Ryan Kelly had been working all day, covering the events in Charlottesville, when he heard a car rev its engine and then saw it speed by him. He did what any photojournalist would do: Raise his camera, pointed, and shot. The image he captured on Aug. 12, 2017, was an image that took the world’s breath away. Kelly won a Pulitzer Prize for the shot that symbolizes the town’s worst day: A gathering of white nationalists and the killing of a young woman who came to protest them.
Ryan Kelly shot his Pulitzer Prize-winning news photograph on his last day on staff at the Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia. Now he does social media for a brewery. https://t.co/QUPvVNeu9z
— Alex MacPherson (@macphersona) April 18, 2018
In the photograph, you see the car hitting the crowd, and human bodies hang in the air. Glasses, cellphone and shoes are all suspended in the momment. It appears that the photo offers a wrenching glimpse of Heather Heyer’s last seconds before she was killed, writes The Post.
Kelly told The Post that he still knows very little about the people in the picture, and does not know the extent of their injuries or even their names.
Ryan Kelly’s photograph from The Daily Progress may become an iconic image of the #Charlottesville violence https://t.co/Xy7RgzgbLy pic.twitter.com/ugkDx84HCx
— Al Tompkins (@atompkins) August 12, 2017
“It’s still hard to look at,” said Kelly a year later, according to The Post. “So much is contained in that moment.”
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