San Francisco Chronicle staff photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in feature photography for 'Operation Lion Heart.' Above: Saleh Khalaf lost an eye, his right hand, and most of the fingers on his left hand. His intestines were blown out; in the first weeks after the accident, his abdomen was held together by a surgical dressing. Below: From Baghdad to Oakland, Calif., Saleh's father, Raheem, stayed at the boy's bedside, ready with a comforting touch. [Reprinted with permission]

AP, San Franciscan
win Pulitzer Prizes

The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography Monday, 4 April 2005, for staff coverage of the Iraq insurgency over the past year, while a San Francisco Chronicle photographer won the feature photography prize for her heart-wrenching essay on an Iraqi boy who survived a blast in the war-torn nation.

The images that earned AP one of the most prestigious photojournalism awards depicted the human toll of violence on both sides of the Iraq conflict. In one photograph, a group of U.S. Marines huddle over a fallen comrade to pray, moments after he was fatally wounded in a battle with insurgents. Another picture shows the body of 18-month-old Mohammed Saleem in a rough-hewn wooden coffin before being laid to rest in Sadr City.

Several of the pictures represent the life-threatening situations in which photojournalists find themselves while covering the violence Iraq, yet the AP staffers managed to not only survive but triumph, capturing such exclusive images as: Iraqis cheering the deaths of four U.S. contractors, burned alive and strung up from a bridge in Fallujah; insurgents firing mortars against a U.S.-led military offensive; and the streetside execution of an Iraqi election worker in Baghdad.

Members of the prize-winning team are: Bilal Hussein, Karim Kadim, Brennan Linsley, Jim MacMillan, Samir Mizban, Khalid Mohammed, John B. Moore, Muhammed Muheisen, Anja Niedringhaus, Murad Sezer and Mohammed Uraibi. The prize includes $10,000.

Deanne Fitzmaurice of the San Francisco Chronicle won the $10,000 prize for feature photography.

"Operation Lion Heart" depicted the plight of 9-year-old Saleh Khalaf, an Iraqi boy who was severely maimed by an explosion that ripped open his abdomen, tore off his right hand and killed his older brother.

For 15 months, Fitzmaurice and Chronicle staff writer Meredith May followed Saleh — from the moment he arrived for rehabilitiation at Children's Hospital in Oakland, Calif., through his eventual reunion with his family. In her series, Fitzmaurice captured the nuanced emotional and physical journey the boy endured.

Fitzmaurice, 47, a Chronicle staff photographer for 16 years, praised the boy's indomitable spirit.

"Saleh could always laugh, even though he only spoke Arabic at first," she said in a Chronicle story. "We bonded through the photography. I'd shoot pictures, then show him some on the back of the camera, and he'd get so excited." [2005.04] | TOP

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The U.S. Defense Department on 28 April 2005 released hundreds of previously secret photographs of caskets of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, forced to do so by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Pentagon releases pictures
of fallen American soldiers

WASHINGTON (Fotophile.com) — The U.S. Department of Defense on 28 April 2005 released more than 700 images of American soldiers' flag-draped caskets returning to Dover Air Force Base in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Many of the photographs have faces of identifiable personnel blacked out.

Ralph Begleiter, a journalism and political science professor at the University of Delaware, sought public access to the photographs, which were classified as part of the Defense Department's ban on media coverage of returning war casualties from Afghanistan and Iraq.

"This is an important victory for the American people, for the families of troops killed in the line of duty during wartime, and for the honor of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country," Begleiter, also a former CNN Washington correspondent, said in a statement. "This significant decision by the Pentagon should make it difficult, if not impossible, for any U.S. government in the future to hide the human cost of war from the American people."

Begleiter's lawsuit received backing from the National Security Archive and Washington, D.C., law firm Jenner & Block.

"The government now admits it was wrong to keep these images secret. Hiding the cost of war doesn't make that cost any less," archive director Thomas Blanton said in a statement. "Banning the photos keeps flag-draped coffins off the evening news, but it fundamentally disrespects those who have made the ultimate sacrifice."

