Visualizing Autism

I am going to put this right up front – I think Craig Walker may be one of the most important photojournalists of our time.

He won earned two Pulitzer Prizes while at the Denver Post, one for a story on a kid joining the Army and a second on a Marine coming back from war. This week, the Boston Globe published Raising Connor, the story of a 13 year old boy with autism.

Walker invested the time, invested the energy, invested the compassion that this story needed. It is a shining example of what Roger May refers to as heartwork.

Not noted in the story, but due acknowledgment, are the editors who gave Walker the ability to make this story happen. It is stories like this that give us a true insight into what is happening in our communities, that let us both see and feel.

Last night, I sent another group of visual journalists out into the world at the University of Georgia commencement ceremony. We talk about stories that illuminate, educate and resonate – this story is what I mean by that.