Globetrotting Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Marcus Yam has recovered from a work injury, completed a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, and returned to the field, where he now develops, writes, and photographs features.
“My first piece for The Globe and Mail just got published,” said Yam on July 25, referring to his report from Taiwan about ordinary citizens training to help if China invades the island.
Yam spent more than two weeks in Taiwan to chronicle how its tension with China shapes daily lives. His article explains how everyday Taiwanese are learning emergency response skills and community building, rather than focusing solely on conventional combat.
Yam joined The Globe and Mail in March 2026 as an International Visual Correspondent based in Madrid. His language skills, in addition to English, include basic Spanish and Cantonese.
His pioneering global role is a newly conceived hybrid position: he will develop, report, write, and photograph complex visual stories that go beyond the traditional photo packages, Yam says.
Path to Pulitzer Prizes
Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Yam earned an aerospace engineering degree at the University of Buffalo in 2006.
Switching to photography, he enrolled in the graduate program at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication (2007-2008). As part of this “boot camp” training, Yam regularly visited a nearby hamlet in rural southeastern Ohio to photograph residents and surroundings.
These encounters, with camera gear in hand, gave him confidence to handle future assignments, he says.
Working in the American West, Yam was on newspaper teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2015 (The Seattle Times’ coverage of landslides) and 2016 (Los Angeles Times’ coverage of San Bernardino terror attacks). In 2017, Yam was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the Year International.
His coverage for the Los Angeles Times of the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. Yam worked for the Los Angeles Times for more than 11 years (2014-February 2026), including a two-year sabbatical for recovery from shoulder surgery after a work-related injury and a year-long Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University (2024-2025).
The Overseas Press Club presented its Robert Capa Award to Yam in 2023 for his coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He is a two-time recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award, including in 2019 for documenting everyday challenges in Gaza.
The Big Picture
Yam’s report from Taiwan generated buzz on social media and mainstream press. On July 25, UPI’s Korea Regional Review published links to Yam’s article in The Globe and Mail and a separate article by The New York Times about how Taiwan would resist a Chinese siege at sea.
The UPI review said Yam’s report from Taiwan raises a broader, global challenge: “If societal resilience is now as important as military capability in deterring aggression, are democratic nations investing enough in preparing their citizens to withstand the physical, psychological, informational, and political shocks of modern conflict before a crisis begins?
