Skip to main content
The 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Feature Photography

Finalist: Lisa Krantz of San Antonio Express-News

For intimate, poetic images that captured the vibrant life of a boy born with an incurable, rare disorder, and his physical, spiritual and emotional journey.

Nominated Work

Rowan Windham entertains himself in Seattle's Hotel Deca in November 2015 before a series of meetings and tests in preparation for a bone marrow transplant at Seattle Children's Hospital. Evenings were spent playing Legos and watching reality television with his mom. Everyday, Rowan would say, "I love my life." (All photos published on November 26, 2017.)

Carrie Windham comforts her son, Rowan, 9, as he sleeps in a hospital room at Methodist Children's Hospital in San Antonio September 2015. Rowan was battling an E. coli infection in his bloodstream, fevers and headaches. Three days earlier, Rowan had participated in the Head for the Cure 5K walk/run for brain cancer research.
Rowan Windham, 8, sings and dances during a rehearsal for Shrek II at Woodlawn Theatre in San Antonio May 2015. One of his main passions was acting even through he often had to endure nine-hour iron infusions at a clinic before going to the theater. Woodlawn Theatre awards a scholarship in his name every year.
Brian Windham holds onto his son, Rowan, as Carrie changes the dressing around his central line at home in New Braunfels, Texas, in June 2016. Rowan had to undergo the painful process of changing the dressings weekly.
Pastor Lisa Allen holds Rowan after he emerges from his church's baptismal pool, pumping his fists in the air at Live the Life Church in San Antonio in January 2016. "Always trust in God and Jesus, and I brought extra towels in case anyone else wants to get baptized today too!" Rowan told the crowd before going under water.
Rowan, unconscious after suffering from a grand mal seizure resulting in severe respiratory distress, waits for a CT scan in the emergency room at Methodist Children's Hospital in San Antonio on Jan. 25, 2016. The seizure occured less than 24 hours after his baptism.
Rowan pouts on the hospital bed as his home nurse, Cindy Buethe, says goodbye. After playing together for much of the afternoon during his stay at Methodist Children's Hospital on Oct. 6, 2015, Rowan didn't want her to leave.
Rowan looks for Bigfoot in the land surrounding Lance and Jessica Mefford's home in Bremerton, Washington, where the Windhams escaped the hotel and hospitals for the weekend. In preparation for the search, the Meffords placed clues indicating Bigfoot had been nearby for Rowan to find and fuel his belief. "You are safe here," Rowan called out to Bigfoot as they walked through the woods. "Brother from another mother, I love you and would never hurt you." Starting to walk quickly toward the safety of the house, Rowan warned the adults, "I think we should go now. We need to leave his territory."
 
Rowan has his head shaved by Lisa Hernandez during the St. Baldrick's Foundation event to help raise money for childhood cancer research at Alamo Beer Company in San Antonio in March 2016. Rowan raised $1,080 for St. Baldrick's through donations that year.
 
