Finalist: 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.

Nominated Work

A child weeps while on the bus leaving The Covenant School following a school shooting Monday morning in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, March 27, 2023. (Nicole Hester/The Tennessean)

Biography

Nicole S. Hester is a photojournalist from Champaign, Illinois and currently working as a staff photographer at The Tennessean in Nashville. Nicole holds a Bachelor of Science in photojournalism from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. In 2016 she moved to Natchez, Mississippi to become the sole staff photographer for the Natchez Democrat, where she covered daily and breaking news until 2019. While at the Natchez Democrat she won multiple awards for her work, including her coverage of one of the largest dog fighting rings bust in Mississippi history. Her photographs helped to change the state laws on animal cruelty. In 2020 she continued to document through the pandemic and the social upheaval throughout Michigan. Following the protests, she focused on documenting Michigan politics and news for MLive’s statewide team until moving to Nashville Tennessee in 2022 to work at The Tennessean.

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:

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.

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