by Sarahbeth Maney

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Last month, reporter Anna Clark and I hosted an in-person photo gallery and group discussion about what motivated us to tell stories of Flint, Michigan, residents 10 years after the start of the water crisis and to talk about how we work to understand the communities we serve. As a visual fellow at ProPublica, I’m focused on documenting the lives of people in our stories through photography. Throughout history, photography has been a powerful tool for recording moments in time, providing visual evidence and evoking emotions that urge us to understand experiences outside of our own. Here are suggestions for aspiring visual storytellers who may find themselves in similar situations.

Anna and I previously worked in Flint in different capacities: I interned as a photojournalist at the Flint Journal; Anna wrote a book, “The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy.” To us, Flint is not just a news story, it’s a complex place full of real people who have been and continue to be denied adequate resources and support. We wanted the public to know that generations of Flint residents still live with physical and psychological challenges. By sharing what Flint residents think accountability would look like, we were able to show how many feel betrayed by the failure to hold anyone criminally responsible. They also remain frustrated by how long it’s taking to fix the........

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