2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
First Place: Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The Mara 18 gang member Nelson Roldales "Largo" in Colonia del Cerrito Lindo in San Pedro Sula
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Unknown woman found without documentation and sesinada several shots in the colony University. San Pedro Sula
Javier Arcenillas
First Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The district of the Rivera Hernandez is one of the hottest in the gang violence that exists in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the Maras are the ones who rule the streets. Emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from elsewhere capture control or command of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all young people in the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of territory.
Javier Arcenillas
Second Place: Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Suruz Ali (age 25) sits in his non-paying sick ward at the National Institute of Diseases of Chest and Hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 8 November 2014. He has been in hospital for the last six months and has been suffering TB since 2012. He takes medicine home to be cured from MDR TB (Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis), but he did not continue to take it. Now he has returned to this hospital. Tuberculosis (TB) is a worldwide public health problem. The incident of TB is much higher in developing countries such as Bangladesh. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 570000 people are currently suffering from TB disease in Bangladesh. Every year more than 300,000 people develop TB and 66,000 TB-related deaths occur in Bangladesh. Every day patients get admitted in TB Hospital (NIDCH) National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital in Dhaka and sometimes they have to wait a long time for a bed to become available. Across the country, every day, nearly 50 patients come to meet the doctors in this hospital. Drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) is increasingly spreading from person to person in places around the world, with some countries reporting up to 35% of new TB cases as multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB). Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) has now been reported in 100 countries, accounting for an estimated 9% of all MDR-TB cases. Globally, access to proper treatment is drastically low: only one person in five with MDR-TB receives treatment; the rest are left to die, increasing the risk to their families and communities and fuelling the epidemic.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Rabin (12 years old) is from Barishal and has been suffering from TB for 3 months, receives daily injections and has tube put into infected lung to drain that.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
RUBIA (age 35) was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB) 6 months ago and now she is in MDR TB (Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis) stage.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Family members receive dead body of Saidul (35) who suffered from Tuberculosis for the last two years in a hospital in Dhaka.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Tuberculosis patients play ludo games at National Institute of Diseases of Chest and Hospital in Dhaka.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Patients' X-ray plate dying at the corridor of the TB hospital in Dhaka.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Tobacco use has also been found to increase the risk of developing active TB. Over 20% of TB cases worldwide are related to smoking.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Sukur Miah(45) sits in hospital bed, suffering from acute breathing problem.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Samsul Haque(60) has been suffering from TB for the last four years. He lives at a slum in Gandaria, Dhaka and has three children.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Workers at a local garbage dump, who scavenge for trash that they can sell, try to put out a fire so they can continue working. Local NGOs say that there is a huge problem with TB among the workers in the dumping ground, as well as the families that live near it, owing it poor nutrition and hygiene, which can make them more susceptible to developing active TB.
Probal Rashid
Second Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
ZAKIR HOSSAIN(30) has been suffering from TB for the last two years, lays on the floor of a hospital bed in Dhaka.
