Columbia University has announced the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners—and they include Afghan photographer Massoud Hossaini, whose picture of a girl reacting to a suicide bombing took the title in the category of breaking news photography.
Massoud Hossaini’s photos of the carnage following a suicide bombing at a mosque in Kabul were so powerful that The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal all published them on their front pages on December 7. But each ran different images from the same scene.
Massoud, a thirty year-old Afghan photographer, has been reporting on war and developments in his country since 2007. He regularly goes on assignment with foreign troops (American, French and others), and travels to remote villages to show what the war on terror looks like in rural areas of Afghanistan
Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize on Monday afternoon for “Welcome Home: The Story of Scott Ostrom,” which won in the feature category
As a photographer based in Kabul for Agence France-Presse, Massoud Hossaini has seen violence in the past. But never, he said, like the scene he saw Tuesday in Kabul.
Massoud Hossaini was photographing young Afghan Shiites during a procession for Ashura, which marks the death of Shiite Islam’s holiest martyr. Some of those he had photographed recognized him. The 30-year-old photographer, who is Shiite himself, remembered seeing some of them smile.