AWARD DATE: 1968
AWARD NAME: Best Photographic Reporting or Interpretation from Abroad In A Magazine Or A Book
AWARD RECIPIENT: David Robison, Priya Ramrakha, and Romano Cagnoni
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION:Life Magazine
AWARD HONORED WORK: Starving Children in the War of Extinction in Biafra
An American, an Italian and an African-born Indian produced the poignant Life Magazine feature, “Starving Children in the War of Extinction in Biafra.”
David Robison is a native New Yorker who earned his B.A. degree from Bard College and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia on a fellowship grant. He was one of the earliest correspondents in Biafra and is credited with arousing world opinion with his reports and pictures of the tragic situation there, through photographs published in England, France, Holland, Germany and Italy as well as the United States.
Priya Ramrakha, who was born in Nairobi in 1935, the son of an Indian Consular official, was one of nine correspondents ambushed by Biafrans while on a Time magazine assignment with Nigerian troops. Shot in the arm and in the back, he died an hour later in the University Hospital in Lagos.
Priya became a stringer photographer for Time and Life after being graduated from Duke of Gloucester Prep School in 1953. From 1959 to 1962 he attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles. His dream
had been to settle in the United States permanently.
Only a few years ago, Romano Cagnoni was one of the eager horde of amateur cameramen known Italy as “paparazzi”, who will go to any length to get a salable picture. He’s one of the few who have graduated into the professional ranks.
Citation for Excellence: Robert Ellison (Posthumous), Empire from Black Star, for his eight page color report of “The Agony of Khe Sanh,” in Newsweek.
Citation for Excellence: Paul Fusco, Look Magazine, for his report, “Mexico.”