This curation celebrates photojournalistic work published between December 2022 and November 2023. The featured images come from talented and dedicated photographer grantees and reporting partners within the Pulitzer Center network. Their work exposes us to underreported stories from all around the globe. This reporting contributes to strengthening communities, developing solutions, and engaging us to take part in the victories and challenges present in our ever-changing world.
"When a language dies, a culture that made our planet a diverse and precious place also dies. When we talk about linguistics, many theories emerge about how language is born from our perception of the world and how it is linked to our way of thinking.
Iskonawa words have an origin in the Iskonawa thinking and the cognitive relationship with the biodiversity—and we will never know the mysteries of this ancient culture deeply rooted in the forest. This is the impact of portraying this story about a language on the verge of disappearing: languages are essential to communicate but also to understand other worlds."
Florence Goupil
"The Human Cost of Sugar opened my eyes to pay more attention, not just as a filmmaker but also as a woman. Looking at girls with sindoors in their foreheads, girls who are never supposed to become women this soon, hysterectomies of mass villages, and generations of exploitation; I can not have a Kit Kat bar without visualizing their dejected faces."
Meenal Upreti
"Esta historia implicó convivir con los mineros informales. Algunos son evasivos, pero otros quieren mostrar que solo buscan trabajar para mantener a sus familias. La actividad involucra a padres, esposas y hasta hijos, quienes arriesgan sus vidas, pues se exponen a accidentes laborales y ataques armados de otros grupos de mineros.
En un enfrentamiento, ocurrido unos días antes de llegar a la zona, dos hombres perdieron los brazos luego de recibir descargas de dinamita y otros más fueron gravemente heridos. Las autoridades peruanas de justicia y de fiscalización brillan por su ausencia."
"This story involved living with informal miners. Some are evasive, but others want to show that they are only looking to work to support their families. The activity involves parents, wives and even children, who risk their lives, as they are exposed to work accidents and armed attacks by other groups of miners.
In a confrontation, which occurred a few days before arriving in the area, two men lost their arms after receiving dynamite blasts and others were seriously injured. The Peruvian justice and oversight authorities are conspicuous by their absence."
Roberth Orihuela
"The story is a moment of redemption for Judy. She has received so much vitriol from people who have said she enables her adult children and blames her for their addiction.
What they don’t understand is that the true consequences of a tough-love approach, compounded by a history of colonization, can perpetuate harm for Native Families. She did not want to be one more voice telling her children they are not lovable or worthy. The choice for Judy is between seeing her children die alone on the street or continuing to love them through their journey. She chooses love every time.
Her two young grandchildren, whom she raised since they were babies, have been taken away from her because the stigma so often painted across people navigating addiction also adheres to those close to them. We both hope this story will be a catalyst to get them back. It's a rare thing to have someone facing the fentanyl crisis get the opportunity to tell their own story!"
Justin Maxon
"Hauntingly beautiful bleached elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata) stand like ghosts on a Florida reef. Going back to Florida felt like seeing an old friend but I wished it was under happier circumstances. I've spent the past year in California but lived the better part of a decade living in Florida. This was a emotionally difficult story to photograph in my home waters—seeing the stark, white corals takes your breath away and brings tears to your eyes."
Jennifer Adler
"I went to northeast Kazakhstan to try to capture the physical imprint of the cryptocurrency industry. It’s a rugged place, with livid scars from heavy industry—the perfect place to show the weird contrast between the ephemeral digital world and the infrastructure needed to keep it going.
What you find in Ekibastuz and Temirtau—smut-stained streets, belching coal plants and corruption, is as much the story of crypto as the Bahamian luxury lifestyles of the industry’s disgraced wunderkind, Sam Bankman-Fried."
Peter Guest
"Our goal wasn't just to draw readers into the story's violence, but to capture the strengths of this community—their resilience, their pride in their labor, and the bittersweet joy that coexists with fear.
The process was demanding. Protecting the identity of Linda and her family, who fled violence to seek asylum in the US, meant relying solely on evocative imagery to bridge the gap. But through these photographs we aimed to bring listeners closer to Linda and her family, to feel the beauty of their hometown and the chilling touch of loss that drove them away.
By amplifying Linda's story, we hoped to shed light on the complexities of Michoacán, a land where verdant life thrives alongside the scars of violence. It's a story that deserves to be heard, not just for its tragedy, but for the strength and resilience of its people."
Stephania Corpi
reporting partner to Toya Sarno Jordan
"As I've done this work I've learned so much about the city of LA and the state of California: it's toxic attributes, how these places treat the poorest people, the people whose voices and needs are drowned out or ignored in favor of capitalistic complicity, the constant desire to make more money at all costs which has for so long translated to 'drill, baby, drill' in this country.
But what I've learned more than that is how communities come together in the face of cancer, debilitating illness and the exhaustion experienced by the most hard working. This project means an opportunity to celebrate those people who do not define their worth by the money they make but by the lives they positively impact. I have turned my camera toward those who labor tirelessly to see justice realized for all."
Tara Pixley
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Katherine Jossi
Sarah Swan
Daniel Vasta
Elliott Adams
Alonso Balbuena
Fernanda Buffa
Alexandra Byrne
Lucille Crelli
Grace Jensen
Katherine Jossi
Sarah Swan
Daniel Vasta
Alexandra Waddell
Lucille Crelli
Alexandra Byrne
Lucille Crelli
Grace Jensen
Katherine Jossi
Sarah Swan
Dana Thompson
Daniel Vasta
Susan Ferriss
Maseera Khan
Sushmita Mukherjee
Kem Sawyer