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Photographs provide provocative glimpses into people's lives. Stories behind photos - for individuals on both sides of the camera - may reveal much more than a single image can encapsulate. Pulitzer Prize-winning photos receive international attention for their ability to evoke visceral reactions, highlight key events in history, and open eyes to unrealized truths.
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Each year, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs are honored for their intensity, societal insight, and raw emotion
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But while those pictures may provide provocative glimpses into people's lives, the stories behind them reveal much more than any single image could
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So, today we're taking a look at Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs and the stories behind them
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Time to look at these photos. On February 23, 1945, Joseph Rosenthal took a picture of six U.S. Marines as they raised a flag
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on Iwo Jima after taking control of the island from the Japanese forces five days earlier
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The six Marines in Rosenthal's photo are Michael Strank, Harold Keller, Harlan Block
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Franklin Sousley, Harold Schultz, and Ira Hayes. Sadly, Strank, Block, and Sousley later perished
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in action. According to Rosenthal, over the brow of the topmost ridge, we could spy men working with
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the flagpole they had so laboriously brought up about quarters of an hour ahead of us
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The flag was tied to an iron pipe as the Marines struggled to place it atop Mount Suribachi
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As Rosenthal waited for them to swing the flagpole into position, he moved back to the edge of the
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volcano's rim in order to capture all he could with the angle covered by his lens. After he took
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photos, Rosenthal sent his picture to the Associated Press. Under normal circumstances
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Rosenthal's picture would not have been eligible for a Pulitzer until the following year
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But the AP's photo editor, F.A. Resch, sent the photo to a Pulitzer Prize board member
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explaining he felt the material was so outstanding that it merited consideration accordingly
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The first sports-themed Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, Babe Ruth Bows Out, was taken on June 13, 1948
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the day of the Great Bambino's final baseball game. Nathaniel Nat Fine, a photographer for the New York Herald Tribune
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was one of many photographers present for the event. But Fine's picture captured Ruth's emotional emergence from the dugout from a unique perspective
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When Ruth leaned himself on a bat and the thousands of spectators cheered
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Fine moved behind the slugger to seize upon the natural light. He also wanted to include Ruth's uniform number, 3
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which would later be retired by the Yankees and never again worn by a member of the team
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Tragically, the Sultan of Swat succumbed from cancer just two months after the photo was taken
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Taken December 4, 1950, Associated Press photographer Max Desfor's flight of refugees
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across Wrecked Bridge in Korea was just one of the numerous images he captured while covering
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the Korean War. Desfor, who apparently had some serious cojones, had parachuted into North Korea
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alongside American troops And when North Korean and Chinese forces attacked Desfor found himself near Pyongyang surrounded by thousands of fleeing refugees trying to cross the Taedong River
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Daswar later recalled the scene saying, all of these people were literally crawling
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through these broken down girders of the bridge. They were in and out of it, on top, underneath
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and just barely escaping the freezing water. My hands got so cold, I could barely
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trip the shutter on my camera. Luckily, he found a way to snap the iconic image
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The Pulitzer Prize jury found the bridge photo to be especially poignant, praising Desfor and his work for all the qualities which make for
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distinguished news photography, imagination, disregard for personal safety, perception of human interest, and the ability to make the camera tell the whole story
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In May of 1953, Virginia Shaw was on a fishing trip with her family when she witnessed an accident
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on the Pitt River Bridge over Shasta Lake in California that sent the cab of a semi-truck over the edge
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Like at a scene out of a movie, driver Paul Overby and his companion, Hank Baum, were lifted to safety
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by motorists, including Shaw's husband, Walter, only moments before the cab burst into flames
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and fell into the water below. Using a Kodak Brownie camera that contained expired film
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with a mere two exposures remaining, Shaw snapped a picture of the scene
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She submitted the photo to the Sacramento Bee and received $10 in its weekly photo contest
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The picture was then published in the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio and then later picked up by the Associated Press
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Finally, it made its way to the Pulitzer jury who would bestow its highest honor on Shaw
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The win made her only the second amateur photographer to win the Pulitzer Prize in news photography
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and the first woman to ever receive the prestigious award. But since it was the 50s
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the official announcement about her Pulitzer Prize identified her as Mrs. Walter M. Shaw, G
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Banks? Described as poignant and profoundly moving by the Pulitzer Prize
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board in 1955, tragedy by the sea actually captures the emotions of two parents as they realize their child is gone
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Yeah, we had no idea that's what was going on either. On April 2nd, 1954, Los Angeles Times photographer John Elgant
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was in his front yard near Hermosa Beach when his neighbor alerted him to some excitement on the beach
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Gaunt grabbed his camera and headed over, photographing the young couple, the McDonald's
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just moments after their infant son, Michael, disappeared into the surf. Gaunt took four pictures that day, a series of images the Pulitzer Prize jury
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initially ranked number four out of their top five. But the decision was overruled, and the prize was awarded to Gaunt
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The End island in July 1956 it was a shock to both ships and not just a physical one Their radar screens had indicated they would pass each other safely in the fog But instead the hull of the
