Pulitzer Prize for Photograp[hy 1948

 
Continuing the list of the winners of

• the Pulitzer Prize for Photography, from inception in 1942; and
• the World Press Photograph of the Year, from inception in 1955.

Year:

1948 

Award:

Pulitzer Prize for Photography 

Photographer:

Frank Cushing of the Boston Traveler 

Photograph:

Boy Gunman and Hostage 

Comments: 

While waiting at a restaurant to take some photographs, on assignment for the Boston Traveler, Frank Cushing heard a police radio that a man was engaging in a gun duel with police and had a boy hostage.  It turned out that the man was himself a teenage boy. 

Two police officers had stopped the 15-year-old boy, Ed Bancroft, to question him about a robbery that had taken place. Bancroft pulled out a gun and shot one of the officers. He then took 15-year-old Bill Ronan hostage and ran into a nearby alley.  

Frank abandoned his assignment and went to investigate the scene.  He calculated which house would give him the best vantage point and knocked on a door.  The owner let him in and Frank made his way to the rear porch and took the photo that won him the Pulitzer. 

Ed Bancroft was eventually knocked unconscious by an officer who had snuck up behind the fence.

Cushing, born in 1915, had left school at the age of 16 to become a messenger for the Boston Traveler.  From there he worked his way up to news photographer, remaining with the Boston Traveler until 1968, his period with that newspaper interrupted only by war service during WW2 as an aerial photographer.  He died in 1975.