This Filipina Photojournalist's Work was Nominated for the Pulitzer

Filipina photojournalist Hannah Reyes Morales made it to Pulitzer's esteemed roster of finalists this year. Morales was recognized in the award's Feature Photography category for her compelling work with The New York Times, where she vividly captured the challenging journey of migrants as they trekked northward from Colombia to the U.S. border.

In an Instagram post, Morales expressed her elation and extended her heartfelt thanks to her editors for the opportunity they had given her. She admitted that "it was not the easiest assignment, but those we photographed helped us understand, bit by bit, what it means to be young and reshape Africa and the world."

The story "The World Is Becoming More African" by Declan Walsh, featuring photographs by Morales, shows a transformative period in Africa, primarily driven by its burgeoning youth. This change is making a big impact both within Africa and around the world, especially looking towards 2050.
Born in Manila, Morales says her interest in photography was sparked as a kid by browsing through copies of National Geographic and Life magazines on her mother's old shelf.

"I was maybe too young to really process the text and the information there, but when I was looking through the photos, it made me care about the world in a way that no other medium had ever made me feel," she said in a National Geographic video.

"There's something about photographs that, even if I knew it was far away, I felt that it had something to do with me. And I think that's the power of a still frame. I can stay with it for as long as I want and it doesn't move on. I just always knew that I wanted to engage with the world, and this was one way that I would do it, you know, with a camera in my hand. It became this thing that allowed me to connect."

At 22, she eventually got a grant from National Geographic, which gave her the chance to be mentored by NatGeo photographer Erica Larsen. In a World Press Photo feature, Larsen was quoted as saying that Morales "has a passion for telling stories that not only come from deep inside her but that reflect the world around her. This is the first and most essential quality of a storyteller."

In an interview on The Photographer's Gallery's YouTube Channel, the graduate of the University of the Philippines in Speech Communication revealed that she began to immerse herself deeply in the photojournalism profession when she started documenting the drug war in the Philippines. "...after I had done a few years covering news and I started seeing what was happening and I started seeing also how our country was being portrayed in international news. So I started documenting the drug war back home. I documented in different communities what was going on, the violence that was going on," she says.

"I documented death...the mass incarceration that was happening back home and I started sort of being more conscious that this was how we were being perceived in the media. There was just so much violence, so much so that when I leave the country people think that when they ask me about the Philippines they thought we were tripping over dead bodies," she adds.

It was then that she began to adopt a more deliberate approach to depicting those who appeared before her lens.

Morales' work often shines a light on underrepresented and marginalized communities, documenting their struggles, joys, and daily lives. She probes into human rights issues, the impact of conflict, and the moments of tenderness and connection that persist in challenging circumstances.

Through her photography, Morales aims to tell stories that evoke empathy, raise awareness, and provide nuanced perspectives on the lives of those she photographs, often revealing the strength and beauty that emerge in the face of hardship.