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The 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Feature Photography
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).

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.)

Lorenzo Tugnoli accepts the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography from Columbia University President Lee Bollinger. (Eileen Barroso/Columbia University)

Winning Work

Abdullah Abdul Wahed Mansour, right, stands with his comrades on the front lines of an area called al Zunuj on the north side of the ancient city of Taiz. He lost a leg in a land mine explosion on this front two years ago. The front line that encircles the city has not moved significantly in the past two years. Sporadic gunfire is exchanged, but neither side is seriously pushing to gain territory. (December 31, 2018)

Taif Fares gasps for air in the intensive-care unit of al-Sadaqa Hospital in Aden, Yemen, on May 21, 2018. She was born with a heart disorder and needed constant care. Taif died few days after this photo was taken. (December 31, 2018)
A militiaman occupies a frontline position in the al Zunuj area on the northern side of Taiz. The battle lines encircling the city have not moved significantly in the past two years. The two sides exchange sporadic gunfire, but neither is seriously pushing to gain territory. (December 31, 2018)
A woman walks past a destroyed building in the al Jahmaliya area. The area was heavily damaged during fighting between Houthi rebels and local militias struggling to retake the city. More recently, the area was shaken by fighting among the various militias that now control the city. (December 31, 2018)
A clinic in Aslam, Yemen, is overcrowded with malnourished children. Mothers and children share beds, and sometimes mattresses are added to the floor to accommodate all the patients. (December 31, 2018)
Ayesha Ahmed, 3, is severely malnourished and only weighs about nine pounds. Her family was displaced by a military offensive on the western cost of Yemen. A lot of fighting happened in their village, Tahonan, on the border of Hodeida and Taiz. Nurses were taking care of Ayesha but there were no doctors in al-Sadaqa Hospital, in Aden, Yemen, on May 15, 2018. (December 31, 2018)
Food stands in the Souk al Meleh, in the old city of Sanaa, Yemen. In the capital, Sanaa, as well as in towns across north Yemen, there is no lack of food in the markets. But war and inflation have pushed food costs beyond the reach of many people. (December 31, 2018)
Shakir Jubran al-Musabi, 11, sits inside a hut where a newlywed couple lives in Alraqqah, a remote village in Hajjah province. On April 23, 2018, 20 people at a wedding party died in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels. Shakir and more than 60 other people, mostly children, were injured in the blast. (December 31, 2018)
Students attend class at the Sir Alibdaa school in the al-Thawra hospital neighborhood of Taiz, Yemen. The school is a few yards away from a road exposed to Houthi sniper fire. (December 31, 2018)
Militia members and civilians at the entrance of the military hospital in Mokha, Yemen. The city is a few miles south of a front line in the war between northern Shiite rebels and the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Until last year, the town was ruled by Houthi rebels, but now it is controlled by Saudi-led coalition forces. (December 31, 2018)
 
Marwan Hareb Mohammed Abdullah, 10, is measured at a clinic in Aslam, Yemen. She is malnourished but will not be admitted to the clinic because of her age. In families, girls are often the last to be fed. (December 31, 2018)
A severely malnourished Isam Amar Saleh, 2, is shown in Aslam, Yemen. He comes from Hajour, an area near the border with Saudi Arabia with an active front line. Isam's mother, Taz Taqwa Mohammed Wahaban, is pregnant and malnourished herself. Another of her sons, Jamil, died from malnutrition a few months earlier. (December 31, 2018)
The lucrative business of selling khat, a leafy stimulant chewed by most Yemenis, is in the hands of several criminal gangs that vie for control of the markets in Taiz, Yemen. A young girl was recently injured in a firefight when Ghazwan al-Makhlafi, an 18-year-old militia commander, was battling a rival militia for control of the khat market. Makhlafi, who comes from a powerful Yemeni tribe, is closely related to the commander of a Saudi-supported brigade and the city's intelligence chief. (December 31, 2018)
Mohammed Salim al-Buhar, left, commander of the Shabwani Elite Forces, walks outside a grocery store in the village of Azzan. The village was under the control of al-Qaeda until Buhar’s militia liberated the area in December 2017. His militia is aligned with a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE and is operating in the area in the fight against Al-Qaeda. (December 31, 2018)

Three-year-old Abdo Saleh lies on a cot, unable to walk or speak, as his father, Saleh Abdo Ahmed, watches in the courtyard of the family house in Al Jarb, Yemen. His wife had left a few days earlier because Ahmed did not have the means to save the boy. But a chance visit by a medical worker and the willingness of a nurse at the district's only pediatric clinic to travel to the village and retrieve Abdo may have saved his life. “I was waiting for God's fate,” said Ahmed. (December 31, 2018)

Jameela Abdullah stands at the entrance of a roofless house where her family has been living for two months after they escaped fighting in their village of Al-Jarahi. In southern Yemen, a trickle of Yemeni refugees has grown into a flood, with hundreds abandoning their homes each day. Refugee camps have sprung up across the region, adding pressure on western aid agencies and hospitals while worsening a humanitarian crisis that’s already considered the most severe in the world. Most people were running away from clashes near the strategic port city of Hodeida, under siege by Yemeni forces aligned with a U.S.-backed coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. (December 31, 2018)

Biography

Lorenzo Tugnoli is a photojournalist and a regular contributor to The Washington Post. His work also has been published by several international magazines. He is represented by Contrasto and resides in Beirut.

Tugnoli has extensively covered the Middle East, including living and working in Afghanistan. In 2014, in collaboration with writer Francesca Recchia, he published “The Little Book of Kabul,” a portrait of Afghanistan’s capital through the daily life of artists in the city.

Tugnoli, who was born and raised in Lugo, Italy, is fluent in English and has a working knowledge of Arabic.

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Feature Photography in 2019:

Craig F. Walker of The Boston Globe

For superb photography and sophisticated visual storytelling that brought understanding to the story of a young boy living with a complex developmental disability.

Maggie Steber and Lynn Johnson of National Geographic

For a compelling, dignified photo narrative that provides an intimate look at the youngest face transplant recipient in the U.S.

The Jury

Danese Kenon(Chair)

Director, Photography & Video

J. David Ake

Director, Photography

Jonathan Bachman

freelance photographer, New Orleans, La.

Darcy Eveleigh

photo editor/visual journalist, Glen Ridge, N.J.

Michele McDonald

Photo Editor

Winners in Feature Photography

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.)
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.
See All Feature Photography

2019 Prize Winners

See All 2019 Winners