New York Times Photojournalist Doug Mills Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize For Breaking News Photography

The photo shows a bullet streaking past Trump’s head, an extraordinary image that captured the precise moment of danger on perhaps the most dramatic day of an extraordinary political year. Michael Harrigan, a retired FBI special agent who spent 22 years in the bureau, confirmed that the image appeared to be the path of a bullet. “It absolutely could be showing the displacement of air due to a projectile,” said Harrigan. “Given the circumstances, if that’s not showing the bullet’s path through the air, I don’t know what else it would be.”

Credit: All photos in this article – Doug Mills/The New York Times

Doug Mills, a veteran photojournalist for The New York Times’ Washington bureau since 2002 and who had previously won two Pulitzers in the 1990s for his work at the Associated Press, was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his remarkable sequence of photos of the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, including one photograph that captures a bullet whizzing through the air as he speaks.

To win a Pulitzer prize for breaking news photography, a photographer must capture either “a single photograph or a series of photographs of an event that occurs with no advance notice and requires spontaneous coverage in the moment.” For winning the award, Mills will receive fifteen thousand dollars.

 

A fraction of a moment later, Trump reacted to the sting of the bullet that grazed his ear and instinctively reached up with his right hand. Trump pulled back his hand to reveal blood from his wound.

New Camera Technology Can Help Photojournalists Capture Important Moments

What’s fascinating to also note about this photo that depicts the bullet whizzing past President Trump’s head is that it’s been the dramatic advancements in camera technology that have helped make such a photo possible.

Mills captured the series using the Sony a1 II full-frame mirrorless camera, which was set at f/1.6 and 1/8000 of a second, using Sony's FE 28-70mm f/2 GM lens. What’s impressive about the Sony a1 II is that it can fire off a burst of full-resolution photos at 30 frames per second, which in this case was essential to capture the moment that a bullet whizzed past the then-presidential candidate's head.

Additionally, Sony says that Mills had access to additional technology that allowed him to post the images so quickly, making them available to the public. Sony says Mills was able to overcome the cell service block by using Sony’s Portable Data Transmitter to transmit images and have them live almost immediately.

 

After the attempted assassin opened fire, the agents in Trump’s Secret Service detail rushed to cover him and protect him from any further shots. A member of the Secret Service countersniper team took point on stage, searching the horizon for the shooter and any other possible threats.

 

When the agents began evacuating the wounded Trump offstage to safety, he briefly stopped them and insisted on gesturing to the crowd of supporters. Raising his fist, he defiantly shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” It was a moment of instinct that would later be capitalized on by his campaign and embraced by his supporters.

Photojournalism: Why Experience Matters 

However, although the camera technology is indeed remarkable and helped make such images achievable, it was the photographer’s experience, quick thinking, tenacity, and courage to overcome his fears that allowed him to capture the sequence. In a New York Times interview, from July 13, 2024, about covering the assassination attempt, he said, when the shooting started, “I went from one side of the stage to another to see if I could see him any better. And that’s when he got up and put his fist in the air. And I thought, ‘He’s alive, he’s alive.’”

Mills then said, “I could see blood on his face. I kept taking pictures. As tough as he looked in that one picture with his fist looking very defiant, the next frame I took, he looked completely drained. Very, very shocked.”

According to an interview with Business Insider, Mills said, despite the chaos around him, "I didn't take my finger off the shutter. I didn't flinch” and used his sports photography experience to focus. He continued, "I didn't stop to look to see where the shots were coming from, but I just kept my finger on the button."

 

But just a moment later, his face transformed, going blank and pale, almost as if he seemed to suddenly grasp what had just happened. His agents were later criticized for allowing him to be so visible as he was being rushed from the stage, exposed to any potential further gunshots.

But Mills says he never wished to photograph such a horrifying incident. “I’ve always feared being in this situation," he told the New York Times. "I always wondered what I’d do in this situation. I hope I get the right shot. I hope I’m not shot myself.”

He continued, “At first I thought right away, ‘Could I be shot?” It was scary.” Nevertheless, Mills overcame those fears. “I’ve never been in a more horrific scene. As much as I’ve covered presidents for 35 to 40 years, it’s not something I ever wanted to witness.”

 

Trump’s bloody ear is seen in this photo as the agents move him away from the scene. One agent arcs his arm overhead to reduce the visibility of the former president in case more shots are fired.

 

The aftermath of the scene evokes the notion of democracy disrupted—a campaign scene with a flag still flying overhead but emptied of the crowd after one supporter was killed and two others were injured by the gunfire of a would-be assassin.