Photojournalist Doug Mills was documenting what started as a “very standard, typical rally” when both a shutter-ready finger and a decision to keep shooting resulted in some of the most iconic images of the 2024 presidential campaign.

Mills’ series of images of the assassination attempt on the then-presidential candidate, Donald Trump, at a rally in Pennsylvania has won the photographer a 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.

Mills is joined on the 2025 list of Pulitzer winners by Moises Saman in the Feature Photography category, for a series of images taken in the Sednaya prison in Syria, along with many journalists, authors and creators.

While the Breaking News and Feature categories are distinct in recognizing spontaneous and planned long-term coverage, this year’s Pulitzer-winning photographs both illustrate the power of photojournalism to speak in a way that words cannot over the most pressing issues.

Mills' winning photographs are the very definition of the Breaking News category, which recognizes photographers for capturing “an event that occurs with no advance notice and requires spontaneous coverage in the moment.”

Mills happened to be a few feet away from Trump when shots rang out. The following images of Trump’s expression, the Secret Service’s response, and the now-President’s raised fist as he left the stage were the result of a decision to keep shooting as shots rang out.