What a difference a week makes.
The New York Times addressed the tragedy at Sandy Hook with a simple powerful design decision : a black box of ink, white type on black, listing the names and ages of all who lost their lives that day.
For me, these tragedies seem to take three days to sink in. I hear about it, it's just a news item, I kind of pay attention to it, but it's far away. After three days, the emotional stuff hits. Maya Lin, who created the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. has admitted in interviews that the memorial was designed to make people cry upon viewing it. When you see the memorial, stand in front of it, it really does work. The page of the NYT's did that for me. The simplicity, the structure, the sheer quantity of names, it all brought those emotions to the forefront. I got hit by them all this weekend.
At the same time, I was editing a story I shot for TIME early last year. An overseas client was interested in the story and asked me to put together a new edit. Digging into the work in the wake of the tragedy was powerful and changed the shape of the project. This simple story that we shot on that day, about Erica Cain, a dedicated mother juggling 3 young kids was just something I looked at with a new sense of importance. Below are the images I put together for this story.
Peace.
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