When the rains didn't fall and the snows didn't stay, life in California's hard-luck
Central Valley got harder. Small towns died. Dreams dried up. And the very ground was
sinking. Long an impoverished part of a wealthy state, the residents of the Central Valley
are trying to overcome a crippling recession and now a prolonged and severe drought.
Fields are going fallow and the opportunities for workers, mostly Latin American
immigrants, have evaporated. The Central Valley appears as a foreign country, remote and
at odds with the well-watered prosperity of Los Angeles, a few hours to the south. The
tortured land is awaiting rains, that many now believe will never arrive.
Michael Robinson Chávez, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning photographer for The Washington Post, became seduced by photography while traveling through Peru in 1988. A native Californian and half Peruvian, he previously worked with the Associated Press, The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times.
Robinson Chávez has covered assignments in over 75 countries including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the collapse of Venezuela, violence in Mexico, the Egyptian revolution, gold mining in Peru and the 2006 Hezbollah/Israeli war.
Awards Pulitzer Prize Public Service Award, team entry, 2022
Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism, team entry, 2020
3x winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Photojournalism
International Photographer of the Year, Pictures of the Year, 2020
2x winner Photographer of the Year, Northern Short Course
2x winner Ben Bradlee Award for Courage in Journalism
Scripps Howard Award for Photojournalism
Scripps Howard Award Finalist for Environmental Reporting
Alumnus of the Year, San Francisco State University
2x winner Photographer of the Year, White House News Photographer Association
Daily News Photography, Visa Pour l'Image, Perpignan, France
Pollux Prize for Documentary Photography
