Five Indian Photographers Win Pulitzer Prize – Burning Issues

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What is the Pulitzer Prize?

The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States.
It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher, and is administered by Columbia University.

Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories.

News agency Associated Press’ photographers Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.

What did they do?

for their “striking images of life” in Jammu and Kashmir after the Centre abrogated the territory’s special status under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

What did they do?

The photographers captured images of protests, the police, paramilitary action and daily life in Jammu and Kashmir after phone and internet services were shut down in August last year, making it difficult for the world to gain access to the region.

How did they do it?

“Snaking around roadblocks, sometimes taking cover in strangers’ homes and hiding cameras in vegetable bags…then headed to an airport to persuade travellers to carry the photo files out with them and get them to the AP’s office in New Delhi,” the news agency described the hurdles of reporting in a statement.

“It was always cat-and-mouse,” Yasin said. “These things made us more determined than ever to never be silenced.”
The journalists were unable for days to go home or even let their families know they were OK.

Anushree Fadnavis and Adnan Abidi “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.’