Feature photography winner now with Rocky

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 8, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  

• 2 Comments
• Email
• Print

Preston Gannaway / Concord Monitor

Loved ones surround Carolynne St. Pierre, stricken with liver cancer. New Rocky photographer Preston Gannaway, while working at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire, won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for her coverage of St. Pierre's final months.

Preston Gannaway

Preston Gannaway won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography Monday - the same day she was scheduled to join the photo staff of the Rocky Mountain News.

Gannaway, 30, was honored for "Remember Me," a project for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire that captured the last months of a mother's life and her family's struggle to cope with her death from liver cancer.

"It's so incredible," Gannaway said by phone from New Hampshire after learning of the prize, journalism's highest honor. "I'm just so amazed that of all the brilliant work people do every day that this would be honored. It's so humbling."

During the nearly two years she worked on the story, Gannaway earned the trust of Carolynne St. Pierre and her family, who hoped the project would help Carolynne's children remember her after she died.

Gannaway joined the family on trips to the beach, the hospital and as Carolynne read to her young son. When Carolynne died at home last February, surrounded by family, Gannaway was there.

Before the award was announced Monday, she spent time with Carolynne's husband, Rich, who joined her at the Monitor Monday afternoon to celebrate with cake and champagne. He brought with him a framed photograph of Carolynne.

It was exactly four years from the day that Carolynne was diagnosed with cancer, Gannaway said.

In the Rocky newsroom, staff applauded as the announcement appeared on the newswire. They were joined by Gannaway's mother, Cantey T. Kelleher, who was in town helping her daughter move.

"I'm just so proud," Kelleher said. "Preston is a quiet, conscientious artist. . . . She's always been very sensitive. She was the right person for this story."

burnetts@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5343

• April 8, 2008

  2:42 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  pablo writes:

  Bravo and welcome to Denver! Bearing witness to one's passing is an honor and privilege that requires personal courage for that family to share through your pictures the passing of their mom and speaks volumes to the human spirit. Your pictures create an indelible imprint between life and art that leave one to ponder the inevitable. Poignant sadness and sorrow and ultimate acceptance of 'what is' captured by your lens connected to your heart. Wonderful stuff deserving of Pulitzer stature that acknowledges the fragility and vulnerability of the human experience. Thank you and them for touching my life and I'm certain many others who watch the slide show!

• April 8, 2008

  5 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  vudumom writes:

  I'll second that.You said it all.

Featured

• 2008 Voter’s Guide

  

  Use our Ballot Builder tool to compare your viewpoints to the candidates.

• A Dozen on Denver

  

  Sandra Dallas wrote 'Lennie's tavern' for our ongoing fiction series. Check it out!

• Rocky Multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on today's events.

• Bronco Dean's rant

  

  Listen to Bronco Dean's totally biased pregame rant about the Broncos-Jaguars game.

• Presidential Elections

  

  See how Colorado counties have voted through the years.

• County election profiles

  

  A look at how residents in each Colorado county may vote.

• A dream fulfilled

  

  A Rocky Mountain News and MediaStorm production

• Latest from Dove Valley

  

  Click for more broncos videos.

• Sam Adams' Open Mic

  

  No. 44 means a lot to Floyd Little