Life and Death, But No Trash Pickup: Diary of a Young COVID-19 Nurse

Read the story and see the full layout.

I commissioned Molly Crabapple to create illustrations for this first-person account of a COVID-19 intensive care unit in Santa Clara, California. I’ve been a longtime fan of Molly’s work, and as soon as I talked to the reporter and editor about the diary format and the horrible conditions, I thought of Molly: her experience making vignettes of daily life from in-person reporting and photo reference, her skilled portraiture, and her ability to capture the beauty and humanity of folks caught in uncertain and dangerous situations all felt like a perfect fit for this story.

I wrote the assignment brief and conducted photo research to find reference of specific hospital procedures. She submitted thirteen sketches, which I narrowed down by placing them within the rough to better understand how the rhythm and sequence of the illustrations would pair with the text. Though she had submitted a possible lead image sketch before filing the inline sketches, I found one of her thirteen inline sketches more compelling as an opening shot: a close-up of the nurse’s tormented eyes. The nurse’s thousand yard stare immediately pulls the reader into her head. 

Inside the Lives of Immigrant Teens Working Dangerous Night Shifts in Suburban Factories

Read the story and see the full layout.

Melissa Sanchez tells the story of immigrant teenagers who by day, study at suburban Chicago high schools, and by night, work factory shifts while their classmates sleep.

Lisa Larson-Walker, ProPublica’s art director, and I commissioned and art directed Melissa’s story. None of the teenagers felt comfortable sitting for portraits. Instead, we commissioned Sebastián Hidalgo to make portraits of the two main teachers and create anonymous shots of the teenagers playing soccer during their weekly game. 

We decided to commission Christie Tirado, a printmaker and art teacher, after Melissa showed us one of Christie’s lino-cut prints of farm workers entitled “America’s Essential Workers”. Inspired by the connection between Christie’s work and printmaking’s role in US and Central American labor struggles, we asked Christie to create a print of a teenage factory worker, side by side with adult workers. Guided by Melissa’s research and interviews, Lisa and I created a composite photo reference for Christie to work from.

I commissioned Gaby Hurtado-Ramos, a printmaker and illustrator involved in immigrant justice movements, to create spot illustrations. Because we couldn’t photograph them, we wanted Gaby’s illustrations to show vignettes of the teenagers’ daily lives.

All of the images are black and white, except for the last illustration the story ends on as one of the teenagers realizes he must return to his overnight shift: a factory’s windows lit up with yellow against the black night sky. 

In addition to art directing with Lisa, I chose the sequence and final selects for Gaby’s and Sebastián’s images. I also coordinated co-publication with El País and Mother Jones, and produced English, Spanish and audio versions of the story.

State of Denial: Inside Arizona’s Division of Developmental Disabilities

Read the series and see all the story layouts.

State of Denial is a series focused on developmental disability services in Arizona. At the first brainstorm meeting of this project, the editorial team agreed we wanted to make the story as accessible as possible. 

“Nothing About Us Without Us” has its roots in the 1990s disabilities movement and we wanted the phrase to guide the reporting, engagement strategy and presentation. With this sentiment in mind, I knew I wanted to work with artists with developmental or intellectual disabilities for this story. 

For a virtual storytelling event that helped kick off the investigation, I commissioned Make Studio, a Baltimore-based collective of adult artists with disabilities, to create the lead art for the event write-up.

For the six stories publishing in the story launch, ProPublica’s art director, Lisa Larson-Walker, and I pushed the team to use both illustrations and photo portraits. Mamta Popat, an Arizona Daily Star staff photographer, made stunning, quiet portraits of the subjects and their families, while the illustrations and captions would capture a different side of the subjects. The illustrations and photos work together to create a full portrait of each of the people profiled.

Overall, we commissioned the following Make Studio artists to create over a dozen portraits and section breaks: Erika Clark, Tony LaBate, Louis Middleton, Kareem Samuels, Margie Smeller, Michael Vita and Tyrone Weedon. 

In addition to selecting and sequencing the photos and illustrations, I produced 12 versions of the stories for the package, including plain language, Spanish and audio translations. 

Why a Struggling Rust Belt City Pinned Its Revival on a Self-Chilling Beverage Can

Read the story and see the full layout.

This story detailed Youngstown’s misguided hope that Chill-Can, a self-chilling beverage can business, would bring prosperity to its residents. Three years later, Chill-Can’s factory has not produced a single job, even though local officials have given land and tax breaks to the company.

Though I could have focused on the absurdity of Chill-Can as a product, I wanted to center the story’s art direction on how Youngstown’s local government failed its residents. In my conversations with the reporter and editor, I was outraged at Youngstown residents forced to give up their houses for Chill-Can’s factory, and wanted to the visuals to help the reader feel that outrage as well.

I decided to commission Maddie McGarvey to photograph the story because of her history of documenting Rust Belt and Appalachian towns, her moody industrial landscapes and her dignified environmental portraits. I wrote the photo brief, made final selects from Maddie’s take, chose the sequence, and wrote the captions.

