Srinagar (J & K): The Pulitzer prizes were announced last night at Columbia University in the United States. And Sana Irshad Mattoo, a young photojournalist from Kashmir has won the coveted award. She will share the prize with three other journalists from Reuters.
“Sana Irshad Mattoo is a photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Kashmir. From ground-breaking news to in-depth storytelling, her work focuses on showing the tension between the seemingly ordinary life and the obvious signs of a dangerous military environment in Kashmir. Her work has been published in many newspapers and magazines around the world. Moreover, her work has been exhibited at various exhibitions and festivals too. She is currently working for Reuters as a multimedia journalist," Sana's Pulitzer introduction read.
Speaking with ETV Bharat, Sana said, "I am feeling very happy. Thank God. This is just the beginning. There is more to come inshaAllah."
"I am taking this award with Danish Sahib. He is not in this world, we are all missing him a lot. If he had been among us, maybe we would have been happier," she said.
Sana is a resident of Srinagar and is a post-graduate in Convergent Journalism from the Central University of Kashmir. Her works have been published in national and international media publications such as Al Jazeera, The Nation, Time, TRT World, South China Morning Post, and Caravan Magazine. In the year 2021, Sana had become the Magnum Foundation's 'Photography and Social Justice Fellow'. She has been working with Reuters for the past two years.
In 2020, three photojournalists from Associated Press, one from Jammu (Channi Anand) and two from Srinagar (Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yaseen), won Pulitzer for covering Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370. This year, Sana Irshad Mattoo is the youngest of them all to receive the prize, along with three other journalists from Reuters.
The three photojournalists from Reuters with whom Sana wants to share her award are photojournalists Adnan Abidi, Amit Dev, and the late Danish Siddiqui. They all have been awarded Pulitzer for feature photography. Siddiqui was killed while covering a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The four-member Reuters team had won the award for photographs of victims of pandemic in India, which balances proximity and destruction.
Read: Slain photojournalist Danish Siddiqui among 4 Indians honoured with Pulitzer Prize
