2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Breaking News Photography

Information for this article came from the Pulitzer Prize media release.

The Pulitzer Prize is one of – if not THE- most coveted awards in journalism. The list of 2009 Prize winners were recently released. Here’s a look at those men and women who earned a Pulitzer in a photographic category:

The criteria for the “Breaking News Photography” category is defined by the Pulitzer committee as “a distinguished example of breaking news photography in black-and-white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album, in print or online or both.” The winner is awarded the Prize and $10,000 US.

Clayson Menthor, 13, holds out a small pot for some beans and rice provided by a church outside Cabaret. (Photo Credit: Patrick Farrel, The Miami Herald, September 10, 2008 via the Pulitzer Prize website)

This year’s winner is Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald for his “provocative, impeccably composed images of despair after Hurricane Ike and other lethal storms caused a humanitarian disaster in Haiti,” according to the Prize media release.

Farrell has been a staff photographer at The Miami Herald since 1987 and is a native of Miami. He graduated in 1981 from the University of Miami with a bachelor’s degree in television and film production. He has won numerous awards including Southern Photographer of the Year and twice named the National Press Photographers Association’s Region 6 Newspaper Photographer of the Year.

In 2008, The Miami Herald sent Farrell to Haiti, which was devastated during the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season. He was in Haiti the night Hurricane Ike, which was the fourth storm to hit Haiti in a month – hit the country. In all, more than 800 Haitians died and more than 1 million were left homeless by the series of storms.