"Free beer every night!": Pulitzer Prize winner left journalism for brewery

On April 16, the Pulitzer Prize ceremony took place — the most prestigious award for every journalist. The best photo was recognized as a picture from a rally of nationalists in Charlottesville, where a car drives into the crowd. It turned out that the day after the rally, the author of the photo, Ryan Kelly, left photojournalism and got a full-time job at the brewery.

On August 12, 2017, Kelly was working at a rally in Charlottesville and managed to capture how a car rammed into a crowd of protesters. During this attack, one woman, Heather Heyer, was killed and another 20 people were injured. A picture of Kelly taken immediately after the collision was published by The Daily Progress, where he worked. It was the photographer's last day in the newspaper: at that time he had already got a job as a marketer at a brewery. The man decided to hold out until the weekend, knowing that a significant news event was coming.

I didn't realize all the horror of what happened and didn't feel those small details that you see in the photo. When you look through the viewfinder, you're a little detached from everything. I didn't feel it until I found time to look at the photos on the camera. The first time they struck me was when I saw them in full size on a laptop — it was a powerful, dramatic attack. The carnage you see is something else."

On Monday, April 16, Kelly was surprised to learn that he had received the Pulitzer Prize — along with rapper Kendrick Lamar, art critic Jerry Saltz and journalists who prepared an investigation about Harvey Weinstein.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this photo. I wish that didn't happen. But since it happened, I'm glad that there is such a photo. Unfortunately, this is journalism — to be on the scene and observe what is happening. I don't regret doing my job. I know that many journalists struggle with this feeling — with the desire that their work was not."

According to Kelly, he was comforted only by the fact that he contacted the mother of the deceased woman, Susan Bro. The journalist told her that he has been thinking about her and her daughter Heather every day since those events. He expressed regret that Bro has to see this photo and relive the loss of his daughter again and again, but the woman thanked him.

Now the 31-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner works at a brewery in Richmond. His editor at The Daily Progress, Wes Hester, also quit the newspaper and moved into the field of intercollegiate communications. So far, Kelly remains a photojournalist, but now works only on a freelance basis — for example, shoots for the Getty Images stock. He's glad he stopped working at the newspaper.

I miss the newspaper and the newsroom, but my quality of life is much higher now than a year ago. I don't need to worry about filling a place on the strip, I don't need to prepare for news events. When I go home, I leave work at work. I work from 9 to 5. There is stability in my life. I'm not worried that I'll be fired in a month or a year. After all, I work at a brewery and at the end of the day I have a free beer!"