Filipino photographer was a finalist for Pulitzer Prize

Ezra Acayan at work. FACEBOOK

Filipino photographer Ezra Acayan, a member of the “Staff of Getty Images,” was named a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

Acayan’s contribution to the nominated portfolio was a photograph of Filipinos attempting to board their flights out of Manila at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in March 2020 as the pandemic began to place the world on lockdown.

The award ultimately went to Emilio Morenatti of the Associated Press for photography of the pandemic’s impact on elderly people in Spain, the Pulitzer Prizes announced on Friday.

(Acayan’s nominated photo) Airport security staff attempt to control the crowd as Filipinos hoping to get on flights out of Manila hours before it is placed on lockdown queue at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on March 14, 2020. EZRA ACAYAN

Acayan previously documented the plight of the Philippines’s urban poor communities under the Philippine government’s bloody “war on drugs.” His and other photographers’ photos have been exhibited in Geneva for two straight years as part of the Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Acayan is the chair the Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines, an organization of Filipino photographers working for the rights of visual journalists.