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For a distinguished example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).

Emilio Morenatti of Associated Press

For a poignant series of photographs that takes viewers into the lives of the elderly in Spain struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emilio Morenatti accepts the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography from Columbia University President Lee Bollinger as Pulitzer Prize Administrator Marjorie Miller looks on. (Jose Lopez/The Pulitzer Prizes)

Winning Work

Josefa Ribas, 86, who is bedridden, looks at nurse Alba Rodriguez as Ribas’ husband, Jose Marcos, 89, stands by in their home in Barcelona, Spain, March 30, 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak. Ribas suffers from dementia, and Marcos fears for them both if the virus enters their home. "If I get the virus, who will take care of my wife?"

A woman sits on her balcony in downtown Barcelona, Spain, May 7, 2020. 

Leopoldo Roman, 85, lies in bed wearing a face mask as he waits for doctors during a home medical visit in Barcelona, Spain, April 3, 2020. Roman, whose leg was amputated years ago, has to pay for daily care out of his pension since the public system only provides for a social worker to come for an hour a day, three days a week. 

Nurse Marta Fernandez holds up a tablet computer over the chest of 94-year-old Maria Teresa Argullos Bove so that she can speak to her sister, children and grandchildren from her hospital bed at the COVID-19 ward at the hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 18, 2020.

A patient infected with coronavirus rests in a chair inside an isolated room at the COVID-19 ward of a public hospital in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 18, 2020.

Wearing protective suits to prevent infection, mortuary workers move the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 from an elevator after removing it from a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020.

Residents look at the street through a window at the Icaria nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 25, 2020. 

Francisco España, 60, looks at the Mediterranean sea from a promenade next to the “Hospital del Mar” in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020. Francisco spent 52 days in the ICU of the hospital due to an infection of coronavirus and he has being allowed by his doctors on this day to spend almost ten minutes at the seaside as part of a therapy to recover from the ICU. 

The body of an elderly person is prepared inside a coffin for her funeral at a morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 5, 2020

A woman pushes a cart with her belongings as she walks along an empty street in downtown Barcelona, Spain, March 21, 2020.

The body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 is covered with a sheet on her bed in a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020.

A mortuary worker collects the ashes of a COVID-19 victim from an oven after the remains where cremated at Memora mortuary in Girona, Spain, Nov. 19, 2020. 

Álvaro Puig Moreno watches television while eating a his Christmas Eve dinner at his home in Barcelona, Spain, Dec. 24, 2020. "The solitude gets to me these days, I often feel depressed," Puig said. "These holidays, instead of making me happy, make me sad. I hate them. Most of family has died, I am one of the last ones left. I will spend Christmas at home alone because I don't have anyone to spend them with." 

Mortuary workers take off their protective clothing at the entrance of a building decorated with a Christmas tree, after removing the body of person who is suspected of dying from COVID-19 in Barcelona, Spain, Dec. 23, 2020.

Agustina Cañamero, 81, hugs and kisses her husband Pascual Pérez, 84, through a plastic film screen to avoid contracting the coronavirus at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, June 22, 2020. Even when it comes wrapped in plastic, a hug can convey tenderness and relief, love and devotion. The fear that gripped Agustina Cañamero during the 102 days she and her 84-year-old husband spent physically separated during Spain's coronavirus outbreak dissolved the moment the couple embraced through a screen of plastic film.

Biography

Emilio Morenatti is the Associated Press chief photographer for Spain and Portugal based in Barcelona, Spain.

Morenatti has spent more than 30 years as a photojournalist and documentary photographer and has been based in Afghanistan, Jerusalem, Gaza and Pakistan, covering international events in more than 50 countries.

Morenatti has been recognized with numerous awards for his distinguished work in the field of photojournalism.

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Feature Photography in 2021:

Staff of Getty Images

For thorough coverage of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global community.

Tyler Hicks of The New York Times

For searing images that capture the toll of the coronavirus deep in Brazil’s Amazon, and how it ravaged the region’s indigenous people.

The Jury

Marcia L. Allert(Chair)

Director, Visual Journalism, The Dallas Morning News

Daniel Berehulak*

Photojournalist, Mexico City

Robert Cohen

Staff Photojournalist, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lance Esplund

Art Critic, The Wall Street Journal

Carol Guzy*

Independent Photojournalist, Arlington, Va.

Winners in Feature Photography

Lorenzo Tugnoli of The Washington Post

For brilliant photo storytelling of the tragic famine in Yemen, shown through images in which beauty and composure were intertwined with devastation. (Moved by the jury from Breaking News Photography, where it was originally entered.)

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.)

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.

2021 Prize Winners