Pulitzer Center Update

Pulitzer Center Grantee Paula Bronstein Wins 2017 World Press Photo Award

February 13, 2017 | Awards
By
Arthur Jones II
Najiba holds her nephew, Shabir, who was injured from the same bomb blast that killed his sister. Najiba watched over the children while Shabir’s mother buried her daughter. Image by Paula Bronstein. Afghanistan, 2016.

Najiba holds her nephew, Shabir, who was injured from the same bomb blast that killed his sister. Najiba watched over the children while Shabir’s mother buried her daughter. Image by Paula Bronstein. Afghanistan, 2016.

“The Silent Victims of a Forgotten War,” a photo taken by Paula Bronstein in her Pulitzer Center-supported work on War Wounded in Afghanistan, won first prize in World Press Photo's 2017 photo contest in the Daily Life category.

Bronstein’s work covers the violent conditions in Afghanistan and the growing conflict in the Middle East. World Press Photo awarded Bronstein, a former awards judge for the site, for her picture documenting the life of an Afghan woman in Kabul holding her niece, who was injured by a bomb blast, while her sister was burying her other daughter that was killed by the same bomb. The ongoing conflict in Afghanistan has been at its deadliest rate in almost 15 years, and Bronstein's photo speaks to how difficult the war has been for women and children. In 2015, the number of Afghans killed and wounded surpassed 11,000 with casualties among women spiking up 37 percent and injuries to children up 14 percent.

For more on this year's award-winning photography of Bronstein visit the World Press Photo website.