The war in Gaza and migration were the recurring and main themes in the works Pulitzer Prize winners this year, which this Tuesday, May 7, they announced their winners. Two Colombian photographers –Fernando Llano and Iván Valencia-, as part of a team of eight photojournalists from the AP agency, were awarded in the category of best graphic report. for the monitoring they did of migrants going from the south of the continent (Venezuela and Colombia, some from Haiti), crossing Mexico and finally arriving at the border with the United States.
Along with the Colombians, photographers Eduardo Verdugo, Christian Chávez, Félix Márquez, Marco Ugarte, Eric Gay and Gregory Bull were awarded. They were all under the direction of the Mexican Ricardo Mazalan.
Photographer Fernando Llano has worked with the AP agency since 1999.
Photo:Courtesy
“I was for a week on the border of Mexico with Texas (United States), on the banks of the Rio Grande (or Bravo). It was very shocking to see how people, entire families, jumped into the river to be able to cross. But this is a complicated river because when you least think it grows and takes away whatever is there,” Fernando Llano, an experienced Colombian photojournalist, who began his career at this publishing house and who is linked to the news agency, told EL TIEMPO. AP since 1999. With this medium he spent 18 years in Venezuela and has already been in Mexico City for four.
Iván Llano, a journalist from the AP agency, was at the Darién plug, recording the drama of the migrants.
Photo:Courtesy Iván Llano – AP agency / Pulitzer Prizes
“Getting to that point is seen as a desperate measure,” says Fernando, “but everyone agreed that they wanted to have a better future. I talked to many people, most of them were Venezuelans. When I was in EL TIEMPO I learned to talk to people, to be respectful.”
Photographer Iván Valencia was at the Darién plug.
Photo:Courtesy
The selection process was a daunting challenge handled by a group of AP editors. The Pulitzer-winning report is made up of 16 images that reveal the heartbreaking drama of migrants and some moments of their daily lives. In that week he was at the border, Llano was able to take about 350 photos. “Many of the ones I liked were left out; for example, those with barbed wire full of clothes, toys, bags, blankets. They caught my attention because everything that was hanging there was like a metaphor for those people’s dreams.”
Another Colombian was a Pulitzer finalist
The Colombian Federico Ríos – also a former EL TIEMPO reporter – was selected among the finalists for the prestigious Pulitzer in the category of best international reporting. for his immigration coverage – along with reporter Julie Turkewitz – on the Darien Gap for The New York Times. The jury defined it as “an immersive and ambitious work of migratory purgatory” that is experienced in the jungle enclave between Colombia and Panama.”
Here the winner was the same New York Times but for its “extensive and revealing coverage of the deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7”, as well as for its information on “the overwhelming and deadly response of the Israeli army.” Reuters, meanwhile, won the breaking news photography award for its “raw and urgent” coverage of the October 7 attack and the Israeli response.
AFP’s Adem Altan was a finalist in the same category for his work following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey in February 2023. In Altan’s nominated photo, a father is seen holding his daughter’s hand deceased, whose arm barely protrudes from the rubble. There was a special mention that recognized “journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza.”
“This is undoubtedly a very important award and not at all expected, in my case. I couldn’t believe when they called me to let me know. It is like the Oscar of journalism,” Llano points out.
Sofia Gomez G.
Culture TIME
With information from AFP