Probal Rashid
Third Place: Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Series chronicling daily life in North Korea. School girls perform a song during an accordion class, Thursday, May 7, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The Pyongyang School Children's Palace is a place where talented school children go for extracurricular classes, and is one of the places tourists visit during their stay in Pyongyang.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Commuters ride on a city trolley bus, Friday, Sept. 11, 2015 in Pyongyang, North Korea. The city trolley is one of the more common forms of public transportation among North Koreans living in Pyongyang.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
A North Korean boy takes a picture of his family at the Moranbong or Moran Hill, Sunday, May 3, 2015 in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
North Korean girls in similar bathing suits stand under a shower at the Songdowon International Children's Camp, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, in Wonsan, North Korea. The camp, which has been operating for nearly 30 years, was originally intended mainly to deepen relations with friendly countries in the Communist or non-aligned world. But officials say they are willing to accept youth from anywhere - even the United States.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
North Koreans look at paintings on display, Sunday, July 26, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The art exhibition comprised of works by different local artists on the life of North Koreans during the Japanese occupation and before their country's liberation from the Korean War.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
In this photo taken Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014, a North Korean bride and groom pose for a photograph at the Moranbong hill where they went to take wedding pictures, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The couple, Ri Ok Ran, 28 and Kang Sung Jin, 32, were married Saturday after dating for about two years.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
North Korean women who work at the Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang textile factory spend their free time in a sauna at their dormitory in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, July 31, 2014. This is the country's largest textile factory with 8,500 workers, where 80 percent of them are women.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
In this Friday, May 8, 2015 photo, portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il, right, glow on the facade of a building as dusk descends upon Pyongyang, North Korea. In Pyongyang, commercial advertisements are rarely seen in public, but portraits of the late leaders and propaganda slogans are a common sight on buildings and along the streets.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
North Koreans play an arcade game at the Kaeson Youth Amusement Park, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
In this Monday, May 4, 2015, photo, a staff member coaches a North Korean man at a shooting arcade, one of the more popular tourists sites in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
In this Tuesday, May 5, 2015, photo, a man sits in front of portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il, right, as he uses his smartphone in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korean officials have unveiled a mobile-friendly online shopping site.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Third Place - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
A vase of flowers, seen from a hotel window, overlooks the Taedong River, Monday, Oct. 12, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea.
Maye-E Wong / Associated Press
Honorable Mention: Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Evan, 14, and Holden,10, are brothers. Both have been diagnosed with autism. While the current reported rate for having a child with autism is 1 in 64, that rate rises to 1 in 4 when you have a sibling with the disorder. While the autism aggravates their relationship, it also pulls them closer. They understand each other in a way that no one else can.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The two brothers snuggle with their mom while they watch the movie Elf.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Not everything is about their autism; its sometimes just about being siblings. The only thing that makes it atypical is their overaction, says Heather about the fights between the two boys.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Heather comforts Holden after the argument between him and Evan. The outbursts are less frequent after years of therapy, but their triggers are often small and unknown.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Im very happy I have two children with autism. They can relate and will always have each other. Understanding how they both feel makes them feel less isolated, more normal," said Heather.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Evan is in a blended program in school, meaning half of his classes are designed for young adults with special needs and the other half are designed for the general school population. Here, Evan sits at his desk before his health class begins. This course is in the general school track.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Evan and brother talking before bedtime.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Holden looks for lemurs at the Greensboro Science Center. He is enamored by all of the animals and goes to the museum every week with his mom.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Evan and Holden hug after a fight. Next year, the two boys will start at a new independent school, started by their mom Heather. Her hope is that the curriculum will help them become more independent and give them the opportunity to flourish in an academic environment tailored to their needs.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Evan and Holden ask Santa if they are on the "nice" list. Both are asking for the latest Sponge Bob Squarepants video game for Christmas.
Gabriela Arp
Honorable Mention: Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Spain National Housing Crisis. _____ With unemployment at over 26%, widespread wage cuts, and precarious work conditions, thousands in Spain have been unable to make mortgage payments or pay rent and are facing evictions. Others have fallen victim to the real estate speculation that linked private companies with the government, forcing the expropriation of their own houses. In Madrid, the most vulnerable members of society were suffering under the government's austerity measures; the property assets of the state's social housing companies, meant to provide housing alternatives for people in need, were being sold off to private investors. This work explores the relationship between people and their homes, and how they face the evictions. ________ Police stand guard outside Asuncion Juanilla Frias' apartment during her eviction in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, June 16, 2015. The unemployed woman, 57 years old, lost her foreclosed apartment to a moneylender because she could not afford the pay a loan of euro 50.000 ($56,252) she used to start a business that went bankrupt. The eviction was postponed with a help of anti-eviction activists that gathered inside the apartment surrounded by riot police.