cases of war, disease, famine and genocide, all of which people would rather not talk about, let alone see, yet they need to be recorded for posterity so that those in power may be moved towards action.

For Nachtwey, the motivation to capture the deeds of war has only gotten stronger over the years. In his own words, "As man has become increasingly civilized, his means of destroying his fellow man have become ever more efficient, cruel and devastating. Is it possible to put an end to a form of human behavior which has existed throughout history by means of photography? The proportions of that notion seem ridiculously out of balance. Yet, that very idea has motivated me."

This is James Nachtwey's website. His 2007 TED Talk is a good way to familiarize yourself about his work in the shadows of war and famine. Some of his images appear in the books, Deeds of War and Humanity in War: Frontline Photography since 1860. His documentary film, War Photographer is also still available.