Rowan waits with his friend, Charlotte Gabriel, 9, at Dickey's Barbecue Pit, one of his favorite restaurants in San Antonio, for what would be their final play date. Rowan left for Seattle for a bone marrow transplant a few days later. Charlotte is battling leukemia for the second time.
Rowan Windham pulls off electrocardiogram electrodes immediately after finding out he no longer needed them as he neared the end of a stay at Methodist Children's Hospital in San Antonio while battling an E. coli infection in his bloodstream in October 2015.
Rowan and his family, including father Brian, left, and sister, Zo ‘, center, toast as they belatedly celebrate the New Year on Jan. 2, 2016. The family postponed their traditional Christmas celebration because Rowan was in the pediatric intensive care unit as his body fought off a life-threatening bacterial infection, low blood pressure and high fever through the holidays.
After 10 days in the pediatric intensive care unit fighting a severe bacterial infection, Rowan and his mother, Carrie, celebrate New Year's Eve at Methodist Children's Hospital. Carrie made confetti out of construction paper and they made a list of resolutions.
Rowan and his mother, Carrie, touch as her stem cells enter his body through an IV tube (bottom right). There were no matches on the national or international bone marrow registry, so Carrie donated her cells as a half-match for her son. The day before, Carrie told Rowan, "So tomorrow is going to be the best day ever." As excited as Rowan was, he disagreed. "No it's not. The best day ever will be the day I meet God."
Brian kisses Rowan as Brian's stem cells flow into Rowan's body from bag hanging on the IV pole, left, in the pediatric intensive care unit at Seattle Children's Hospital on Oct. 18, 2016. Rowan's body rejected his first bone marrow transplant so his father, Brian, also a half-match, became the donor for a second one. Rowan's body, ravaged by the first treatment, had no immune system of his own. Days before the second transplant, Rowan fell into a coma because of an infection in his cerebral spinal fluid. Despite the second transplant, Rowan died Dec. 15, 2016, at the age of 10 from multiple organ failure and sepsis.
Carrie is comforted by Cindy Buethe, Rowan's home nurse of eight years, at the Windham's home in New Braunfels, Texas on Dec. 29, 2016, as they choose photos to display at Rowan's upcoming memorial service.
Surrounded by the Guardians of the Children, a biker organization in which Rowan was an honorary member, Rowan's casket arrives at the Live the Life Church for his memorial service on Jan. 6, 2017. At left is Jon Hudson, of GenCure, who dedicated his life to getting potential donors for the national bone marrow registry. He became a close friend of the Windham family as they underwent their ordeal.
Carrie visits Rowan's grave near New Braunfels on Mother's Day, May 14, 2017. Carrie had not only lost her son a few months earlier, but her mother also died unexpectedly three weeks before Rowan's death. The night before Mother's Day, Carrie wrote on her blog: "Rowan, I vividly remember you entering this world ... too early, small, weak, blue. But you were such a fighter, such a shining light in this often dark world. In ten years, you taught me a lifetime of lessons. Then, during the biggest battle of your life ... which you still loved, as much as ever ... you were gone in what felt like an instant. 151 days ago, my world turned upside down. I watched you take your last unassisted breaths, and then you left this world, just like you entered it ... too early, small, weak, blue."
Captain Cereal watches a video featuring photos of Rowan while overseeing the Rowan Windham Memorial Cereal Drive for the San Antonio Food Bank at Methodist Children's Hospital on June 9, 2017. About the video Carrie wrote, "He was smiling in every picture, whether he had tubes, needles, lines, or oxygen attached to his little body...those things were outshined by the smile, the smile that so many of the staff at Methodist Children's Hospital helped put on his face, so many times."

Biography

Lisa Krantz is a staff photographer at the San Antonio Express-News in San Antonio, Texas. Her work has been recognized by World Press Photo and Pictures of the Year International (POYi) including the Community Awareness Award and third place Newspaper Photographer of the Year (2010 & 2015). She was part of the Express-News team named as a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Feature Photography in 2015 and has received the ASNE Community Service Photojournalism Award and the Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for Photojournalism twice. NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, PDN Photo Annual, SPJ’s Sigma Delta Chi and the National Headliner Awards have also recognized her work. She is a three-time National Press Photographers Association Region 8 Photographer of the Year.

“A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity,” the story of Hector Garcia Jr.’s struggle with obesity in the last four years of his life, was screened at Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan, France, and exhibited at the Festival della Fotografia Etica in Lodi, Italy. Krantz has a psychology degree from Florida State University and a MA in photography from Syracuse University. Previously she worked at the Naples (FL) Daily News.

Winners

Prize Winner in Feature Photography in 2018:

Photography Staff of Reuters

For shocking photographs that exposed the world to the violence Rohingya refugees faced in fleeing Myanmar. (Moved by the Board from the Breaking News Photography category, where it was entered.) Feature Photography

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Feature Photography in 2018:

Kevin Frayer, freelance photographer, Getty Images

For profoundly moving and historic pictures that portrayed Rohingya Muslims with dignity and grace as they fled ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

Meridith Kohut, freelance photographer, The New York Times

For wrenching images from the streets, homes and hospitals of Venezuela, where government policies have resulted in widespread malnutrition and starvation of children.

The Jury

Sherman Williams(Chair)

Assistant Managing Editor, Visual Journalism

Andrea Bruce

Photographer

Danese Kenon

Deputy Director of Photography for Video/Multimedia

Michele McDonald

Photo Editor

Shazna Nessa

Deputy Managing Editor and Global Head of Visuals

Winners in Feature Photography

2017

E. Jason Wambsgans

For a superb portrayal of a 10-year-old boy and his mother striving to put the boy’s life back together after he survived a shooting in Chicago.
2016

Jessica Rinaldi

For the raw and revealing photographic story of a boy who strives to find his footing after abuse by those he trusted.
2014

Josh Haner

For his moving essay on a Boston Marathon bomb blast victim who lost most of both legs and now is painfully rebuilding his life.
See All Feature Photography

2018 Prize Winners

Investigative Reporting

Staff of The Washington Post

For purposeful and relentless reporting that changed the course of a Senate race in Alabama by revealing a candidate’s alleged past sexual harassment of teenage girls and subsequent efforts to undermine the journalism that exposed it.
See All 2018 Winners