NEW YORK (AP) — The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs, captured by Associated Press photographers throughout 2023, illuminate the human side of an extraordinary global migration narrative often obscured by a deluge of statistics and political discourse.
In the heart of the Central American jungle, a Haitian woman, fleeing turmoil in her homeland, struggles to cross a river while carrying a young girl on her shoulders. After weeks of desperation, migrants pass a toddler under a web of concertina wire on the edge of U.S. territory. Even before the year began, AP’s journalists recognized that the surging migration through the Americas was a pivotal story. However, to truly convey it, they focused on illustrating that "migration is more than just numbers. It's about people, about the stories that lead them to leave their homelands," said Eduardo Castillo, AP’s news director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
On Monday, eight AP staff and freelance photographers – six from Latin America and two from the U.S. – were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their images documenting the anxiety, heartbreak, and occasional moments of joy that punctuate the migrants' odyssey.
“Put simply, this was AP at its finest – utilizing our global reach and deep expertise to cover a rapidly evolving story with significant impact,” said Executive Editor Julie Pace in a note to the newsroom on Monday.
“It's also particularly gratifying that the Pulitzers have acknowledged AP's work on international migration, as it has been a top global coverage priority for us for several years.” AP was also a Pulitzer finalist in 2019 for its reporting on family separations during the Trump administration.
While the award was in the feature category, Castillo emphasized that the work was part of the daily news coverage. The images, he noted, demonstrate the journalists’ dedication – staff photographers Greg Bull, Eric Gay, Fernando Llano, Marco Ugarte, and Eduardo Verdugo, along with long-time AP freelance photographers Christian Chavez, Felix Marquez, and Ivan Valencia – to connect with migrants. “I would like to thank the people we encountered along the way, the migrants themselves... the individuals who allowed us to accompany them during this tense period of their lives and entrusted us to share their stories,” Bull remarked to other AP staff shortly after the award was announced.
The photos reflect AP's acknowledgment that the escalating migration was garnering increased public and policymaker attention, warranting enhanced coverage. Leveraging its presence across Latin America and along the U.S.-Mexico border, the news agency deployed journalists to document the poverty, violence, persecution, and natural disasters driving the surge of departures and shaping the migrants’ trajectories. The result was a series of “heartrending photographs chronicling unprecedented numbers of migrants in their challenging journey north,” noted Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller in announcing the award.
The images were captured at several pivotal junctures, including the lifting of pandemic-era restrictions last May that had enabled the U.S. to swiftly repel migrants and a significant rise in border arrivals last September that overwhelmed immigration authorities and local communities. Over the past five years, the U.S. alone has witnessed more than 10 million migrants arriving at its borders, many from countries like Venezuela and Ecuador, which had not been major sources of immigration in previous years.
The photographers documented how many of these migrants embark on their journey through the Darien Gap, the thick, roadless jungle separating South and Central America. Other images depict migrants crammed onto a northbound freight train in the dead of night in Mexico as it heads toward the U.S. border, and others in a makeshift camp of brush and branches near the U.S. border.
Collectively, these photos portray one of the most significant narratives of our era, requiring AP photographers spread across multiple countries to work with both great diligence and empathy, noted Ricardo Mazalán, Latin America's deputy director of storytelling and photos. It was their ability to emotionally grasp the experiences of others and connect with the migrants, Mazalán said, “that enabled them to convey the profoundly intimate moments they captured.”