The Associated Press won for a series of graphic and heartbreaking pictures of bloody combat in Iraq Some of the photos had already won prizes. Many were taken at great personal risk to the photographers, including pictures of gunmen executing Iraqi election workers in the midst of morning traffic, and the charred remains of U.S. contractors who had been killed, dismembered, burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.
"These photographers showed extraordinary courage," said AP President and CEO Tom Curley, who celebrated the first Pulitzer AP has won since he became leader of the news cooperative June 1, 2003.
"This is a real testament to the best that AP can be that this prize was won by photographers who came into Iraq on assignment, and five Iraqis who work in the most dangerous place on the earth, to tell the story." said AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll. "Their images have a power that will last through history. When we want to look back at what happened in 2004, we'll look at their images."
The photographers cited were Bilal Hussein, Karim Kadim, Brennan Linsley, Jim MacMillan, Samir Mizban, Khalid Mohammed, John B. Moore, Muhammad Muheisen, Anja Niedringhaus, Murad Sezer and Mohammed Uraibi. An unnamed stringer was credited in the photo package for the picture of a daytime execution of vote workers, with the anonymity due to security concerns.
The Iraqi team included Hussein, Kadim, Mizban, Mohammed and Uraibi. The photographers who were on assignment in Iraq were Linsley, from Jerusalem; MacMillan, who is returning to the Philadelphia Daily News from Baghdad; Niedringhaus from Geneva; and Moore, who has since left the AP. All the Iraqi photographers have been recruited, tested and trained on an ongoing basis by the visiting photographers.
The Iraqi photojournalists risked their lives in frequently dangerous situations to get all sides of the story for the AP and to provide readers, listeners and viewers around the world with a level of access to their homeland unmatched by any other news organization.
As a crowd gathered around the photo desk at AP headquarters in New York on Monday, April 4, to hear an announcement, CEO Curley stood atop a chair beside Executive Editor Carroll to congratulate the staff. "They took some extraordinary pictures, they captured some incredible moments in history and they did it in a way that made all of us proud," he said.
Abbreviated bios Khalid Mohammed, Baghdad, worked with AP for the past two years, spent significant time in Fallujah and at great personal risk, took the photos of the U.S. contractors killed, then dismembered, burned and their charred remains hung from a bridge. Khalid Mohammed said he was threatened immediately after taking the picture and had to escape quickly by car. "I told the driver to keep the engine running, just in case," he said.
Bilal Hussein remained behind in his hometown neighborhood so he could document the events of the battle for Fallujah, obtaining for AP a stunning and exclusive photo showing Iraqi insurgents firing their weapons. When he was forced to flee to Baghdad, his house – and his cameras – were destroyed in the fighting.
Mohammed Uraibi, Baghdad was hired and trained by AP's visiting non-Iraqi photographers.
Samir Mizban and Karim Kadim, Baghdad, navigated the hostile areas in the Iraqi capital, including the Sadr City neighborhood.
Jim MacMillan, a Philadelphia Daily News photographer who is wrapping up a one-year assignment for AP in Iraq at the end of April, has been primarily embedded with U.S. forces, and involved in editing the work of Iraqi photographers from the field. Of the Pulitzer notification, MacMillan said he found out when AP Director of Photography Santiago Lyon sent him an instant message saying he should call New York – now. "I didn't suppose he wanted a call immediately to tell us we lost," MacMillan said.
Brennan Linsley, Jerusalem, was on assignment in central Iraq. On another assignment, he was lightly wounded – scratched by shrapnel.
Muhammed Muheisen, Jerusalem, based in West Bank, was on his first assignment in Iraq.
Murad Sezer, Istanbul, has the versatility to shoot sports, news and feature work, and has been on several tours in Iraq.
Anja Niedringhaus, Geneva-based photographer, has spent many tours in Iraq, and covered the U.S. Marines in their assault on Fallujah.
John B. Moore, who had been based in Cairo, got exclusive access to the U.S. military hospital in Baghdad and took a memorable shot of medics attempting to resuscitate a dying soldier.
On the Net
AP PULITZER HISTORY: http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pulitzer/list.html
PULITZER PRIZE WEB SITE: http://www.pulitzer.org AP IMAGES: http://www.apimages.com