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Rosario Echevarria Pedrezuela, left, her sister, right, and a housing right activist, centre, look at the police cordon the area around the apartment to evict her in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Feb. 16, 2015. The apartment occupied by Echevarria Pedrezuela, her husband Angel Echevarria Gabarri, 35, and their two children, aged 5 and 8 belongs to Bankia bank, after the previous owner was unable to continue paying the mortgage. The family occupied the foreclosed apartment ten months ago after they were evicted from their previous home. With both Echevarria Pedrezuela and her husband being unemployed and the family's sole income being a state benefit of euro 530 ($ 604), they could not afford to pay rent. Attempts to negotiate a low rent with the bank were turned down, resulting in the family's eviction by police.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Police enter the apartment of Emilia Montoya Vazquez by forcing their way in between furniture after they broke down the main door to evict her and her family in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015. Montoya, who lived with her son and daughter in law, both unemployed, and three grandchildren of 7, 6, 3 years old, had accumulated a debt with the (EMV) City Hall Housing Company as she could not afford to pay rent due to her only income which is a state benefit of 460 euros ($522) a month. The eviction was carried out in spite dozens of housing right activists who gathered inside the apartment and blocked the main door. EMVS, a state company with an aim to give housing solutions for people in need, sold 1.860 state apartments to private investors, last year.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Mercedes Pincay, 50 years, empties her apartment through the back door as riot police surround them to evict her and her partner in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Dec. 15, 2014. The landlord's loss of the apartment to a Bankia bank caused Mercedes Pincay and her partner Aristides Apolo's eviction. Mercedes Pincay lived with Apolo, 58 years, unemployed, in a foreclosed apartment that was owned by her sister who stopped paying her mortgage fees. Mercedes and Apolo stayed occupying the apartment as they could not afford to pay rent due to their financial situation and she was recovering from breast cancer. The eviction was carried out.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Furniture are packed behind the main door to stop riot police to enter the apartment as Cecilia Paredes and her husband Wilson Ruilova prepares to leave with their baby Dilan during their eviction in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. Paredes, 43, and her unemployed electrician husband Wilson Ruilova, 35, both from Ecuador, have three children: Dilan, a baby born less than two months ago; Andres, 16, and Miguel, seven. They have been unable to pay their rent after she lost her job as an elderly care assistant two years ago. The government company that owned the apartment sold it last year to an investor group along with more than 1,800 other apartments built for the needy and the new owner sought the familys eviction.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Riot Police remove housing rights activists as they tries to stop Luisa Gracia Gonzalez and her family's eviction and the demolition of their house by a forced expropriation in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015. Madrid authorities say 11 people were arrested after several dozen protesters clashed with police who were carrying out an eviction order. A city spokeswoman said seven people were arrested for throwing gasoline at police officers, though she said the fuel was not set alight. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with city hall rules. Evictions in Spain have soared since the country's economic crisis began in 2008 and increasing numbers of people were unable to meet mortgage payments. Protesters regularly try to prevent evictions, but Friday's clash was particularly tense after a campaign to keep the family in its home. The house was expropriated for demolition as part of new urban project. Some 30 protesters tried to stop it, accusing authorities of real estate speculation.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Riot Police remove a housing rights activists who claimed a bulldozer as they triy to stop Luisa Gracia Gonzalez and her family's eviction and the demolition of their house by a forced expropriation in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015. Madrid authorities say 11 people were arrested after several dozen protesters clashed with police who were carrying out an eviction order. A city spokeswoman said seven people were arrested for throwing gasoline at police officers, though she said the fuel was not set alight. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with city hall rules. Evictions in Spain have soared since the country's economic crisis began in 2008 and increasing numbers of people were unable to meet mortgage payments. Protesters regularly try to prevent evictions, but Friday's clash was particularly tense after a campaign to keep the family in its home. The house was expropriated for demolition as part of new urban project. Some 30 protesters tried to stop it, accusing authorities of real estate speculation.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Carmen Martinez Ayuso, 85-years old, cries during her eviction in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014. Carmen Martinez Ayuso lost her foreclosed apartment to a moneylender after she could not afford to pay her debt and the high interest rates due to her financial situation after his son lost his job. Martinez Ayuso got evicted in spite of housing right activists clash with the dozens of riot police and at least one protestor was arrested.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Maria Isabel Rodriguez Romero, 45 years, left, and activists leave the camp beside the apartment from which they got evicted one and half week ago in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. Maria Isabel Rodriguez Romero and her family members, unemployed, some on state benefits for the disabled, has been living in the apartment of the State City Hall Housing Company (EMVS) for 24 years. EMVS informed them that they have to move out. The eviction was executed despite of the resistance of dozens of Victims' Mortgage Platform (PAH). The family moved today to a house provide by family in solidarity.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Police block the apartment's entrance as Amalio Barrul Gimenez' belongings lay on the street after Amalio and his family's got evicted in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, June 24, 2014. Amalio Barrul Gimenez, , 41 years old, his wife Isabel Morales Bachiller, 35 years old, 2 month pregnant, and three children live with a low income coming from selling goods in the street and state benefits of 530 euros ($720). They occupied Bankia Bank apartment one and a half year ago and have tried to negotiate to pay a low rent but the bank demanded their eviction. The eviction was carried out in spite of the Victims' Mortgage Platform (PAH). Banners read "Shame" "you are laughing and we are suffering", "three children in the street", "a pregnant woman evicted", "extra payment to evict people".