He’d Waited Decades to Argue His Innocence. She Was a Judge Who Believed in Second Chances.

Nobody Knew She Suffered from Alzheimer’s.

Read the story and see the full layout.

I worked with Lisa Larson Walker, ProPublica’s art director, and Agnes Chang, ProPublica’s creative story technologist, to design this presentation. The story focuses on the overlapping lives of a wrongfully convicted man and the judge who sentenced him, who now has Alzheimers. 

Lisa identified the major themes of memory, legacy, erasure, and lost time and had the idea of commissioning artists who work in graphite. I found the layered portraiture of Thomas Cian and we agreed that his work, with its erased textures and layers captured these themes. Given the tight deadline, we decided to commission one portrait of the judge, one portrait of the incarcerated man, and simple graphite drop caps and section breaks to tie the piece together. 

Because the narrative weaves back and forth between the judge and the imprisoned man, I wanted the opener to show each portrait separately and together, to echo how their lives have converged and Agnes elegantly translated this idea into HTML and CSS. I also asked Thomas to create a process video for each portrait, so that our audience team could use it for social media story promotion.

The Ransomware Superhero of Normal, Illinois

Read the story and see the full layout.

This is one of the rare ProPublica stories that is heartwarming, sweet and had a set headline before the reporter filed a rough draft. The headline, the lighthearted tone, and the subject’s Clark Kent/Superman vibe all inspired me to play with a comic book aesthetic in the illustrations.

I had seen Benjamin Marra’s work on the cover of an American Illustration annual and thought he would have fun creating scenes showing how an introverted computer whiz turned into a tech superhero.

I wrote the illustration brief, gave Ben feedback on the sketches for inline and lead images, and chose the sequence of the inlines. David Sleight, ProPublica’s design director, also assisted with art direction.

Nobody Accurately Tracks Health Care Workers Lost to COVID-19. So She Stays Up At Night Cataloging the Dead.

Read the story and see the full layout.

For this story, the editor and reporter wanted a photo portrait of the main subject, an anesthesiologist named Claire who tracks the COVID-19 deaths of healthcare workers. Several themes stood out to me in the rough draft: counting as an act of making meaning from senseless death, tracking the dead as a healing ritual, standing “face to face with death and loss in a visceral way,” bearing witness to tragedy, and visibility/invisibility.

Because the pandemic would prevent a photographer from spending lots of time with Claire inside her home, I thought a lead illustration could better show Claire’s passion and determination to honor the dead, as well as her anger at the federal government’s failure to do so. I imagined the illustration depicting Claire focused on her research while surrounded by the ghosts of fallen health care workers.

Sometimes, as an art director, I get to hire my favorite living artists, like Yann Kebbi. Because of his psychological portraits, his ability to depict many different kinds of people within a single scene, and his varied mark making, I thought Yann would be a wonderful person to commission for this particular story.

I also commissioned Carlos Bernate to make portraits of Claire to include inline further down in the story. I wrote the photo brief, selected the final images, chose the sequence and wrote the captions.

At a Great Price: The True Cost of the Sears Headquarters Deal

Read the series and see all the story layouts.

At a Great Price focused on Sears’ move to the Chicago suburbs and how the company’s promise to bring jobs and prosperity to the surrounding area never came to fruition. We co-published the series with the Daily Herald, a local Chicago newspaper.

Unlike most of ProPublica’s series, all five stories and the methodology published within a day of each other, sometimes two stories publishing on the same day. To signal to the reader that each piece belonged to the same series, I wanted each lead image to visually reference the other lead images, while still being unique. 

Inspired by Sears’ famous catalogues and the disillusionment behind its tax deal, as well as the amount of archival images of the original groundbreaking, I knew I also wanted to hire an illustrator who worked with paper and could play with the idea of empty promises and nostalgia without being saccharine. David Sleight, ProPublica’s design director, suggested Joan Wong and I thought her fractured compositions and bold color palette would work well for the series. I decided to commission her to create the lead illustration for each of the stories, as well as the series image. 

I wrote the illustration assignment brief, conducted photo research to find Sears’ archival imagery and wire photos of recent store closings, gave Joan feedback on the submitted sketches and chose the final images.

I also commissioned Pat Nabong to photograph the present-day Sears headquarters, to contrast with the archival photos. Together, Pat’s parking lot and retail landscapes paired with the 1990s’ photos of the Sears headquarters created a now-and-then comparison that visually showed how the Sears’ deal didn’t live up to the town’s expectations. In addition to the suburban landscapes, I asked Pat to photograph a visiting circus at the Sears Centre arena at the editor’s suggestion; I thought the half-empty stadium would capture the empty spectacle of the tax deal. I coordinated logistics for her shoot at the arena, wrote the photo brief, selected the final images from her wide take, chose the sequence in each story, and wrote the captions.

Commissioned Single Illustrations

Below is a selection of lead illustrations that I commissioned for ProPublica stories.