A mother cries inconsolably on her knees over the coffin of her dead son. The sky behind, the precariousness of the ceremony, give the scene even more drama. The image was taken by Argentine photojournalist Rodrigo Abd, and is part of the coverage of the US agency Associated Press (AP) on the war in Ukraine that has just won the Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious in global journalism.
"We saw that woman every day in the improvised morgue, we saw how she recognized the body of her son, we approached to talk to her but she did not want to be portrayed, until she finally allowed us to be with her and her son when in the cemetery," Rodrigo Abd told Clarín Cultura about the scene he captured in Bucha. the town that gained notoriety for the large number of civilians killed.
AP was recognized in the Breaking News Photography category for a set of 15 images taken by a group of 7 professionals from the agency's staff, seven photographers and one photographer, who made daily shipments, at different stages and from different geographical points.
A woman walks among destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
"It is an important recognition for the group that we spent the whole year covering the conflict, from the beginning of the war in Mariupol to Kiev, and also for the people who made it possible, in a place with so many difficulties," said Abd, who highlighted the logistics work, including the Italian cook who worked at the hotel.
Two editors at the agency had the difficult task of selecting just 15 photographs from thousands that were shipped during the first months of the conflict. Among the winners there is another one by the Argentine Rodrigo Abd, and also in Buche, an hour and a half from Kiev.
"I took it from the top of a tank and maybe I should have gotten off to ask the woman carrying that package that looks like a cake in the middle of a street, what she had inside, but there she was walking on the sleet in the middle of the street watered with broken tanks, in the middle of an apocalyptic landscape," Describe your own image.
"It was a very broad, complete and deep coverage, with the wounded, the massacred and the people who had to move," he said about the subject of his work. But at the same time he recognizes that it was a very competitive environment to work in. "It was the most worked coverage in recent years, because of what it means for Europe and the magnitude made it a lot of coverage," he added.
The massiveness of the coverage was not the only mark that distinguished this conflict that paradoxically defines with many restrictions. "What changed for us was to understand the limits imposed by reality, we were able to cover a part, when we had the opportunity to photograph it, because it is being more difficult than ever to move, to the point that nobody could tell the war from the Russian point of view: we did what we could where we were."
The surprise at the recognition is mixed with a certain uneasiness. "Today I feel sad to see that every day things similar to those I saw happen, the bombings of the civilian population, those massacred on one side and the other, and that the drama that not only does not end but seems to be getting worse," he reflects.
Rodrigo Abd shares the award with Emilio Morenatti, Felipe Dana, Evgeniy Maloletka, Nariman El-Mofty, Vadim Ghirda and Bernat Armangue. About 15 thousand dollars and a certificate. Although they have not yet defined who will travel to the awards ceremony at Columbia University.
"I have to see if I can be, because in two months I will be with an old, wooden camera to tell a story two years after the arrival of the Taliban in Afghanistan," said the photographer, who in 2013 had received a Pulitzer for his work in Syria. "But I would like for my daughter who suffers from the distance, that she can understand the passion, why I do this."
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