Often the writing and photography that win Pulitzer Prizes require heroic efforts on the part of journalists. For one recipient this year, the process of receiving the award also took an enormous effort.

In 1979, a photographer stood nearby as executioners shot Kurdish prisoners in Sanandaj, Iran. A picture he took for an Iranian newspaper was picked up by United Press International and published worldwide. To protect the photographer, his name was not printed.

But the image proved so compelling that it was awarded the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography. It was the first and still the only time that the Pulitzer, the highest honor in print journalism, has been given to an anonymous winner....

[Now, 27 years later, the anonymous winner has received his prize. He's Jahangir Razmi, who lives in Tehran.]