Patrick Farrell (photojournalist)
Patrick Farrell (born July 1, 1959) is an American photojournalist for the Miami Herald and a Pulitzer Prize winner. In 2009, his images from a brutal hurricane season in Haiti earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. The judges described his 19 black-and-white photos as “provocative, impeccably composed images of despair” after storms that caused a humanitarian disaster in Haiti. The collection, titled A People in Despair: Haiti's Year Without Mercy, shows flooded streets, the aftermath of a school collapse, and the toll in rural areas like Cabaret, where children drowned. More than 800 Haitians died and over 1 million were left homeless.
Farrell grew up in Miami, the seventh of 12 children of Dr. James and Peggie Farrell. An eye injury from a BB gun in 1971 changed his perspective and drew him to photography. He shoots with his left eye and once turned a bathroom into a darkroom. He graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in 1977 and the University of Miami in 1981 with a degree in television and film production. He credits professor Michael Carlebach for inspiring him to pursue photojournalism.
He has worked at the Miami Herald since 1987 and was part of the team that won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for Hurricane Andrew coverage. Farrell has earned several other honors, including National Press Photographers Association regional Photographer of the Year (1992, 1993) and Southern Photographer of the Year (1989, 1993). His work has covered events in Florida and around the world, such as the 1989 Miami race riots, Haiti’s 1994 political unrest, the 1999 Turkey earthquake, the Columbine shooting, Hurricane Andrew’s destruction in Florida, and changes in Cuba.
After the 2009 Pulitzer, Farrell returned to Haiti with a Miami Herald team to cover the 2010 earthquake. He was named a Dart Center Ochberg Fellow in 2010 to deepen his understanding of violence and trauma. In 2015, he worked with Doctors Without Borders on a project about unsafe abortions in Haiti.
Farrell is an adjunct professor at Florida International University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He lives in Miami with his wife, former Miami Herald reporter Jodi Mailander Farrell; they have two daughters, Annie and Lucy. He has shown his work in galleries such as the A/E District in Wynwood, and he has lectured at Leica Lounge events. His photographs have been part of traveling exhibits, including Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs, which has been exhibited worldwide and seen by millions.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:13 (CET).