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The 2001 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, a sequence or an album, Seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500).

The Star-Ledger, by Matt Rainey

For his emotional photographs that illustrate the care and recovery of two students critically burned in a dormitory fire at Seton Hall University.
George Rupp and Matt Rainey

Columbia University President George Rupp (left) presents Matt Rainey with the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

 

Winning Work

The fire at Boland Hall killed three freshmen and injured 58 others including four critically. One of the doors to the third floor still bears evidence of a student's struggle to escape the blaze. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Alvaro Llanos, one of the most seriously injured students, lies in a coma on an operating room table as he awaits a skin grafting on his chin and neck. One of Alvaro's surgeons, Dr. Michael Marano, stands over him as he is prepped for the procedure, the first of many. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

For relatives of the burned it is an agonizingly long wait. Alvaro's father, Alvaro Llanos Sr., endures it all in the hospital's waiting room. Two year earlier, Mr. Llanos was tricken with a disabling stroke. He still uses a cane for assistance. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

While Alvaro continues to linger in a coma, his roommate, Shawn Simons, sees his burned hand for the first time while receiving his daily bath in "the tank." Although he was burned on his hands and face, Shawn's injuries were considered less life-threatening than his roommate's. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Shawn looks at himself as he tries on his custom-made mask, which reduces facial scarring. He find the mask to be tight, hot and scary and decides he will deal with some disfigurement and skin discoloration rather than wear it 12 hours a day. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)
 
Prior to an operation to put pins in his fingers to save his severly damaged joints, Christine Simons comforts her son Shawn before he is taken into the operting room. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)
While Alvaro is still in a coma in the hospital, Shawn is driven home after being discharged. The route home takes him past the dormitory where he was burned. He does not turn to look. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)
 

Weeks after returning home, Shawn is able to button his suit vest as he prepares to go to church. He would have to continue to wear the special gloves to minimize the scarring on his hands. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

While Alvaro struggles, Shawn is making a rapid recovery. He gently kisses his girlfriend Tila's hand as the two visit Alvaro at a family barbeque during the summer. Their relationship survived despite the injuries Shawn suffered in the fire. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

While Shawn is well into his recovery, his roommate Alvaro Llanos is still fighting for his life. Alvaro was burned over 58% of his body. Three months after the fire he stares aimlessly into space as he awakens from a drug-induced coma, his eyes partially sewn shut by the doctors to protect his corneas. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Daisy Llanos, Alvaro's mother, leans in and kisses her son through her face mask as he slowly regains consciousness. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Alvaro takes his first steps since the fire three months ago. He is shaky, and he needs support from burn tech Paul Mellini and physical therapist Roy Bond. This first day he walks five steps. The next day he takes 88 steps. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)
The recovery process is slow and painful. While sitting in his room, a tear falls from Alvaro's eye. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)
 
Alvaro, now an outpatient, waits with his mother for his doctor to examine him. As they wait, it all becomes too much for his mother, Daisy. She slumps in her seat, then suddenly flees the room, leaving Alvaro to face the medical staff alone. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Alvaro and Shawn ordeal has made them closer than ever. They are invited to attend a N.Y. Mets baseball game, and they sit in the dugout as Mets manager Bobby Valentine makes a call. Alvaro, a huge Mets fan, later says he sat in the dugout and imagined climbing the steps and making his way to the plate to take a pitch. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Five months after the fire, Alvaro is able to move under his own power, but he will still have to undergo many surgeries to minimize his scars. As he and Shawn's mom ride an elevator to a suite at Shea Stadium, Alvaro is oblivious to a young girl's stare. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Caring for a person who has been severly burned can be stressful. It all comes to a head one day when Alvaro's mother Daisy helps Alvaro with his bath. The confrontation causes Daisy to retret to her bedroom while Alvaro tries to finish hitching up his jeans on his own. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Burn technician Toni Schmidt gets a hug from Shawn inside the tank room. (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Alvaro's relationship with his girlfriend does not fare as well as Shawn's. Alvaro and his girlfriend, Angie, talk outside her dorm during Alvaro's first visit to the Seton Hall campus since the fire. Angie stuck with Alvaro through eight months of his recovery, but it has finally become too much for her. "I thought we would get married," she says of her relationship with Alvaro, "but now he's not the one... he's not the Alvaro I fell in love with." (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Alvaro stands with Shawn as the candles are lit for Shawn's 19th birthday party. Shawn's mom, Christine, stand by. "I love Alvaro," says Shawn of his friend and former roommate. "Al's going to be all right. I have no doubt. And I'll be right there with him." (Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger)

Biography

Matt Rainey has been a photographer for various New Jersey newspapers since his graduation from The Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He has been taking photos for the Star-Ledger since 1995. He became a staff photographer in January, 2000.

Rainey has traveled around the world for The Star-Ledger, including multiple assignments in Israel and Mexico. He considers the "After the Fire" series his greatest photographic achievement.

Among numerous other awards, Rainey was selected as the 1998 New Jersey Press Photographer of the Year. In 1999 he was the runner-up.

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Feature Photography in 2001:

David Guttenfelder

For his moving photographs of North and South Koreans visiting relatives they had not seen in half a century, and other images generated by the Korean governments' reunification efforts.

Marc Piscotty

For his illuminating images of suburban high school students facing adulthood.

The Jury

Robert Kaiser(chair )

associate editor

Thomas E. Callinan

editor

Martha Rial*

photographer

Will Sutton

deputy managing editor

Charles Zoeller

director, NewsPhoto Library

Winners in Feature Photography

1999

Photo Staff

For its striking collection of photographs of the key players and events stemming from President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky and the ensuing impeachment hearings.
1998

Clarence Williams

For his powerful images documenting the plight of young children with parents addicted to alcohol and drugs.
1997

Alexander Zemlianichenko

For his photograph of Russian President Boris Yeltsin dancing at a rock concert during his campaign for re-election. (Moved by the Board from the Spot News Photography category.)
See All Feature Photography

2001 Prize Winners

Beat Reporting

David Cay Johnston

For his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms.
Breaking News Reporting

Staff

For its balanced and gripping on-the-scene coverage of the pre-dawn raid by federal agents that took the Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives and reunited him with his Cuban father.
See All 2001 Winners