THE SUNDAY STILL: A plea heard ’round the world

Photojournalist Patrick Farrell has joined the blog with his weekly feature, The Sunday Still. Farrell selects one image each week that showcases the best photojournalism by photojournalists from around the world. The feature runs weekly in The Sunday Long Read. The goal of the newsletter, edited by Don Van Natta Jr. and Jacob Feldman, is to put the week’s best journalism in your hands every Sunday morning.

The Sunday Still from Patrick Farrell

A plea heard ’round the world Like a visual SOS, veteran Miami Herald photographer Al Diaz’s photograph of Aliana Alexis raising her arms from the concrete remains of her Bahamian home on Sept. 5 became the iconic image of Hurricane Dorian, helping mobilize international response. Some coverage this past week did an excellent job of showing the expanse of devastation in “The Mudd” shantytown on Great Abaco Island, but it took a still image of Alexis in a house dress and blue Crocs, surrounded by smashed plywood and soggy mattresses, to send a clear message. Shared on social media and newspaper sites around the world, the power of the photograph stirred a global reaction. “Hold on tight mama,” one reader wrote on the Miami Herald Instagram feed. “Help is coming.” Patrick Farrell, the curator of The Sunday Still, is the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winner for Breaking News Photography for The Miami Herald, where he worked from 1987 to 2019. He is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Media Management at the University of Miami School of Communication.