L.A. Times’ Christina House Earns Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for ‘Hollywood’s Finest’ Series

Los Angeles Times Photographer Christina House has been honored with a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Photography for her photographs chronicling the tumultuous journey of a pregnant woman living on the streets of Los Angeles. Additionally, the podcast series “The Outlaw Ocean,” which was reported by Ian Urbina and the Outlaw Ocean Project and presented by CBC Podcasts and the L.A. Times, was honored with the Nontraditional Media and John Seigenthaler Courage in Journalism Award.

Founded by the reporters who covered Robert F. Kennedy’s historic 1968 presidential campaign, the awards honor outstanding reporting on issues that reflect Robert F. Kennedy’s concerns, including human rights, social justice and the power of individual action in the United States and around the world. The awards were presented in a virtual ceremony on May 3 to coincide with World Press Freedom Day.

House’s winning photographs were part of the multimedia series Hollywood’s Finest, in which she, along with Times Reporter Gale Holland and Videographer Claire Hannah Collins, spent more than four years following Mckenzie Trahan as she prepared for the birth of her daughter, transitioned to motherhood and struggled to find and keep a home in which to raise her baby.

In photographing the story, House captured many exhilarating and gut-wrenching moments with Trahan, accompanying her to an ultrasound appointment, observing joy and happy tears following her daughter’s birth and witnessing her heartbreak and downward spiral as her daughter was removed from her care.

House said receiving the award is “an absolute honor” and noted that it was “a great privilege” to foster a relationship with Trahan and to tell her story. “I was carrying a child when I met Mckenzie, who was nearly seven months into her own pregnancy,” she said. “We connected as mothers on the same journey but on very different paths.

“My intentions for this project were to highlight the challenges of a young mother’s fight to get off the streets and raise her daughter when faced with the stigma of homelessness, drug addiction, mental health and intergenerational trauma,” House said. “What is revealed is a series of holes in these systems that were built to help our vulnerable populations. I hope Mckenzie’s story helps open up dialogue on how to better serve families and help keep them together.”

The Los Angeles Times and CBC Podcasts launched “The Outlaw Ocean,” a true-crime podcast that exposes criminal activities that take place on the world’s high seas, in September 2022. The audio documentary represents more than eight years of reporting by host and award-winning journalist Ian Urbina, who reported on all seven oceans in more than 30 countries to investigate murder at sea, modern slave labor, environmental crimes and quixotic adventurers.

To learn more and see the full list of winners, visit rfkhumanrights.org.