On April 12, the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Feature photography was awarded to Craig F. Walker of “The Denver Post.” As the prize citation notes, Walker won the award “for his intimate portrait of a teenager who joins the Army at the height of insurgent violence in Iraq, poignantly searching for meaning and manhood.”
Winning a Pulitzer is a big deal. There is no doubt that Walker’s work is worthy of recognition. What is more confusing is exactly what makes photography eligible for a Pulitzer Prize, how this relates to digital journalism and how Pulitzer judges chose winning images in relation to online presentations.
This post is about the Pulitzer Prizes in photography — thus “(the New)” I put in the title — and not about whether Walker’s work deserves the prize. I want to make that clear. For more than two years Walker photographed a young man named Ian Fisher as he went from considering joining the military and his induction into the Army through his training — which included a number of personal problems — to his eventual deployment to Iraq and his return to the States.
Not only did Walker photograph Fisher at key moments during a 27-month period, but he recorded his family, friends and many aspects of the modern military not often seen. It is a truly compelling body of work.
The main reason I know that Walker’s body of work is compelling is because of an online, multimedia site hosted by “The Denver Post.” By heading to “Ian Fisher: American Soldier” I was able to delve into Walker’s work far, far more in depth than I could have by merely viewing the 20 images presented in the “Works” section connected to Walker’s citation on The Pulitzer Prizes site.
Confusing Evolutions in Pulitzer Eligibility
I first heard about Walker’s winning work from a post on 10,000 Words. The post’s introduction says: Continue reading “Craig F. Walker Wins (the New) Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography”
