Finalist: Lynsey Addario of The New York Times

For her single image of a Ukrainian mother, her two children and a church member splayed on the street of a Kyiv suburb after a mortar shell exploded on a “safe passage” route–a photograph that clearly showed that Russia was targeting civilians.

Nominated Work

Ukrainian soldiers attempting to aid a family moments after they were hit by a mortar round while fleeing the suburb of Irpin, seeking safety in Kyiv. Tetiana Perenyibis and her children Mykita and Alisa were killed. Anatoly Berezhnyi, a church volunteer who was helping to usher the family to safety, was also killed in the strike. A steady stream of Ukrainian civilians made their way over a footpath beside the blown-up Irpin Bridge to try to escape fighting in the suburbs to the northwest of Kyiv as the Russian army advanced toward the capital. Mortars fired from Russian positions targeted the area of the bridge. (March 6, 2022)

Biography

Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist, who has been covering conflict, humanitarian crises and women’s issues around the Middle East and Africa on assignment for The New York Times and National Geographic for more than two decades. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Ms. Addario has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Darfur, South Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Syria and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

In 2015, American Photo Magazine named Ms. Addario as one of five most influential photographers of the past 25 years, saying she changed the way we saw the world's conflicts.

Ms. Addario is the recipient of numerous awards, including a MacArthur fellowship. She was part of the New York Times team to win a Pulitzer Prize for overseas reporting out of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and she won the Overseas Press Club's Olivier Rebbot Award. She also has two Emmy nominations. She holds three honorary doctorate degrees for her professional accomplishments from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bates College in Maine and the University of York in England.

In 2015, Ms. Addario wrote a New York Times best-selling memoir, “It’s What I Do,” which chronicles her personal and professional life as a photojournalist coming of age in the post-9/11 world. In 2018, she released her first solo collection of photography, “Of Love and War,” published by Penguin Press.

Winners

Prize Winner in Breaking News Photography in 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. Breaking News Photography

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Breaking News Photography in 2023:

Rafiq Maqbool and Eranga Jayawardena of Associated Press

For a compelling visual narrative documenting public fury over Sri Lanka’s economic collapse, including clashes between protesters and police, the takeover of government buildings and jubilation as protesters occupied the plush presidential mansion.

The Jury

Cathaleen Curtiss(Chair)

Interim Director of Photography, The Buffalo News

Don Bartletti*

Former Photojournalist, Los Angeles Times

Kyndell Harkness

Assistant Managing Editor, Diversity and Community, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn.

Sandy Hooper

Deputy Managing Editor, Visuals, USA Today

Ryan Christopher Jones

Photojournalist, Somerville, Mass.

Winners in Breaking News Photography

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.

2019

Photography Staff of Reuters

For a vivid and startling visual narrative of the urgency, desperation and sadness of migrants as they journeyed to the U.S. from Central and South America.

See All Breaking News Photography

2023 Prize Winners

Editorial Writing

Miami Herald Editorial Board, for a series written by Amy Driscoll

Editorials on the failure of Florida public officials to deliver on many taxpayer-funded amenities and services promised to residents over decades.

Criticism

Andrea Long Chu of New York Magazine

For book reviews that scrutinize authors as well as their works, using multiple cultural lenses to explore some of society’s most fraught topics.

Commentary

Kyle Whitmire of AL.com, Birmingham

For measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama's Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments–and through the history that has been omitted.

Investigative Reporting

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For sharp accountability reporting on financial conflicts of interest among officials at 50 federal agencies, revealing those who bought and sold stocks they regulated and other ethical violations by individuals charged with safeguarding the public’s interest.

See All 2023 Winners