Award-winner finds a universal dignity and nobility in her images, far from home
As a kid, Andrea Bruce’s folks uprooted every two years or so, from one small town to another across the United States.
“I was kind of the new kid at every school I went to, and I was very shy. I paid attention to everything that was happening around me. I was very perceptive and quiet,” says the photographer.
Her perceptive and dedicated work for National Geographic and the New York Times in some of the world’s starkest places has been recognized with the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award, named for the Pulitzer-winning AP photographer who was killed in 2014 in Afghanistan.
“Andrea was selected for her empathy, her emotional connection with subjects, and for the dignity that shines through her portfolio,” said the jurors for the $20,000 Niedringhaus prize from the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Bruce, who knew Niedringhaus, says she shares her drive to capture life in places far from the shifting hometowns of her youth. Bruce says she’s always “trying new approaches to get people to pay attention to the world outside of themselves. … It keeps you going, because it’s not an easy goal to accomplish.”
She talks about several of those approaches in our story on three award-winning photographs she took after Hurricane Matthew devastated cholera-stricken rural Haiti in October 2016.
Here’s the full look at Bruce and her mission, but first, here are a few stories you may need to know for your day ahead.
Quick hits
LET THE PEOPLE KNOW: This 1980 decision persuaded a judge to reveal Sean Hannity’s secret conflict-of-interest with President Trump and his lawyer. The key part: “People in an open society do not demand infallibility from their institutions. But it is difficult for them to accept what they are prohibited from observing.” CJR’s Jonathan Peters interviews Rob Balin, the media lawyer who cited that particular case, prompting a devastating revelation for those who follow Hannity, Trump and Hannity’s employer, Fox News.
PARKLAND, THE BOOK: David Hogg and his sister Lauren are writing “#NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line," out June 5 by Random House with an introduction by Emma Gonzalez. In a tweet, David Hogg said he and Lauren will be using the money from the book to “help heal the community.” In related news, Dick’s Sporting Goods, which changed its gun protests after the Feb. 14 Parkland killings, says it will destroy the assault-style rifles and accessories it didn’t sell by the time it stopped sales, the NYT’s Laura M. Holson reports.
MORE ON 'BAR:' Barbara Bush was a political teacher to Laura Bush, who would fill her old spot as White House first lady. One lesson: Don’t be late. The rationale? “You can’t ask people for their vote and then keep them waiting,” Andrew H. Malcolm writes. In recent years, Mrs. Bush, who carried a deep sadness for decades, served as the voice for her husband, who has been stricken with vascular Parkinson’s disease. For years, she also showed her backbone, telling historian Timothy Naftali after one school shooting that she had banned the Bushes from bringing guns into the house.
BEYOND STARBUCKS: Let’s not fool ourselves; this is an “America problem,” writes the Washington Post’s Karen Attiah — and journalists should cover it that way. Pool parties, knocking on a door for directions, walking down a street with Skittles, returning to your own front door or hanging in your own back yard — each situation has prompted white brutality. “Black people in America can be physically eliminated at any time,” Attiah writes, “in any place, for little reason — whether that means being kicked out of stores, suspended from school, priced out of their neighborhoods, locked up in jail or put in the grave.” She ends her essay with these words from Solange Knowles: “Where can we be free? Where can we be safe? Where can we be black?”
SETTLEMENT: The former Playboy model who claims a 10-month sexual relationship with Donald Trump has settled her lawsuit with the parent company of the Trump-friendly National Enquirer, which paid her money for her story before the 2016 election, buried it and had sought to keep her quiet. The settlements means that Karen McDougal is free to tell her story.
HOW NAVIGATING WIKIPEDIA GOT EASIER: Don’t worry, there are still plenty of opportunities to go down rabbit holes, but a “preview” feature activated by hovering gives a quick view of what’s down there. Related: Why Wikipedia did it, and how you’re on Wikipedia sometimes when you’re on another site.
LAUNCHING: Business/tech and general news YouTube channels for the streaming video network Cheddar, dubbed the “CNBC for millennials.” By Sara Fischer of Axios. … Apple is launching a new news subscription service.
FAREWELL: Tampa Bay Times movie critic Steve Persall writes his last star-studded column, and says " I want to declare how cool this job has been outside movie theaters, a professional life (well, most of the time) so packed with once-in-a-lifetime experiences that some happened twice, even five times, like covering the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. A perfect path for someone raised in the projection booths and concession stands of his father’s drive-in and single-screen theaters."
What we’re reading
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TOO MANY MEN: Never has there been such a gender imbalance: 70 million more men than women in India and China. What does that do to a society? That’s what Washington Post foreign correspondents Simon Denyer and Annie Gowen and illustrator Jasu Hu explore. “Beyond an epidemic of loneliness, the imbalance distorts labor markets, drives up savings rates in China and drives down consumption, artificially inflates certain property values, and parallels increases in violent crime, trafficking or prostitution,” Denyer and Gowen write.
IS TWEETDECKING NEXT?: A senior Muslim leader in Egypt has declared a “fatwa” against buying Facebook “likes.” Grand Mufti Shawki Allam says the practice is deceptive, citing Muhammad’s saying, “He who deceives is not of us,” the AP reported. Imagine if Facebook had curbed such practices before Brexit and the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. “Man,” tweeted Amanda Quraishi, a digital strategist in Austin, “where was this guy five years ago?” (Hat tip: Alexios Mantzarlis)
YO POPS!: A journalist’s son tried and tried to tell dad about Kendrick Lamar. “I played you ‘The Blacker the Berry’ and tried showing you how K-Dot not only critiques institutional racism, but also takes a look at some of the hypocrisy he sees in himself and the black community. I wanted you to see that the song (and the album as a whole) was much deeper than you might be able to grasp on a first run-through.” Dad finally listened — after Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for his latest release, "DAMN." By Mat Hooper for Poynter.
ANOTHER THREAT TO COLLEGES?: A 1.4 percent excise tax passed by Congress targets certain universities and may lead to self-censorship. “The urge for elected officials to use them to squeeze First Amendment-protected activity is just too great,” writes Bruce D. Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Similar tries against newspapers in Louisiana and Minnesota have been ruled unconstitutional.
PETS ON POT: As marijuana legalization spreads, veterinarians are seeing more stoned animals. The latest example is about a baked pet raccoon at a fire station. (Note: This tale is not to be confused with the "zombie raccoons" from a week or so ago.)
Not the actual raccoon in question, but we couldn't resist. (Screenshot)
What we’re seeing
How does Google show world searches for resources and information on sexual assault? What places are showing the most searches, and why? On Wednesday, Google released the #MeTooRising platform with these amazing visualizations.
New on poynter.org
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Four things local journalists can learn from this year’s Pulitzer winners, by Kristen Hare.
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How Facebook, in one month, doubled the number of countries using its fact-checking tool, by Daniel Funke
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This year's Pulitzer winer for editorial writing had a personal connection to the issues she was writing about.
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Who reads fact checks and why? Here's what one outlet found out.
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Have a good Thursday.
