Malaysian-born photojournalist Marcus Yam Pulitzer Prize for Afghanistan coverage

SHAH ALAM - Malaysian-born Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent and photojournalist Marcus Yam has won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography.

He won the coveted award for his compelling coverage of the fall of Afghanistan to Taliban last year. “It is remarkable that he won journalism’s highest honour in his first year as a foreign correspondent.

“This Pulitzer is the culmination of all the great work Yam has produced over the last seven years at the Los Angeles Times,” said the Time’s Executive Director of Photography Calvin Hom.

Hom said when the United States government announced that it would pull American troops out of Afghanistan, Yam believed it would not end well and needed to be on the ground covering it from the start till end.

e said the team trusted him and knew he would produce stellar work.

Yam arrived on Aug 14, 2021 the following day and saw Afghanistan fell to Taliban within hours, which according to Hom, despite being a surprise to many was not for Yam.

“He did not only suspected this might have happened but was already thinking of what would come next - the stories of the Afghan people affected by this takeover,” he said.

Yam stayed on in Afghanistan for the next two months pursuing a number of human interest stories even as other Western news organisations left the country due to security issues.

Meanwhile, the Times owner and executive chairman Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong praised Yam, saying that he was doing “amazing thing” out there.

“The photography and images were so important for the world as the word ‘genocide’ really needs to be said. Your pictorial brings it home,” he was quoted saying.

Yam, 38, was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur and became a photographer with Times in 2014 after leaving a career in aerospace engineering.

He was previously recognised among others with an Emmy Award for news and documentary, World Press Photo Award, Dart Award for Trauma Coverage, Scripps Howard Visual Journalism Award and Picture of the Year International's Newspaper Photographer of the Year Award.

Yam is the first Malaysian-born journalist to ever win a Pulitzer for photography and becomes the sixth Los Angeles Times journalist to win a Pulitzer for the photography categories.

Yam shared the award for breaking news photography with four photographers from Getty Images, who won for their comprehensive photos of the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.