As of 28 April 2005, 1,748 coalition troops have reportedly died in Iraq. Of those, 1,573 have been American. [2005.04] | TOP

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Photographs from the collection of James Danziger will head to auction at Christie's in London on 18 May 2005. Highlights include Howell Conant's image of Grace Kelly, circa late 1950s, with an estimated sale price of ?800 to ?1,200, and Flip Schulke's 'Mohammed Ali Training Underwater,' (below) circa 1968, with a ?1,000 to ?1,500 estimate. [Courtesy of Christie's Images Ltd.]

Danziger collection goes
to auction in London

LONDON (Fotophile.com) — More than 150 photographs from the collection of James Danziger, former picture editor for The London Sunday Times Magazine and Vanity Fair features editor, will be auctioned at Christie's on 18 May 2005.

Highlights of the collection, assembled over the past 30 years, include images of modern icons James Dean, Elvis Presley, Jackie Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Mick Jagger, as well as important images by many of the great photographers of the last century.

Photographs with top estimates include Flip Schulke's image of Muhammad Ali training under water, which originally appeared in Life magazine (?1,000-1,500) and a print of what might be the last photograph ever taken of Marilyn Monroe before her death in 1962 (?800-1,200). A Herb Ritts image of Cindy Crawford printed on gold paper is expected to draw between ?3,000 and ?4,000.

Several celebrity Polaroids by Andy Warhol, capturing a glimpse into pop stardom, will also be offered. A picture featuring Mick Jagger is expected to draw ?4,000 to ?6,000.

Danziger, who ran U.S. operations for Magnum Photos and founded the eponymous gallery, collected photographs spaning the history of the medium from the 1860s to the end of the 20th century. As such, auction offerings from his collection includes images by Magnum photographers such as W. Eugene Smith, Elliott Erwitt, Eve Arnold, Dennis Stock and Paul Fusco. [2005.04] | TOP

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Doisneau print pulls in
$202,000 at Paris auction

An original print of Robert Doisneau's famed 1950 image of a kissing Parisian couple fetched $202,000 at auction on 25 April 2005, pulling in ten times the estimated sale price.

Auction house ArtCurial Briest Poulain Le Fur said an anonymous Swiss collector purchased the print, which bears Dosineau's signature and stamp on the back.

The iconic B&W "Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville" ("Kiss by the H?tel de Ville") depicts a young couple locked in a passionate, seemingly spontaneous embrace amid a flurry of pedestrians rushing through the streets of Paris. The image has been reproduced on countless postcards and posters, bringing fame to the student couple Francoise Bornet and Jacques Carteaud.

Bornet, 75, who sought royalties from sales of the image, sued the photographer in the early 1990s. The lawsuit forced Doisneau to admit the Life magazine photograph had been staged days after he had spotted the two at a cafe.

Doisneau died in 1994.

Bornet's sale includes only the print. Rapho, Dosineau's former photo agency, holds rights to the images. [2005.04] | TOP

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Johnson wins Santa Fe
Prize for Photography

SANTA FE, N.M. (Fotophile.com) — Eirik Johnson, nominated anonymously by nationally renowned photographers, curators and educators, won the prestigious Santa Fe Prize for Photography 21 April 2005 for his "Borderlands" series.

The prize highlights the work of "an emerging photographer deserving of wider recognition," the nonprofit Santa Fe Center for Photography said in announcing the winner.

"My photographs depict strange and momentary scenes within overlooked landscapes that exist along the fraying edges of the contemporary environment," Johnson said in a statement. "I want viewers to connect with their personal history and remember that in these common places uncommon things take place."

Johnson's photographs of natural spaces marred by human presence in the form of construction, pollution and fire. The collection casts the opposing forces in an epic struggle in which nature nonetheless perseveres, and it subtly calls into question the detrimental effects of civilization.

"These photographs are formally sophisticated, so that the line and frame contribute to a resonating beauty made of the broken, the ugly and the mudane," prize juror Alison Devine Nordstrom, curator of photographs at the George Eastman House, said in a statement.

The award includes $5,000, participation in Review Santa Fe, presentation and publication of the winner's work. [2005.04] | TOP

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