The Sunday Still: The New Normal

The Sunday Still from Patrick Farrell Welcome to photojournalist Patrick Farrell's 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 New Normal Award-winning photojournalist Yunghi Kim went underground to document New York City getting sicker in a three-day series of masterful black-and-white photos published in Rolling Stone on March 17. Her 14 images depict life-changing for the millions of New Yorkers who rely on the city’s subway system. The first photo of a man asleep with a surgical mask in an unusually empty car near 34th Street inserts us into the moment, seemingly unaware that a photographer has brought us there. The best documentary-style photos make you wonder, “Where is the photographer? How did she do that?” Kim and her camera are unobtrusive, invisible. She has turned us into eyewitnesses as life swirls around us. Kim, who has covered conflicts and in-depth stories around the world for 34 years, started the “Trailblazers of Light” website earlier this year to recognize the work of pioneering female photojournalists. This photo story demonstrates why she’s made her mark in the field. 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.