DETROIT -- A photo series documenting a year in the lives of students and faculty at a city high school earned Detroit Free Press photographer Manny Crisostomo the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography Thursday.
Crisostomo, 30, captured the honor for his series of photos published June 26, 1988, entitled, 'A Class Act, the Life and Times of Southwestern High School.'
Champagne bottles were uncorked throughout the third and fourth floors of the Free Press building as news spread of Crisostomo's award.
'I'm feel like I'm floating,' Crisostomo exclaimed. 'You hear people saying they're so excited they're floating in the air. This is it, this is for real. This is like the Academy Awards, the Nobel Peace Prize, everything. It's wonderful.'
Free Press Publisher David Lawrence said the honor comes at a great time for the paper.
'We've had a lot of trying days here, but this is a wonderful day for the Free Press and Manny,' Lawrence said. 'There is no substitute for a Pulitzer, it's the biggest.'
Crisostomo, a six-year veteran with the Free Press, said it was the third year he had entered the Pulitzer competition and he sort of had his usual doubts about winning the award.
'We have a number of contests in our profession and I've won a lot of them,' the Guam-born Crisostomo said. 'There's always this Pulitzer Prize that sort of looms off on this mountain somewhere. You never think you're going to win it. You hope and fantasize about it.
'This time, the photo gods were smiling down on me.
'I didn't think I had a chance to win,' he added. 'The other two finalists have won all the major contests before and I haven't. I figured close was good enough.
'I called up my home (in Guam) at Easter and everybody was at my sister's house for a party. They all said they were going to pray for me and they would cross their fingers come Thursday. I guess they all are lighting candles in Guam. It worked.'
Crisostomo said he started work on the photo series on Southwestern's first day of school in the 1987-88 school year and followed students and faculty through graduation.
'I worked real hard on it,' he said. 'I think it's a good portrayal on what's going on in the Detroit Public School system. And I hope people can look at it and say, 'There's some problems, there's some good things and some bad things and we need to do something about it.'
'Documenting with my photographs, I want to bring about some changes, however big or small they might be.'
