David Leeson (October 18, 1957 – April 16, 2022) was a staff photographer for ''

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

''. He won the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for Breaking News Photography in 2004, together with Cheryl Diaz Meyer, for coverage of the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

. He also received the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, the

National Headliner Award National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, and a regional

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 2004 for his work as executive producer and photographer for the

WFAA-TV WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed independent station KFAA-TV (channel ...

documentary "War Stories."ACU press releas
"Pulitzer Prize-winning alumnus David Leeson wins Murrow, Headliner awards,"
July 19, 2004. Retrieved August 6, 2007.David Leeson
profile at LinkedIn. Retrieved August 10, 2007. Before his 2004 win, Leeson had been a finalist for the Pulitzer three times — twice individually and once as member of a team — in feature photography (1986), explanatory journalism (1990, as part of the newspaper staff), and spot news photography (1995).Jay DeFoore
"Leeson, Diaz Meyer Of DMN And LAT's Cole Win Photo Pulitzers,"
''Photo District News'' Online, April 5, 2004. Retrieved August 6, 2007.

Photojournalism career

Leeson was a 1978 graduate of

Abilene Christian University Abilene Christian University (ACU) is a Private university, private Christian research university in Abilene, Texas, United States. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as an R2 (High Research Spending and Doctorate Production) institutio ...

, where he received a degree in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

and

mass communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large population segments. It utilizes various forms of media as technology has made the dissemination of information more efficient. Primary examples o ...

.Text of H.R. No. 1520
resolution in the Texas House of Representatives honoring Leeson, adopted May 16, 2005. Retrieved August 10, 2007. While still in college, he was on the staff of the ''

Abilene Reporter-News ''Abilene Reporter-News'' is a daily newspaper based in Abilene, Texas, United States. The newspaper started publishing as the weekly ''Abilene Reporter'', helmed by Charles Edwin Gilbert, on June 17, 1881, just three months after Abilene was f ...

'', where he began in 1977 and stayed until 1982. He left Abilene for

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, where he was on the staff of ''

The Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune , The New Orleans Advocate'' (commonly called ''The Times-Picayune'' or the ''T-P'') is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ancestral publications of other names date back to January 25, 1837. The cu ...

'' from 1982 to 1984.David Leeson biography
at ''The Dallas Morning News'' official site. Retrieved August 7, 2007. Since joining the staff of ''The Dallas Morning News'' in 1984, Leeson has covered local and regional news and issues, such as

homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

and

natural disaster A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

s; national stories on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...

inmates across the United States; international conflicts in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Sudan, Angola, Kuwait and Iraq in the first and second

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

s in Turkey; and

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

in South Africa. His 1985 series on homelessness earned him a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, an honor he received again in 1994 for his coverage of the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

in Angola.Breaking News Photography: Biography
from pulitzer.org. Retrieved August 10, 2007. The year 1985 also saw his first Pulitzer nomination, for coverage of apartheid in South Africa; he returned twice to that nation, the last time in 1994, when he recorded the historic event of South Africa's first non-racial presidential elections. While photographing protesters during the buildup to the ousting of

Manuel Noriega Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno ( , ; February 11, 1934 – May 29, 2017) was a Panamanian dictator and military officer who was the ''de facto'' List of heads of state of Panama, ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He never officially serv ...

in 1988, Leeson was wounded when a shotgun pellet entered his cheek, chipping his tooth and sending him to a

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

emergency room An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pat ...

.Associated Press. "Riot at Panama hospital: Workers demand paychecks from Noriega Regime," ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', March 16, 1988, page A1. Leeson was a finalist for the Pulitzer a second time, in 1994, for a photograph of a family fleeing

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

waters in southeast Texas,Rick Hampson, Associated Press. "Journalism Pulitzer Prizes announced: Coverage of Rwanda, natural disaster, and life in the inner city earned top honors," ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', April 19, 1995, page A2. a picture that also won him a Texas Headliner Award."Veteran Chronicle editor, 3 staffers win Headliners awards," ''Houston Chronicle'', October 1, 1995, page 40. In 2008, Leeson decided to accept a buy-out offer and leave ''The Dallas Morning News'', as part of an A. H. Belo Corporation cost-cutting measure involving buyouts of more than 400 journalists.David Walker
"Leeson to leave ''Dallas Morning News'',"
''Photo District News'', September 8, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-08. He planned to continue in

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

photojournalism and documentary film work.

Unattributed photos

While Leeson's work is well known within the journalism community, he has endured a number of cases of credit for his

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

photos being given to others, following his loaning of a CD of 200 full-resolution photos to the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

3rd Infantry Division for one-time use in a yearbook for the soldiers. He has written about the incident in a public

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, stating that although he included

copyright symbol The copyright symbol, or copyright sign, (a circled capital letter C for copyright), is the symbol used in copyright notices for works other than sound recordings. 17 U.S.C. The use of the symbol is described by the Universal Copyright Conv ...

s with each photo, placed a

README In software distribution and software development, a README file (computing), file contains information about the other files in a directory (file systems), directory or archive (computing), archive of computer software. A form of Software doc ...

file on the CD explaining that the images were for one-time use, and explained to the public affairs officer that the images should be guarded closely to prevent plagiarism, someone made several copies and distributed them. In many cases, the soldiers appear to have been unaware that Leeson never intended for copies to be made of the CD, as more than one has written to him asking for a replacement copy after losing their disc.David Leeson. "Behind the scenes of image theft", ''The Creative Alchemist'', December 5, 2005. Retrieved August 7, 2007. Subsequently, numerous incidents have occurred in which soldiers, photographers, or others have passed off Leeson's work as their own, either on photography sites, blogs, or print periodicals.

Personal data

Leeson was born October 18, 1957, in

Abilene, Texas Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor County, Texas, Taylor and Jones County, Texas, Jones counties, Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan ar ...

, and died there April 16, 2022. He was most recently married to former ''Dallas Morning News'' photographer Kim Ritzenthaler (on April 17, 2000), with whom he had two children.Ancestry.com. ''Texas Marriage Collection, 1814-1909 and 1966-2002'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. He also had three children from a previous marriage, which ended in 1998.Ancestry.com. ''Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: Texas. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997. Texas: Texas Department of State Health Services. Microfiche.Ancestry.com. ''Texas Divorce Index, 1968-2002'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas Divorce Index, 1968-2002. Texas, USA: Texas Department of State Health Services.

Notes

External links

Leeson's and Diaz Meyer's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo series
at Pulitzer.org *National Press Photographers Association
"David Leeson takes buy-out at ''Dallas Morning News'',"
September 4, 2008. Retrieved May 31, 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leeson, David 1957 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American photographers People from Abilene, Texas American photojournalists Abilene Christian University alumni American members of the Churches of Christ Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography winners The Dallas Morning News people Journalists from Texas