Pulitzer’s photography award reveals reality

NEW YORK - Agence France-Presse

Javier Manzano’s picture shows the men gripping assault. rifles. REUTERS photo

An Agence France-Presse freelancer on April 15 won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for a stunning image of two Syrian rebel fighters holed up in a sniper’s nest. The photo, taken last October by Javier Manzano in the war-torn country’s largest city Aleppo, was hailed by the prize committee as “extraordinary.” It was the second year in a row that AFP has won a Pulitzer for photography.

 Manzano’s picture shows the men gripping assault rifles, one of them lining up a shot with his barrel peeking out of the hideout as light beams in at different angles through more than a dozen bullet and shrapnel holes. The men appear isolated in darkness, with only a corrugated tin wall behind them and several large sacks stacked against it and some Arabic writing etched on another wall in front, as the slender shafts of light peer in. “The dust from more than one hundred days of shelling, bombing and firefights hung in the air,” reads the caption on the photo as it appears on the Pulitzer website.