The Newseum & Beyond

On our free day in DC, we got everyone off to work and to the sitter, then we walked a 10K Volksmarch through the Embassy District.  Most of the embassies we saw were from the Middle East, except for China, Singapore and Austria.  The embassy of the Kingdom of Brunei had the most interesting design.

Since the walk went through the zoo, we were able to meet Cheryl for lunch.       

The next day we met cousins Jean and Ron at the Newseum.  They had not been there before but we knew the museum and the special Photo Journalism exhibit would interest them.  We had forgotten about school field trips.  The lobby was crammed with students from states all over the East.  The building is huge and once we started viewing, the crowded feeling vanished.  Humor is evident throughout the museum including signs representing actual published headlines that decorate the bathrooms.

The 4D movie (seats shake and things feel like they are crawling on you) gave a good history of investigative reporting and photojournalism.  We also saw a brief film on the Photo Journalism prize winning photos of 2013.   The exhibit of last year’s photos was more disturbing for its immediacy.  The few less newsworthy ones brought welcome smiles to our faces.   What makes for a prize winning photo is set forth in the introduction to the exhibit.

Timing is everything and we were fortunate to attend the museum’s interview with the two Pulitzer Prize winners for 2014.  Both are New York Times photographers. Tyler Hicks was living in Kenya near the Westfield Mall when terrorists attacked.  He repeatedly snuck into the mall to capture photographs during the siege.  Hicks spent four hours in the mall at the start of the five day standoff between the terrorists and the army.  His winning photo is of a mother protecting her children.  The woman later saw the published picture and contacted Hicks to tell him that everyone was safe.

He said the mall was fully stripped of goods by the police during the siege who were there to stop the terrorists

Josh Haner spent a year documenting the recovery of a man who lost both legs at the Boston Marathon bombing.  These photos were touching and intimate.

Both men discussed the background of their images and what it is like to win the Pulitzer Prize.

We were invited to ask questions after the presentation and were able to personally speak to the photographers at the end.  A great end to a great day.