Thanks so much to Carmen Gentile of Postindustrial for having me (and my clucking infant) for a conversation on long term storytelling in photojournalism, transitioning from stills to video, Pittsburgh, and other things I like to nerd out on. Photo of one of my favorite Steel City corners above, and podcast link below: https://postindustrial.com/stories/documenting-people-and-culture-in-postindustrial-communities/

Honored to be nominated for a Mid-Atlantic Emmy for “Coverings” and always hoping that these things help nudge the work towards another person that needs to see it. See the project and videos here.

I still can’t find the words to express the whirlwind of feelings after hearing that Coverings, our investigation of child sexual abuse and cover-ups in the insular Amish and Mennonite communities, was named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It’s my sincere hope that the survivors who took a risk in sharing their most vulnerable stories with us in hopes of building safer, more healing communities for new generations feel their voices amplified in this moment. We hear change is happening for the better, and I couldn’t think of a better honor than that.

Reporting like this is not born in a vacuum, it’s mopped from the brows of a team of people who believe in the hard work of stories that are hard to report. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to learn from Peter Smith and Shelly Bradbury, whose humble excellence in the craft of reporting carries beyond the page and into the sinews of who they are. Editors Rebecca Droke and Lillian Thomas understood the importance of time, patience, and gentle guidance as we continued to bring back new pieces of a complex puzzle to connect together. My fellow photo staff picked up other assignments so I could be on the road or editing. Designers Zack Tanner and Alex Miller built impactful, clean presentations from the pile of text, video, and photos we’d built throughout the months.

Even further behind-the-scenes are each of our at-home support systems. My family supported me from afar with love and patience I can’t possibly deserve (even while worrying about me and probably not understanding entirely what I was doing). My partner Justin Merriman never questioned the importance of spending time away to work on this, even through my all-nighters of video editing I pulled on our long-awaited vacation at the beach. He gets why it’s important on a broader level, and I can’t imagine this past year without his loyalty and understanding. A tip of my hat to the motel vending machines I frequented as I backed up and organized files after long days of interviews. And to my grandad, a newspaper man through and through, who always told me I would see my name on the Pulitzer list (and who I always thought was just being a sweet grandad by saying that)– I hope you can see this wherever you are.

Thanks to @buzzfeed​ for including our latest story in the “Growing Up Through the Cracks” series on child poverty as part of their “8 Photo Stories That Will Challenge Your View Of The World” list.

The Brown family lives in rural Saltlick, Pa., where 2/3 of children are living in poverty. As milk prices continue to dip and Mary Beth Brown struggles with the physical, emotional, and financial pain of Stage 4 breast cancer, the Browns fear they will be the first generation in their family in 200 years to lose the dairy farm they feel call home.

In the rural area, government services are hard to access. The local officials don’t see social services as their job, while federal and state benefits are funneled through the county seat in Uniontown, a 40-minute drive with no transit options, writes reporter Chris Huffaker.

For the Brown children, a strong social network, centered on their family and their church, has shielded them.
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“They go fishing, they shoot bows and arrows,“ Ms. Brown said. "They don’t know they’re poor.” Read more and see more photos at the Post-Gazette here.

What a rugged emotional landscape this past year was, inside and outside the newsroom walls. Our newsroom receiving the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting feels confusing, an oscillation between wanting to laugh and cry (and barf?). Recognitions like this don’t take way the pain behind what happened, but hopefully honor it, and acknowledge what we can do together pushing in the same direction. “We are not so much celebrating as affirming … the job we were put on this earth to do,” said David Shribman, our former executive editor. “Let’s dedicate ourselves to the memory of those whose lives were lost.” And now, back to work.

Thanks to the PA NewsMedia Association for recognizing Keeley and the Vial and our ongoing series about raising children in the modern overdose crisis in their photo story and series categories. I know I’m lucky to work for a paper that believes in investing the time it takes to do these deep dives (and that allows me to work with investigative reporter Rich Lord), and I hold dear the trust given to us by the Ashbaughs and others who let me in to try to show a bit of their lives.

Since this published, TJ and Kate’s four little girls welcomed a baby brother named in honor of their late Uncle Ricky, whose fatal overdose shook the branches of their family tree. TJ lives knowing that could have been his fate, as well. As he raises his children in recovery, he makes no secret of the disease that killed his brother and turned his ex into a missing person, and has taught his youngest daughter to give a goodnight kiss to the vial of his brother’s ashes he keeps around his neck. Head to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interactive here to see more photos and videos, read the story, and learn more about how T.J. and Kate are working together to acknowledge the generational cycles of addiction in their family and how to best raise their children to be aware of it.

When we sat with Gary Fisher months before his own fatal OD, he foreshadowed the abandonment he would pass on from his own childhood to his daughter’s.

“Abandonment’s a big thing, it was a big thing for me. I was abandoned by one person that I didn’t think should ever abandon me. And I fear that for my daughter, that she’s going to wonder why dad left, why he’s not around, why he died. And she’s going to have questions and she’s never going to get answers. And that feeling that I live with on a daily basis, I don’t want anybody to go through. And I don’t want her to feel like I gave her up.”

We went back to Gary’s daughter’s house in McKeesport, Pa. as she struggles with the anxiety of the bullying and night terrors she is experiencing in the wake of her father’s death. Her story is part of the final chapter of Needle in the Family Tree, a yearlong look at how the opioid and overdose epidemic is impacting families in Western Pennsylvania. Head to the Post-Gazette here for more.