M’sian-born journalist took Pulitzer-winning photos despite attack by insurgent

Photos from a war zone: This photo by Yam provided by Columbia University shows a military transport plane flying over residents as they gather around an incinerated vehicle destroyed by a US drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan. — AP

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian-born Los Angeles Times journalist Marcus Yam has won the Pulitzer Prize for his photographs of the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan, to Taliban fighters last year.

Yam won the award in the breaking news category.

“A journalist with a warrior’s courage and a poet’s heart, Yam delivered pictures of unspeakable tragedy,” said the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

Marcus Yam

Yam was able to take the photos despite being manhandled by one of the insurgents, said the newspaper. He also overcame the technical hurdles of transmitting images out of a war zone.

It said Yam’s prize was for what the judges described as “raw and urgent images of the United States’ exit from Afghanistan that captured the human costs of the historical change in the country”.

Yam shared the award for breaking news photography with four photographers from Getty Images.

The four won the Pulitzer Prize for their comprehensive photos of the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Yam’s editors said the journalist employed an “almost radical open-mindedness” to capture scenes that epitomised the chaotic end of the United States’ 20-year occupation of Afghanistan.

His award was the 49th Pulitzer Prize for the Times since 1942, including six gold medals for public service.

“You were out there doing amazing things, and what you have done with the photography and the images were so important for the world as the word ‘genocide’ really needs to be said. Your pictorial brings it home,” said Times owner and executive chairman Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong of Yam’s win.

Yam, 38, was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur and became a photographer after leaving a career in aerospace engineering before joining the Times in 2014.

He was previously recognised, among others, with an Emmy Award for news and documentary, World Press Photo Award, Dart Award for Trauma Coverage, Scripps Howard Visual Journalism Award and Picture of the Year International’s Newspaper Photographer of the Year Award.