Congratulations to Daniel

Photo by Daniel Berehulak

Freelance photographer Daniel Berehulak has won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting, for his documentation of the peremptory execution of drug suspects in the Philippines by the Duterte government and associated vigilantes.

If you are someone capable of feeling the content of photographs, these pitiful scenes of violent murder and its aftermath will not be easy to look at. But thanks to photographers such as Daniel Berehulak, such scenes can become immediate for us in our comfortable armchairs, amplifying our understanding without submitting us to the heat, the shouts and screams and shooting, the press of danger, and the night rain. It would seem strange to apply superlatives to pictures of calamities like these. Congratulations to Daniel for an award well-deserved will have to suffice.

Mike
(Thanks to Speed)

P.S. There's an excellent interview with Daniel Berehulak by Jim Colton at PhotoJournal.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Chris Y.: "God help us all...."

Walter Glover: "Please indulge me as I momentarily engage in a spot of uncharacteristic flag-waving as I applaud Daniel Berehulak as living proof that Australians are capable at far more than just sporting success. This is Daniel's second solo Pulitzer prize: his first was for covering the ebola outbreak in West Africa (2015). He was also a Pulitzer recipient 2011 in partnership with Paula Bronstein for portraying the floods in Pakistan. Born in Sydney to Ukrainian immigrants, he is now based in New Delhi."

Darlene: "I shared Daniel's work (and E. Jason Wambsgans') with my students yesterday. Daniel's pictures shocked the students, along with the reality that Daniel is a foreign news photographer covering gruesome human rights atrocities in a land governed by the authority that is responsible for the atrocities. When the slide show was over, I asked if being a photojournalist was a cool job after all; not a sound was heard for what seemed like an interruption in time."

Comments

[Stan B.]

Exceptional work concerning an exceptionally brutal regime.

And before we mount our moral high horse- here in the US, where we don't have a shoot on sight policy, we are once again reinforcing our law enforcement effort of The War On Drugs, without any mention whatsoever of much needed drug programs. This too will result in many an unneeded death- far from the public's eye.

[Richard Tugwell]

I'd certainly like to congratulate Daniel on his skill and, I'm sure, bravery in getting these images. There is a worry though, that this type of work ends up getting "curated" and appearing on fine-art photography gallery walls. The image you chose to illustrate the post is maybe a case in point. I'm not being critical about anyone here - it's just a worry that I have about the nature of photography these days

[Eric Brody]

Real photojournalists, such as Daniel and my friend Jack Dykinga, recently kicked off Facebook (another story), have true courage. They make their images often in the face of real danger, not the imagined danger many of us experience. Those who journey at considerable peril to places far away so that the rest of us can see what is really going on deserve praise and support. Governments, even our own, often want to hide that which makes them uncomfortable. Real photojournalists reveal what needs to be revealed. Hearty congratulations.

[Bruno schlumberger]

Am a bit tired of those long essays on societal tragedies. Images that. Cannot produce bad images!! One of the many few I respect is James Natchey...that is not to say they are bad images but once you have the access its not that difficult!! To reward yourselves with editors who need stuff to be published!Just my opinion!!! Brno Schlumnerger

[Michael Roche]

I'm with Bruno schlumberger on this,it's not as if it has not been widely publicized already as to what is going on in the Philippines.There will always be photo journalists who will rush off to cover atrocities such as this for whatever motives or reasons one can only speculate but submitting the results to win prestigious awards is a bit off-putting,I realise this may not be a popular viewpoint with a lot of readers.

[Rod S.]

If I hadn't seen the photographs I wouldn't have known.

Thanks for sharing Daniel's photography with us.

[Stan B.]

Yes, Bruno- dedicated professionals make it look easy; whether they're cooks, athletes or... photojournalists. Think about it- many people (ie- photographers) often have equal access to much of the world's subject matter.

I for one had the same access to New York City's streets that Gary Winogrand had for much of the last century. And only one of us is rightfully famous for what he was able to achieve with said streets.

[Geoffrey Heard]

Not that difficult, Bruno? Sounds like you have never been near such a situation.

Congratulations to Daniel for showing these atrocities and the most sincere sympathy for the people living in such a situation.

And let us not forget that for a sizable proportion of the population of the USA, people of color and now people who follow the Muslim religion, the threat of murder by police or vigilantes is a reality.

Cheers, Geoff