Renee C. Byer, left, celebrates her Pulitzer Prize with Cyndie French, one of the subjects of her touching series "A Mother's Journey."A photojournalist who went to school and got her first media job in west-central Illinois won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography, it was announced yesterday.
Renee C. Byer, 48, of the Sacramento Bee, won for her work on "A Mother's Journey," a series published last summer chronicling the final year in the life of a dying boy and his mom.
A graduate of Bradley University, Byer was a staff photographer at the Peoria Journal Star in the 1980s before moving to daily newspapers in Holyoke, Mass., Hartford, Ct., Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash. and Sacramento.
"In presenting the $10,000 feature photography prize to Byer, the judges described her entry as an 'intimate portrayal of a single mother and her young son as he loses his battle with cancer'," writes Bee reporter Dorothy Korber, who also quoted Byer.
"In a situation like this, your instincts as a person are to try to help," Byer said. "But as a journalist, you have to step back and let things unfold as they naturally would. It can be very, very painful.
"I was documenting a story that needed to be told, and it was a gift to be allowed to be there. Throughout, I had a bigger vision that -- because of what I was witnessing -- it would bring hope to other families."
Byer said she saw "A Mother's Journey" as an exploration on several levels: the financial impact on a family struggling with a tragic situation, health care shortages that led to maddening delays, and, finally, the very personal and heartbreaking loss of a child.
One of the first people to congratulate Byer was Cyndie French, the mother whose son Derek passed away.
Here's a link to the Bee story (free registration may be required) --http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/156190.html
Here's a link to a Peoria Journal Star piece -- http://www.pjstar.com/stories/041707/TRI_BCV5LT90.029.php
