Four RIT alumni recognized as Pulitzer Prize winners, finalists visiting campus March 19-22

Nine Rochester Institute of Technology alumni have won 13 Pulitzer Prizes in photojournalism.

Four alumni from the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences in the College of Art and Design—each of whom has been recognized as either a Pulitzer Prize winner or finalist in the last decade—will visit the RIT campus March 19-22 for a series of special events that are open to the public.

The visiting alumni are Paula Bronstein ’78 (2011 finalist); David Carson ’94 (2015 winner); Edmund Fountain ’03 (2010 finalist); and David Wallace ’01 (2018 winner).

“These outstanding alumni will provide RIT and the broader community access to acclaimed experts in the fields of visual storytelling,” said William Snyder, professor and photojournalism undergraduate program director and himself a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner.

In addition to visiting RIT classes throughout the week, their schedule includes public talks and a presentation at a multidisciplinary symposium in collaboration with the College of Liberal Arts and the Center for Engaged Storycraft.

• Wednesday, March 20—6 p.m. panel discussion with the Pulitzer Prize-recognized alumni in MAGIC Spell Studios’ Wegmans Theater.
• Thursday, March 21—5:30 to 7 p.m. public program featuring the alumni at RIT City Art Space— the College of Art and Design’s first-floor gallery and community event venue inside Sibley Square, 280 E. Main St. at Liberty Pole Plaza in downtown Rochester.
• Friday, March 22—From 2 to 3:30 p.m., the alumni will share insights into the science, art, craft and ethics of researching, discovering, experiencing, gathering and disseminating a story during a symposium in MAGIC Spell Studios’ Wegmans Theater. Faculty, alumni and students will join the alumni that evening for a 6 p.m. reception at the Joseph M. Lobozzo Alumni House.

Each of the visiting RIT graduates has had an award-winning career in photojournalism.

Paula Bronstein

Paula Bronstein—The 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist has earned numerous awards throughout her long career that spans over three decades. Her expertise is documenting humanity and bringing awareness to issues throughout the world, focusing in many conflict regions. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed photo book Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear, copies of which will be on sale at public events. Bronstein worked as a staff photographer for a number of American newspapers for 15 years before moving in the late 1990s to the Asian region, where she worked with Getty Images as senior staff photographer from 2002 to 2013. In 2011, she and her colleague, Daniel Berehulak, were selected as Pulitzer Prize finalists for their compelling portrayal of the human will to survive as historic floods engulfed regions of Pakistan. Bronstein’s work also has been published globally and exhibited in numerous countries.

David Carson

David Carson—The 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner has worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since 2000. Before arriving in the Midwest, the Boston-area native worked at the Naples Daily News in Florida; the Providence Journal-Bulletin in Rhode Island; and as a freelance photographer in New England. His work has appeared in publications around the world. Carson’s images are featured extensively in the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography that was awarded to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch photo staff. He also has won numerous additional awards for his work over the years. In 2008, his multimedia project, “Reporting for Duty,” following Army recruits through basic training, won a regional Emmy Award for Advanced Media—Interactivity. In 2009, he was part of a team of journalists at the Post-Dispatch whose work was recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting for their coverage of the Kirkwood City Hall shootings. He also is a three-time National Press Photographers Association Region 7 Photographer of the Year.

Edmund Fountain

Edmund Fountain—The 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist is an award-winning editorial photographer specializing in portraiture and documentary storytelling. He grew up in Houston and after graduating from RIT he spent nearly a decade as a staff photographer for the Tampa Bay Times (formerly St. Petersburg Times), covering local, national and international news. He has covered stories in the Middle East, Central America and all over the United States. In 2010, Fountain was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (along with two reporters) for a series of stories from the prior year examining a century of abuse at a Florida reform school. The stories ultimately helped shut down the school and sparked ongoing exhumation work to identify the remains of children buried in unmarked graves on the school’s campus. The remains of several children have since been returned to their families. A decade later, Fountain is still photographing the story. He is a recipient of the Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. His photographs have been honored by American Photography 33; the National Press Photographers Association; the Society for News Design; the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar; Best of Photojournalism and the Florida Society of News Editors. A selection of his photographs can be found in the permanent collection of the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.

David Wallace

David Wallace—The 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner is a senior producer and strategist for documentary video with the Arizona Republic/azcentral.com. Before that, he was a senior staff photographer/multimedia producer with the Arizona Republic. Wallace has served as a news photographer for 18 years, also working at newspapers in Iowa, Florida and Michigan. He has documented issues varying from the U.S.-Mexico border to the environment to child welfare. He was one of the first on the ground following the Yarnell Hill Fire that killed 19 wildland firefighters in Arizona. Among his many multimedia stories, he covered Pope Francis’ inaugural visit to Mexico, disappearing glaciers in Peru, uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation and two Super Bowls. Wallace was one of the primary members of a reporting team from the Arizona Republic that won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for their coverage of the border between the United States and Mexico titled “The Wall.” Specifically, Wallace filmed and edited the majority of the mini-documentaries that were part of “The Wall” project—five of which were part of the Pulitzer entry. More recently, Wallace co-directed a 30-minute documentary about the unnatural ecosystem of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. In 2001, he thru-hiked the entirety of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. Wallace lives in Phoenix with his wife, Laura Segall ’01 (professional photographic illustration), and their three children.

Go to https://events.rit.edu/pulitzer-prize-recognized-alumni-visit for more information.