2023 Pulitzers Won by Photos of Ukraine War and Homeless Pregnancy

Columbia University has announced the recipients of the 107th Pulitzer Prizes, including the winners in the two photography categories. The photography staff of Associated Press and photographer Christina House of the Los Angeles Times earned top honors.

Breaking News Photography — Photography Staff of Associated Press

For its unique images from the first harrowing weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the widespread devastation of Mariupol after other news organizations left the city for less dangerous territory, photographers of the Associated Press won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking Photography.

Photographers including Nariman El-Mofty, Felipe Dana, Rodrigo Abd., Bernat Armangue, Emilio Morenatti, Evgeniy Maloletka, and Vadim Ghirda, captured startling photos of the victims of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure. The winning photos show the strength and resilience of Ukrainians in the face of the horrors of war.

Ukrainian photographer Evgeniy Maloletka was also recently honored for his photography of the war in Ukraine by the World Press Photo Contest.

Alongside the winners of Associated Press, there were also finalists for Breaking News Photography in 2023. Lynsey Addario of The New York Times was nominated for her single image of a Ukrainian mother, her two children, and a church member “splayed on the street of a Kyiv suburb after a mortar shell exploded on a ‘safe passage’ route.” Addario’s image demonstrated that Russia was targeting civilians.

Rafiq Maqbool and Eranga Jayawardena of Associated Press were also nominated for their “compelling visual narrative documenting public fury over Sri Lanka’s economic collapse.”

Feature Photography — Christina House of the Los Angeles Times

For her “intimate look into the life of a pregnant 22-year-old woman living on the street” in Los Angeles over a four-year period, photographer Christina House of the Los Angeles Times won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography.

PetaPixel previously featured House’s powerful photo series in mid-2022.

House is a staff journalist with the Los Angeles Times and joined its visual journalism team in 2017 after spending a decade as a freelance photographer. Born and raised in California, House’s love for photography began when she was only seven years old during a visit to her mother’s native country, the Philippines.

House’s previous awards include the 2021 Cliff Edom New America Award and an honor for her work on “Game Changers: A Celebrations of Women in Sports” from the National Press Photographer’s Association.

Her Pulitzer Prize-winning series followed Mckenzie Trahan, 22, as she experienced her pregnancy on the streets with her boyfriend, Eddie, 26. Trahan’s life has been traumatic, and took a hard turn for the worse when she ran away from home at 11. Since then, she has been in and out of juvenile detention centers, prisons, and foster homes. Trahan has racked up three felony convictions as an adult.

The photo series is a tumultuous journey following Trahan on the streets, giving birth to a healthy baby, getting off the streets, adding another criminal charge to her rap sheet, and landing back on the streets.

There’s much more to Mckenzie Trahan and her daughter, Ann, than Mckenzie’s criminal history and experience on the streets of Hollywood. Gale Holland’s story, aided by Christina House’s photography and Claire Hannah Collins’ videography, is an incredibly powerful piece on Mckenzie’s life.

Feature Photography finalists Gabrielle Lurie and Stephen Lam of the San Francisco Chronicle were recognized for their “painstaking documentation of fentanyl addiction” in San Francisco. The Photography Staff of Associated Press were also nominated for their documentary photography of elderly Ukrainians caught in the crossfire of the Russian invasion, who were either too old or unwilling to flee the destructive forces of war.

Additional Pulitzer Prize Winners

The full list of Pulitzer Prize Winners across all 23 categories is available on the Pulitzer Prize website. The winners of each photography category received $15,000 for their victory.