Finalist: Adem Altan of Agence France-Presse

For a heartbreaking image of a man clutching the hand of his deceased daughter a day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

Nominated Work

Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake's epicentre, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country's southeast, on February 7, 2023. Rescuers in Turkey and Syria braved frigid weather, aftershocks and collapsing buildings, as they dug for survivors buried by an earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people. Some of the heaviest devastation occurred near the quake's epicenter between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, a city of two million where entire blocks now lie in ruins under gathering snow. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP)

Biography

Adem Altan has been a Turkish photojournalist for the past 40 years and joined AFP 15 years ago.

His production contributed to the overall coverage of Turkey. He made an impressive reportage during the Gezi riots, near Taksim Square in Istanbul in 2013. But it was during the powerful earthquake which took place in January 2023, that he took the photo of a father holding the hand of his dead daughter which symbolised the disaster.

Winners

Prize Winner in Breaking News Photography in 2024:

Photography Staff of Reuters

For raw and urgent photographs documenting the October 7th deadly attack in Israel by Hamas and the first weeks of Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza. Breaking News Photography

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Breaking News Photography in 2024:

Nicole S. Hester of The Tennessean

For a distressing image of a young girl looking out of a school bus in anguish as she is evacuated from the scene of a deadly shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.

The Jury

Sandy Hooper(Chair)

Deputy Managing Editor, Visuals, USA Today

Don Bartletti*

Freelance Photojournalist, Los Angeles

Kyndell Harkness

Assistant Managing Editor of Diversity/Community, Star Tribune, Minneapolis

Danese Kenon

Managing Editor, Visuals, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Emilio Morenatti*

Chief Photographer, Associated Press

Winners in Breaking News Photography

2023

Photography Staff of Associated Press

For unique and urgent images from the first weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the devastation of Mariupol after other news organizations left, victims of the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the resilience of the Ukrainian people who were able to flee.

2022

Marcus Yam of the Los Angeles Times

For raw and urgent images of the U.S. departure from Afghanistan that capture the human cost of the historic change in the country. (Moved from Feature Photography by the jury.)

2021

Photography Staff of Associated Press

For a collection of photographs from multiple U.S. cities that cohesively captures the country's response to the death of George Floyd.

2020

Photography Staff of Reuters

For wide-ranging and illuminating photographs of Hong Kong as citizens protested infringement of their civil liberties and defended the region’s autonomy by the Chinese government.

See All Breaking News Photography

2024 Prize Winners

Explanatory Reporting

Sarah Stillman of The New Yorker

For a searing indictment of our legal system’s reliance on the felony murder charge and its disparate consequences, often devastating for communities of color.

National Reporting

Staff of Reuters

For an eye-opening series of accountability stories focused on Elon Musk’s automobile and aerospace businesses, stories that displayed remarkable breadth and depth and provoked official probes of his companies’ practices in Europe and the United States.

Investigative Reporting

Hannah Dreier of The New York Times

For a deeply reported series of stories revealing the stunning reach of migrant child labor across the United States—and the corporate and governmental failures that perpetuate it.

Commentary

Vladimir Kara-Murza, contributor, The Washington Post

For passionate columns written under great personal risk from his prison cell, warning of the consequences of dissent in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and insisting on a democratic future for his country.

See All 2024 Winners