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Andrea Doria received a 40-foot gash from the Stockholm, prompted the crew and passengers to
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abandon ship. The Andrea Doria fell so far to one side, half of the lifeboats were submerged and
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became inaccessible amid the panic. The collision would ultimately cost the lives of 51 people
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The next day, Harry Trask, photographer for The Boston Traveler, climbed aboard a small
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airplane to catch a glimpse of the sinking ship. Trask struggled with air sickness, but still asked the pilot to make several passes
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He would later recall, As we circled, I could see the ship gradually sinking below the surface
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Debris and empty lifeboats were scattered everywhere. In nine minutes, it was all over
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Trask submitted 16 pictures from his time in the air, with the now famous sinking of
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the Andrea Doria, ultimately selected as the outstanding single picture. Once Fidel Castro and his forces seized power in 1959 during the Cuban Revolution
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they detained hundreds of members of the military and police forces, including Jose Rodriguez
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Rodriguez was a corporal in the army of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, and after appearing
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before a tribunal that deliberated for just one minute, Rodriguez was sentenced to execution by
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firing squad. A priest then gave him his last rites. Due to a stay of execution, however
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Rodriguez would not be slain until the next day. When it was finally carried out, Rodriguez's
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sentence was witnessed by Andrew Lopez, a photographer for United Press International
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One of four pictures submitted by Andrew Lopez, last rites of Jose Rodriguez depicts a priest
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administering the condemned man's last rites. On July 17, 1967, photographer Rocco Morabito
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was driving in Jacksonville, Florida, when he spotted an electric company lineman dangling
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upside down from an electricity pole. The worker, Randall Champion, had been shocked by over 4,100
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volts, which is entirely too many volts, leaving him unconscious and hanging precariously. Morabito
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a photographer for the Jacksonville Journal, took a quick photo and then went to call an ambulance
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just as another lineman named J.D. Thompson climbed the pole and began to give his co-worker
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mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Once he called for help, Morabito continued to take pictures
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finally hearing the words, he's breathing, from the heroic lineman above. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1968, two funerals were held in
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Atlanta, Georgia. One of those was a private service at Ebenezer Baptist
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Church, where photographer Moneta Sleek Jr. took a series of photos for Ebony magazine The picture that would receive the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in 1969 captured King widow Coretta Scott King in a quiet moment of grief holding her young daughter
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Bernice, in her lap. According to the Pulitzer Prize jury, Sleet's picture showed the strength
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of the woman, the comforting of the child, and her dignity in the face of deep personal grief
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Sleet's award was unique because the Pulitzer Prize board would not officially open up journalism
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awards for magazine content until 2016. So how did Sleet win? According to the Pulitzer jury
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although the picture was taken by a magazine photographer, Sleet was acting as part of a
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press pool, and his picture was widely distributed and printed in many American newspapers
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In other words, it was a really good picture. In April of 1969, a group of students took over Willard Strait Hall on the campus of Cornell
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University in Ithaca, New York. As members of the Afro-American Society, the students saw themselves
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as standing up against prejudice and inequity at Cornell and were demanding a separate college
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for black students. When photographer Steve Starr arrived on the scene, he saw a student with a
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rifle inside the building. For the next 34 hours, Starr tried to stay on top of the story. Meanwhile
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the university public relations people, who could smell a PR disaster in the making
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tried to keep the media away. Starr took his award-winning photo after the armed students finally left Willard Strait Hall
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at the end of their 36-hour standoff. The protests had remained peaceful throughout, but the Pulitzer Prize jurors praised Starr
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for photographing an event that marked one of the main turning points in a year of campus turmoil
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Furthermore, the jurors believed that the picture had a major impact on later events
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because it was the first time that campus protests were openly armed
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When photographer J. Ross Bauman covered the Rhodesian Bush War in 1977 for the Associated Press
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he took a series of controversial images that would earn him a Pulitzer Prize for feature photography the following year
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In 1977, Bauman accompanied forces deployed by the white government in what was then called Rhodesia and is now called Zimbabwe
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They were on a mission to weed out anti-government guerrillas. Bauman recalled that they forced all the men in one village
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to line up in push-up stance on the ground for 45 minutes
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Villagers were further subjected to beatings and torture to coerce them to give up any known guerrillas, often to no avail
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The Rhodesian government later confiscated much of Bauman's film, but he managed to hide three roles
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After they were published, Bauman's role in the incident was called into question
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as was the authenticity of his work. But Bauman stood by his photos, and the Pulitzer Prize jurors agreed
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saying the images depicted, one part of a nasty war, the plight of black prisoners
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captured by the Rhodesian army. Bauman was 23 years old when he won the Pulitzer Prize
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for feature photography, making him the youngest individual to ever receive the award
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