Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, by Martha Rial
For her life-affirming portraits of survivors of the conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi.
Martha Rial accepts the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography from Columbia University President George Rupp.
Winning Work
Biography
Martha Rial, age 36, has been a staff photographer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since 1994. Before joining the Post-Gazette, Rial was a staff photographer at the Ft. Pierce Tribune in Ft. Pierce, FL and the Journal Newspapers in Alexandria, VA.
Rial is a graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and later attended Ohio University's School of Visual Communication. Her work has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Chapter of Women in Communication, the Press club of Western Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh's Slack Media Federation.
Finalists
Nominated as finalists in Spot News Photography in 1998:
Jean-Marc Bouju
For his chilling sequence of seven photographs in Zaire depicting rebel soldiers beating and then executing a man believed to be a member of Mobuto Sese Sekos' presidential guard.
Photo Staff
For its committed coverage of the severe flooding that devastated their community.
The Jury
The Jury
Hal Buell(chair )
executive photo editor (retired)
Toren Beasley
photo director
George Benge
executive editor
Andrew F. Costello Jr.
editor
Kim Komenich*
staff photographer
Winners in Spot News Photography
Annie Wells
For her dramatic photograph of a local firefighter rescuing a teenager from raging floodwaters.
Charles Porter IV
For his haunting photographs, taken after the Oklahoma City bombing and distributed by the Associated Press, showing a one-year-old victim handed to and then cradled by a local fireman.
Carol Guzy
For her series of photographs illustrating the crisis in Haiti and its aftermath.
Paul Watson
For his photograph, published in many American newspapers, of a U.S. soldier's body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by a mob of jeering Somalis.
1998 Prize Winners
George Gershwin
Awarded posthumously, commemorating the centennial year of his birth, for his distinguished and enduring contributions to American music.
Linda Greenhouse
For her consistently illuminating coverage of the United States Supreme Court.
Staff
For its comprehensive coverage of a botched bank robbery and subsequent police shoot-out in North Hollywood.


















