Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist to speak on campus

Update: Carol Guzy’s March 8 talk has been postponed. Carol is going on assignment to cover the war in Ukraine The talk will be rescheduled at a later date.

By Bryan Hay

Carol Guzy, the only photojournalist to win four Pulitzer Prizes, will present From War to Backyard Wonders: A Pandemic Diary March 8 at 7 p.m. in Colton Chapel.

Born in Bethlehem, Guzy graduated in 1978 with an associate degree in registered nursing from Northampton Community College. A change of heart led her to study photography at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where she received an applied science associate degree in photography in 1980.

Working for many years as staff photographer at the Miami Herald and later for The Washington Post and specializing on long-form documentary human-interest projects, she received her first Pulitzer in 1986 when she and a colleague shared the spot news photography award for their Miami Herald coverage of a mudslide in Armero, Colombia. In 1995, Guzy won a second Pulitzer for spot news photography for her Washington Post coverage of a military intervention in Haiti.

A third Pulitzer came in 2000, a feature photography award, which she shared with two other Washington Post photographers who covered a refugee camp during the Kosovo crisis. The fourth was awarded for Guzy’s breaking news photography when she and two other Washington Post staff photographers traveled to Haiti to document the destruction caused by a massive earthquake there.

Now working for ZUMA Press as an independent photojournalist and contract photographer, Guzy also has received three photographer of the year honors from the National Press Photographers Association and eight from the White House News Photographers Association.

David Shulman, David M. ’70 and Linda Roth Professor of Sociology, who helped arrange Guzy’s visit to campus, says he’s always thinking about inviting speakers who can inspire and teach the students in his classes.

“Carol is somebody who worked at the Miami Herald and The Washington Post,” he says. “She has been a documentarian of huge aspects of the human condition all over the world. She was there when travel opened between East and West Germany. She was in Kosovo and documented the devastation after Hurricane Katrina. 

“She captures history visually, to accompany stories that cue people into things that go on all around the world. She’s a really important chronicler of human events,” he adds. “Through her lens, Carol can show you some of the worst things that can happen to people, and always with empathy.”

Adam Atkinson, director of photography and video in the Communications Division, who will introduce Guzy, says that her four Pulitzers should provide more than enough incentive for people to attend her presentation.

“That’s all most people need to hear to know that the person they’re going to meet is going to be someone incredible with incredible stories, stories that are hard to hear, stories that will shake you,” he says.

In photography circles, there’s often an affinity for photographers who have been at it for generations and have witnessed the worst the world has to offer and seemingly don’t take that pain home with them, he says.

“It’s that sense of separation that we mistake for bravado or strength,” Atkinson notes. “They’re brave, but Carol does take it home with her. Everything she’s witnessed, she’s absorbed, and she keeps going back to tell the stories that no one else can tell. To me, that’s strength.”

Guzy’s visit is sponsored by the Departments of Anthropology and Sociology, History, Government and Law, Film and Media Studies, International Affairs, Art, and Religious and Spiritual Life.

Selections from Carol Guzy’s War to Wonders series