Pulitzer Prize winner shares her experiences

The slide projected onto the blackboard need not be explained: a 17 1/2 mile line of refugees… The slide projected onto the blackboard need not be explained: a 17 1/2 mile line of refugees streaming out of Rwanda. Carrying all of their possessions in bags slung over their shoulders and precariously balanced on their heads, the 300,000 refugees were seeking a better life, a place where they could live in peace.

The emotional image was one of many presented by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner Martha Rial during her presentation Thursday evening in the Old Engineering Hall.

During her presentation, attended by about 30 people, Rial showed slides of pictures from her trips to Rwanda, Kosovo and Kenya. A majority of her pictures focused on Rwandan and Burundi refugees.

“[Photographing refugees] was a personal journey for me,” said Rial, whose pictures mainly deal with women’s and children’s issues.

Rial’s first picture showed a 4-year-old girl who had just witnessed the slaying of her parents and tears were streaming down her innocent face. From there, Rial’s pictures painted a portrait of how Rwandan refugees lived and struggled to stay alive as they fled their country.

Poor, decrepit villages, crumbling hospitals and emaciated children were just a few of the subjects covered by Rial, who has been a Post-Gazette staff photographer since 1994.

Rial said when traveling overseas, she prefers to stay with locals instead of in a hotel. She believes her interaction with locals allows her to better capture the sentiment of the people she photographs.

“I try to stay with people that I can talk to,” she said.

Despite every attempt to fit in with her subjects and capture their daily lives on film, Rial said relating to them can be difficult at times.

“I can never fully understand [what refugees are experiencing],” she said. “You can’t judge a man unless you walk one mile in his shoes.”

Rial’s accurate and emotional visual documentation of the Rwandan and Burundi refugees titled, “The Trek of Tears,” earned her the Pulitzer Prize in photography in 1998.

Despite loving to take full-color photographs, Rial said that in some places, especially Kosovo, shooting in black and white is far better.

“Black and white is more fitting to the mood,” she said. “Some expressions stand out better.”

In addition to photographing refugees in Rwanda and Kosovo, Rial traveled to Kenya to photograph women marathon runners in training. Rial noted how those women are fierce competitors yet outside of running, are very humble, hard-working people.

Although she loves traveling and working abroad, Rial said she also loves working in Pittsburgh. However, she noted, “Being away from the sound of electricity is great.”

Rial said she is “eternally grateful” for the opportunities she has had to travel and photograph the world.

“Everything I know I’ve learned from my job,” she said.

The lecture, titled “The International Experience Through the Photographer’s Lens,” was sponsored by the World Federalist Association of Pittsburgh and the Pitt Global Studies Certificate Program.

Rial’s lecture was the sixth in the Global Issues Series. Lectures are held once a month during the school year and focus on pressing global issues. Speakers are usually native Pittsburghers who have an impact on such global issues.