Miriam Romero
Brian Lanker "Birth"
1972
Brian Lanker was a photographer that was part of a journal which had a reputation of strong images. He accompanied two of his friends into the labor room, his friends allowed him to photograph the birth of their daughter, Jackie Lynn Coburn. This photograph won the Pulitzer Prize, which is a price awarded to newspapers, online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States. The reason why I decided to choose this picture over so many other strong images was because of the woman's expression. Although child birth is an extremely painful process, you can see it's all worth it because of that smile. Bringing a life into this world is one of the greatest gifts humans were given. In this frozen moment you don't know if her laughter is due to relieve or pure joy. I chose to see nothing else but pure happiness and excitement caused by the birth of their beautiful daughter. Brian later mentioned not being able to recall taking this picture because of his involvement in the birth.
