Pulitzer Prize winner shares his photographic journey

Marisa O’Neil

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Don Bartletti will bring his

travel tales and photographs to Sage Hill School today.

Titled “Road to El Norte,” the presentation chronicles his journey

through Central America and Mexico with Honduran children traveling

alone to find their mothers in America. Bartletti, a photographer for

the Los Angeles Times, won the Pulitzer for the series “Enrique’s

Journey: The Boy Left Behind,” which he worked on with Times reporter

Sonia Nazario.

“This Pulitzer is meaningful because it shows one of the most

dramatic aspects of the migratory phenomenon on the planet,”

Bartletti said. “I want to share with the audience what it felt like

to do these pictures. What I’m trying to show is the ethics of honest

photojournalism and I think it will be a great adventure for the

audience, as well.”

Bartletti said he first got the idea for the assignment 15 years

ago when he worked as a photographer for the Times’ San Diego bureau.

In a homeless shelter there, he met a Honduran boy who had traveled

by himself to America after his mother came here for work.

Many children make the harrowing trip each year, Bartletti said.

He rode the rails across the countryside with them, even climbing on

top of moving freight trains to snap shots like the one showcased in

the “Enrique’s Journey” series.

“It was definitely a struggle and a learning experience to safely

get on trains and get off them and avoid the dangers,” he said.

In his 34 years as a photojournalist, 22 with the Times, Bartletti

has traveled the world. He recently covered the wars in Afghanistan

and Iraq and just returned from Vietnam, Cambodia and Mexico City.

“I’m on staff [at the newspaper] and don’t mind doing daily

deadline work,” he said. “It’s no insult. It’s part of the daily menu

of a newspaper. But I have a reputation for being able to go to

places where there’s news or serious investigative journalism and

staying there and surviving.”

Today’s presentation was a natural for Sage Hill’s lecture series,

said Suzanne McLaughlin, the school’s director of development.

Students in the junior class had already studied the newspaper series

and are learning about immigration issues.

“It’s a wonderful and timely story and it tied in with what we’re

doing here,” she said. “We’re trying to have speakers who can shed

light on important issues.”

Linda Biehl, co-founder of the Amy Biehl Foundation, kicked off

the series in November. The foundation, which is named for her

daughter who was killed while doing humanitarian work in South

Africa, seeks to promote democracy and peace in the country.