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

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.

Associated Press staff members (from left: Bernat Armangué, Felipe Dana, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vadim Ghirda, Rodrigo Abd and Emilio Morenatti) accept the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography from Columbia University President Emeritus Lee Bollinger. (Diane Bondareff/The Pulitzer Prizes)

Winning Work

Ukrainian emergency employees and police officers evacuate injured pregnant woman Iryna Kalinina, 32, from a maternity hospital that was damaged by a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. “Kill me now!” she screamed, as they struggled to save her life at another hospital even closer to the front line. The baby was born dead and a half-hour later, Iryna died too. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka.)

Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee by crossing the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti.)

Natali Sevriukova reacts next to her destroyed apartment building following a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti.)

An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. On the 7th floor of the building two elderly women Lydya and Nataliya were stuck in their apartment because they couldn’t come down to the shelter. They were killed by this explosion. Two heavily burned bodies were buried by neighbors in front of the building. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka.)

Medical workers unsuccessfully try to save the life of Marina Yatsko's 18-month-old son Kirill, who was fatally wounded by shelling, at a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 4, 2022. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka.)

Lifeless bodies of men, some with their hands tied behind their backs, lie on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. The killing in Bucha was what Russian soldiers on intercepted phone conversations called “zachistka” — cleansing. The Russians hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify potential threats. Those who didn’t pass this filtration, including volunteer fighters and civilians suspected of assisting Ukrainian troops, were tortured and executed, surveillance video, audio intercepts and interviews show. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda.)

Nadiya Trubchaninova, 70, cries while kneeling next to the coffin that contains the remains of her 48-year-old son during his funeral in the cemetery of Mykulychi, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 16, 2022. After word reached her that Vadym, killed by retreating Russian troops, had been found and buried by strangers in a yard in Bucha, she spent more than a week trying to bring him back home to Mykulychi for a proper grave. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd.)

The body of an unidentified man wearing military fatigues lies on a road barrier near a village retaken by Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 1, 2022. (Photo by Felipe Dana.)

66-year-old Volodymyr, injured from a strike, sits on a chair in his damaged apartment in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, July 7, 2022. (Photo by Nariman El-Mofty.)

A dog stands next to the body of an elderly woman killed inside a home in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (Photo by Felipe Dana.)

A woman walks amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd.)

A resident wounded after a Russian attack lies inside an ambulance before being taken to a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (Photo by Bernat Armangue.)

A man runs while recovering items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (Photo by Felipe Dana.)

Anastasia Ohrimenko, 26, is comforted by relatives and friends as she cries next to a coffin with the body of her husband Yury Styglyuk, a Ukrainian serviceman who died in combat on August 24 in Maryinka, Donetsk, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti.)

Bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka.)

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Breaking News Photography in 2023:

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.

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