These are some of the MOST Powerful Images: Moments, the Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographs

When I first started to collect photo books to study I came across “Moments, the Pulitzer Prize Winning Photograph”. The book that I am reviewing here is only updated to the early 2000’s but there are newer releases that continue with the winning images.

This is one of the most powerful collection of images I have ever seen. The moments that are captured are beyond the most powerful things you have seen. You see life, death and everything in between. You are left to read into the images and I found myself being put into some of those situations. This book takes the extra step of adding the stories behind the images which puts everything into perspective for you.

This is not an easy book to look at. When you come up to photos of executions or right before executions, I can’t help but wonder what is that person thinking at that moment. What is anyone really thinking when any of that is about to go down.

A moment captured in a photograph is so much more powerful in many situations than video because it freezes a moment and leaves your mind to figure out what is going on.

With any prize that is given you may find yourself trying to figure out how certain images won. I wonder myself about some of the images but we always have to remember that photography is subjective.

I highly recommend this book for the pure history that it captures. The stories are powerful and moving as well are the images. This is a book I think ever photographer needs to see, even if you head to a book store to flip through it.

Here is the books description from Amazon.

The most arresting photographic images in our history-all the way up to the World Trade Center tragedy and the 2002 war in Afghanistan-come to life in this complete compilation of Pulitzer Prize-winning news and feature photos, along with the stories behind them.
More than 235 prize-winning photographs offer a year-by-year, dramatically visual chronicle of our times. Each beautifully reproduced image is accompanied by key information on how the shot was taken and the stunning story behind it, as told to author Hal Buell by the photographers. An accompanying timeline, placing each photo in its historical context, features yet another 265 photographs.

This unique and moving volume is completely up to date, including the 2000-2001 winners. Recent photos include images of students fleeing Columbine High School and the striking shot of federal agents taking Elian Gonzales from the arms of his relatives at gunpoint.