|
|
|
Grief. Anger. Frustration.
Those are the first three words that come to mind when looking at this powerful photo that stopped my in my tracks.
The story: Eight-year-old shooting victim laid to rest.
The woman in that photo shouts to family and friends, demanding they put down their guns, as she points to her young son laying in the casket, the countenance of his face barely visible beneath the brim of his white hat. The stuffed animal eternally smiling in contrast to the day's sad event.
Powerful, powerful photo by Journal Star photographer Fred Zwicky.
Some editors would shy away from running a photo of a lifeless body on the front page, let alone that of a dead boy.
Here, though, the focus is clearly on the mother whose emotions are palpable.
I've said before that, as content, strong photography can carry a front page on its strength alone.
Wow.
Finde more photos and a video of the story here.
UPDATE:
I may not have been clear earlier in this post about how to delicately decide to run such a photo of this nature. John Plevka, managing editor at the Journal Star who had the ultimate task of saying "yes" to this photo, sent along these comments about the discussion that took place before running this controversial photo:
Confessions of an editor: I admit, I winced when I first saw this
photograph, which was submitted as our lede A1 photo Thursday afternoon.
Yes, we do have a "general" policy about not running photographs of dead
people, but, yes, we have also bent that rule in extraordinary cases.The horrific death of this 8-year-old boy was the result of a
middle-of-the-night, drive-by shooting. He was killed as he slept. That
an innocent youth could die in such fashion has, naturally, been the
talk of the community for several days.After seeing the photo, I consulted photographer Fred Zwicky and his
colleague Ron Johnson. They both made compelling cases for using it. I
did ask to see a couple of options from Fred's take (just for my own
peace of mind). There were a few in which the body of the youth was
completely obscured, but the images of mother were simply not as strong.
Her passion was, by far, best reflected in the photo submitted by Fred.I also showed the photograph to Pam Adams, the reporter who covered the
funeral. She concurred that the image accurately reflected the
emotion-charged service. Naturally, the mom's plea was a significant
focus of the story, so the art and the words were totally in sync.
Finally, I showed the image to City Editor Mike Cecil -- a driven,
old-school editor who is also the father of two kids and not lacking
real-life sensitivities. He endorsed the photo.I appreciate the feedback from these people. Policies are valuable and
should not be routinely subjected to whimsy; but, unique news situations
occasionally call for calculated risks to best tell the story. Because
these decisions can be tricky, it's wise to invite other trusted
staffers to weigh in before making a rash decision.
Thank for the note, John.
Joe Greco is corporate design director for GateHouse Media.
Contact him at jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.
Missed front page of the day? Find the archive here.
