Westport native and Staples High School graduate Tyler Hicks has just won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.
He received the award — one of the most prestigious in journalism — for “his compelling pictures that showed skill and bravery in documenting the unfolding terrorist attack at Westgate mall in Kenya.”
The event took place last September. Hicks — a staff photographer for the New York Times who has covered major conflicts around the world, won numerous other major awards, and survived a kidnapping in Libya — now lives in Nairobi. When he heard news of the massacre, he raced to the scene.
The Pulitzer Prize website shows 19 of Hicks’ photos. They include these:
A woman tried to shelter children from gunfire by Somali militants at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in an attack that killed more than 70 people. Tyler Hicks made this photo from a floor above, in an exposed area where the police feared for his safety. (Tyler Hicks, The New York Times – September 23, 2013)
Plainclothes officers rushed into the mall and Hicks accompanied them, knowing well that many terrorists remained inside and fearing not only guns but explosives around every corner. (Tyler Hicks, The New York Times – September 22, 2013)
Terrified Saturday-afternoon shoppers rushed from stores and a casino toward the exits. The police feared that escaping attackers had camouflaged themselves among them. (Tyler Hicks, The New York Times – September 21, 2013)
Tyler Hicks travels the world. He has seen sights, and undergone experiences, that none of us could ever comprehend.
He has recorded them — in all their brutality and gruesomeness — for all the world to see.
It’s a terrible — and terribly important — business. But no one does it better.
My family and I have happily watched the ascendant career of Tyler Hicks and are delighted for him. What a major achievement! Westport natives Lynsey Addario and Spencer Platt are also photographers of the highest caliber in the professional world of photojournalism. Thanks to all of you for bringing the real world to our comfortable lives. Stay safe..