The Daily Standard
World News
Francisco España, 60, looks at the Mediterranean sea from a promenade next to the "Hospital del Mar" in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020. Francisco spent 52 days in the ICU of the hospital due to an infection of Coronavirus and he has being allowed by his doctors on this day to spend almost ten minutes at the seaside as part of a therapy to recover from the ICU. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Associated Press photographers awarded the Pulitzer Prize on Friday had dodged tear gas to capture protests against racial injustice and patiently built trust with elderly people to empathetically document the toll of the coronavirus pandemic.
AP's chief photographer in Spain, Emilio Morenatti, won the feature photography prize. Work by 10 AP photographers won the breaking news prize.
"The outstanding work of the AP photography staff in covering racial justice protests and Emilio Morenatti's compassionate, yearlong look at the impact of COVID-19 on the elderly in Spain are two shining examples of what photojournalists strive to do everywhere: use light and shadow to bring knowledge and understanding to all corners of the globe," said J. David Ake, AP assistant managing editor and director of photography.
Traveling by scooter around Barcelona, Morenatti captured images of an older couple hugging and kissing through a plastic sheet, mortuary workers in hazmat gear removing bodies and of people enduring the crisis in isolation.
Agustina Cañamero, 81, hugs and kisses her husband Pascual Pérez, 84, through a plastic film screen to avoid contracting the coronavirus at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, June 22, 2020. Even when it comes wrapped in plastic, a hug can convey tenderness and relief, love and devotion. The fear that gripped Agustina Cañamero during the 102 days she and her 84-year-old husband spent physically separated during Spain's coronavirus outbreak dissolved the moment the couple embraced through a screen of plastic film. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Residents look at the street through a window at the Icaria nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 25, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Mortuary workers take off their protective clothing at the entrance of a building decorated with a Christmas tree, after removing the body of person who is suspected of dying from COVID-19 in Barcelona, Spain, Dec. 23, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
This undated photo shows Associated Press staff photographer Emilio Morenatti. Morenatti won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for a series of images on the COVID-19 pandemic and its toll on the elderly in Spain. (AP Photo)
Morenatti separated himself from his family for months to avoid the risk of exposure as he documented the toll of COVID-19 on the elderly. He credited half the award to his wife, who took care of their children, and the other half to his colleagues.
"I never thought that I could win the Pulitzer, actually, but much less than I could win at using my electric scooter around a few dozen kilometers from my house in Barcelona," he said.
Morenatti is a veteran photographer with wide experience in war zones. He was embedded with the U.S. military in southern Afghanistan in August 2009 when the vehicle he was in was hit by a roadside bomb. His left leg was amputated below the knee.
A protester carries a U.S. flag upside down, a sign of distress, next to a burning building, May 28, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody, broke out in Minneapolis for a third straight night. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
The AP photographers who won in the breaking news category captured the drama and raw emotion of protests that roiled U.S. cities after the May 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man murdered by a Minneapolis police officer.
AP photographers captured close-up images of demonstrators with fists in the air and sometimes violent conflicts with police. One widely published photograph by Julio Cortez on the night of May 28 in riot-torn Minneapolis shows a lone, silhouetted protester running with an upside-down American flag past a burning liquor store.
A protester, center, tries to stop others from attacking a police vehicle during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Los Angeles, May 30, 2020. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Protesters raise their hands on command from police as they are detained prior to arrest and processing at a gas station on South Washington Street, May 31, 2020, in Minneapolis. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
This combination of photos shows Associated Press photographers, top row from left, Marcio Jose Sanchez, Alex Brandon, David Goldman, Julio Cortez and John Minchillo. Bottom row from left, Frank Franklin II, Ringo H. W. Chiu, Evan Vucci, Mike Stewart and Noah Berger. The group was part of an AP team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo)
The ten photographers who won the breaking news prize are freelancer Noah Berger, Alex Brandon, freelancer Ringo H.W. Chiu, Cortez, Frank Franklin II, David Goldman, John Minchillo, Marcio Sanchez, Mike Stewart and Evan Vucci.
"It means the world to me to share this with my colleagues," Minchillo said on Twitter. "I hoped for one Pulitzer in a lifetime of hustling and this is how I wanted it. With my people, on the big story."
The AP also had two Pulitzer finalists in the investigative reporting category and an additional finalist for breaking news photography.