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
In this picture taken Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015, Diana Sofia Meliton, 2 years old, sits outside together with belongings after her and her family got evicted by the police and watches a housing right activist re-opening her apartment for them to live in Madrid, Spain. Pablo Enrique Meliton, 39 years old, his wife Damaris Varela Rivera, 36 yeas old , and their daughter Diana Sofia Meliton, 2 years old, rent a room in a occupied Bankia bank apartment one year ago as they could not afford to pay rent and stay occupying the apartment after the rest of the occupants left. They have now an income of euro 790 ($893) and they have tried to negotiate to pay a low rent but the Bankia bank demanded their eviction. Housing right activists tried to stop the process but the police evicted the family.
Andres Kudacki / Associated Press
Honorable Mention: Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
As the congregation of Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church grieves, a pilgrimage occurs daily at a growing makeshift memorial for nine parishioners killed during a Bible study class. The memorial became a place where anyone could come to heal with prayers, songs, and tears. Just two days after the shootings, the men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. raise their hands to lead a crowd in hymns. Each day, hundreds flock to the South's oldest African Methodist Episcopal church to show support and witness the scene.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Overcome by grief, Clarissa Jackson, left, is comforted by her friend Gillettie Bennett, right, as they wait in line at Emanuel A.M.E. Church. In Charleston, the church is affectionately known as Mother Emanuel, a nod to its age and its eminence in the community.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The shadows of mourners, lit by lights from television news crews, move across the memorial in front of the church. Hours earlier, shooting suspect Dylann Roof was captured and charged with killing nine parishioners. One of the nine included the church's pastor and State Senator Rev. Clementa Pinckney.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Weather it is to Jesus, Elohim, Allah, or Buddha, soft prayers, preaching and singing can be heard throughout the day in front of the church. Buddhist Raymond Smith kneels in prayer after burning incense as an offering at the memorial.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Singing hymns with a crowd outside the church, Carolyn Richardson, center, raises her hand in reverence to Jesus.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The pilgrimage continues for days at the memorial in front of the church. A minister preaches outside the church to the many that have traveled to lay flowers, sing hymns and kneel in prayer.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
At times the scene outside the church seems more like a tourist attraction than a memorial. While mourners gather in prayer, tourists take cell phone photos where nine people were shot to death during a Bible study class.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Rest in peace; pray for peace. Words of hope, love, and courage are seen along the streets as hundreds of visitors identify places to leave their messages.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Members of the Charleston County Sheriff's Office stand guard at the churchs front doors during the first worship service after the mass shootings.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
The flag draped casket of Rev. Daniel Lee Simmons, a Vietnam Veteran, is carried out of church following his funeral service. Simmons was the final member of the Emanuel Nine to be laid to rest.
Stephen Morton
Honorable Mention - 2015 Feature Picture Story/Essay
Hours after the shootings, it had become clear that a white gunman killed the nine members of the South's oldest African Methodist Episcopal church because they were black. Community prayer and healing vigil events following the shootings helped bring people together. As a result, Charleston did not erupt into violence. Instead, people gathered together at Mother Emanuel in peace, love and prayer to start the healing process.
Stephen Morton