Michael Williamson (photographer)

For other people named Michael Williamson, see Michael Williamson (disambiguation).

Michael Williamson b. 1957, is an American photojournalist who has won two Pulitzer Prizes. With writer Dale Maharidge, he is co-author of the book And Their Children After Them, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1990. That book, and another written with Maharidge, Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, were produced while both men were on the staff of the Sacramento Bee. Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen credited Journey to Nowhere as an inspiration for two songs from his album The Ghost of Tom Joad, "Youngstown" and "The New Timer". The book was re-released in 1995 with a forward by Springsteen.

Other books by Maharidge and Williamson are: "The Last Great American Hobo" (1993), "Homeland", and "Denison, Iowa".

In 1993, Williamson became a staff photographer for the Washington Post. Photos he took on assignment in Kosovo, along with the work of Post colleagues Carol Guzy and Lucian Perkins, led to Williamson's share of another Pulitzer in 2000. That same year, he was named Photographer of the Year by the White House News Photographer's Association.

Orphaned at an early age, Williamson grew up in a series of foster homes, a circumstance to which he attributes his interest in the poor and the downtrodden.