The AP's two finalists in the investigative reporting category were for "Fruits of Labor," a series by reporters Margie Mason and Robin McDowell that exposed widespread abuse in the lucrative palm oil industry, and for reporter Dake Kang and AP staff's reporting on China's early mishandling of the coronavirus and human rights violations against the Uyghurs.
AP's Hassan Ammar, Felipe Dana and Hussein Malla were finalists in the breaking news photography for images of the immediate aftermath of the port explosion that leveled part of Beirut.
This is the second year in a row AP has won the Pulitzer for feature photography. AP last won both photography prizes in 1999.
The news cooperative, which is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, has won 56 Pulitzer Prizes, including 34 for photography.
___
Associated Press writers Deepti Hajela and Donna Edwards contributed to this report.
This undated photo shows the front and back sides of the medal awarded for the Pulitzer Prizes in New York. The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism and the arts will be announced, Friday, June 11, 2021, almost two months later than initially planned due to the pandemic. (The Pulitzer Prizes via AP)
The body of an elderly person is prepared inside a coffin for her funeral at a morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 5, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Wearing protective suits to prevent infection, mortuary workers move the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 from an elevator after removing it from a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A mortuary worker collects the ashes of a COVID-19 victim from an oven after the remains where cremated at Memora mortuary in Girona, Spain, Nov. 19, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Nurse Marta Fernandez holds up a tablet computer over the chest of 94-year-old Maria Teresa Argullos Bove so that she can speak to her sister, children and grandchildren from her hospital bed at the COVID-19 ward at the hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 18, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Leopoldo Roman, 85, lies in bed wearing a face mask as he waits for doctors during a home medical visit in Barcelona, Spain, April 3, 2020. Roman, whose leg was amputated years ago, has to pay for daily care out of his pension since the public system only provides for a social worker to come for an hour a day, three days a week. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A woman pushes a cart with her belongings as she walks along an empty street in downtown Barcelona, Spain, March 21, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A patient infected with Coronavirus rests in a chair inside an isolated room at the COVID-19 ward of a public hospital in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 18, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Álvaro Puig Moreno watches television while eating a his Christmas Eve dinner at his home in Barcelona, Spain, Dec. 24, 2020. "The solitude gets to me these days, I often feel depressed," Puig said. "These holidays, instead of making me happy, make me sad. I hate them. Most of family has died, I am one of the last ones left. I will spend Christmas at home alone because I don't have anyone to spend them with." The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
The body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 is covered with a sheet on her bed in a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A woman sits on her balcony in downtown Barcelona, Spain, May 7, 2020. The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Josefa Ribas, 86, who is bedridden, looks at nurse Alba Rodriguez as Ribas' husband, Jose Marcos, 89, stands by in their home in Barcelona, Spain, March 30, 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak. Ribas suffers from dementia, and Marcos fears for them both if the virus enters their home. "If I get the virus, who will take care of my wife?" The image was part of a series by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Black Lives Matter protester burns a sign outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on July 21, 2020 in Portland, Ore. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Demonstrators vandalize a car as they protest the death of George Floyd, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington, D.C. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A demonstrator hides under a barrier as federal officers release tear gas during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, July 29, 2020, in Portland, Ore. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Police surround demonstrators in Times Square during a protest march, June 4, 2020, in New York. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
An American flag falls from its pole as police attempt to secure the area after protesters set fire to the department of corrections building, Aug. 24, 2020, in Kenosha, Wis. Protests have erupted following the police shooting of Jacob Blake a day earlier. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
New York police officers arrest people inside a vandalized Balenciaga store in New York, June 2, 2020, during street protests over the death of George Floyd. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Protesters gather in front of a burning fast food restaurant, May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody, broke out in Minneapolis for a third straight night. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
A protester raises her fist in the air next to a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, May 30, 2020, during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Police officers and protesters clash near CNN Center, May 29, 2020, in Atlanta, in response to George Floyd's death. The protest started peacefully earlier in the day before demonstrators clashed with police. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Demonstrators protest, June 4, 2020, near the White House in Washington, D.C., over the death of George Floyd. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Bystanders watch as police walk down a street May 28, 2020, in St. Paul, Minn. Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody, broke out in Minneapolis for a third straight night. The image was part of a series of photographs by The Associated Press that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
