Michael Williamson (photographer)

Michael Williamson (born 1957) is an American photojournalist. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes.

Of the books he has made with writer Dale Maharidge while both men were on the staff of the Sacramento Bee, And Their Children After Them won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1990[1] and Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass was credited by singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen as an inspiration for two songs from his album The Ghost of Tom Joad, "Youngstown" and "The New Timer".[2][3]

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.