WELL DONE! THE THREE WINNERS OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

The Mumbai Press Club congratulates the three Kashmiri journalists – Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand of Associated Press (AP) – for winning the prestigious 2020 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. The award was given for the trio’s coverage of the Kashmir Valley following the revocation of special status, reorganization of the region as 2 Union Territories and the accompanying clampdown on movement and communications.

The global recognition of the Pulitzer Prize is testimony of the high standards of photo journalism in Kashmir and elsewhere in India; and lengths and risk our colleagues are willing to take to transmit the visuals that tell the story.

The photographs that won them the award capture the faces and conditions of a besieged people under the clampdown which shut movement and communication for the region for a very long spell. They are a counter-narrative to the official version of normalcy and peace.

Information from AP points to the serious risk and challenges under which the three photographers covered the events. Dodging roadblocks, taking cover in homes of strangers’ and hiding their cameras in vegetable bags was their daily routine. With no internet, their photographs of protests and individual tragedy were transmitted via sympathetic travelers who they met near the airport. Carried on memory cards and flash drives, these files would finally make their way to the AP’s office in New Delhi, and then to the rest of the world.

Congratulations once again Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand!

Managing Committee

Mumbai Press Club