Warning: This story contains a graphic image that may cause distress to some viewers.
Columbia University has announced the winners of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize
with Massoud Hossani of Agence France-Presse and Craig F. Walker of the Denver
Post winning the two major photography awards.
Massoud Hossani was awarded the prize for Breaking News Photography for his photo of a young girl, Tarana Akbari, 12, standing among a pile of bodies moments after a suicide bomb exploded at a crowded shrine in Kabul on December 9, 2011.
"I was just looking at my camera when suddenly there was a big explosion,” he told AFP later. “For a moment I didn't know anything, I just felt the wave of the explosion as a pain inside my body. I fell down on the ground.”
"I saw everybody running away from the smoke. I sat up and saw my hand was bleeding but I didn't feel any pain.
"It's my job to know what is going on so I ran in the opposite direction to everybody else.
"When the smoke went away I saw I was standing in the centre of a circle of dead bodies. They were all together on top of each other. I was standing exactly where the suicide attacker had been.
"I was in shock. I didn't know what to do. I just started clicking. I know that I was crying. It was really weird crying, I've never reacted like that before.
"I didn't help anybody, because I couldn't, I was really in shock. I knew I should cover this, record everything, all the pain, the people running, crying, shouting, beating their chests, shouting: 'Death to Al-Qaeda, death to the Taliban!'
"I turned a bit to the right and I saw the girl. When Tarana saw what had happened to her brother, her cousins, uncles, mother, grandmother, the people around her, she was just shouting.
"She did a lot of things, but if you see my pictures she was just shouting. This shocked reaction was the main thing I wanted to capture."
More than 70 people were killed in the explosion that day including seven members of Tarana’s family.
The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography was awarded to Craig F Walker for his photo essay documenting the life of an honorably discharged war veteran, home from Iraq and struggling with a severe case of post-traumatic stress.
It is the second time in three years Walker has earned the Pulitzer
Prize for Feature Photography. His first Pulitzer, in 2010, was for documenting
a young man's journey from high school to becoming a soldier in Iraq.
Tarana Akbari, 12, screams in fear moments after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a crowd at the Abul Fazel Shrine in Kabul on December 06, 2011. 'When I could stand up, I saw that everybody was around me on the ground, really bloody. I was really, really scared,' said Tarana. Out of 17 women and children from her family who went to the shrine that day seven died, including her seven-year-old brother Shoaib, and at least nine were wounded. More than 70 people lost their lives in all. Photo: Massoud Hossani, Agence France-Presse.
Scott says he is deeply concerned about his health and his future. Down 45 pounds from his normal weight he says his appetite and stress are directly related. He said he was anxious to explore a residential PTSD program at the VA Medical Center. "I have to, or I'm gonna end up on the street talking to myself," he said. "We're ending the war in Iraq, so 40,000 more troops are coming home. That means a lot of PTSD and a lot of homeless people. I figure I better get the tools I need to live a peaceful and gratifying life. ... I'm a good person." Photo: Craig F Walker, The Denver Post. www.denverpost.com/welcomehome