First: Grief and Grace in Uvalde
This Premier category recognizes a photographer’s extended story about the everyday life of people who make up a community. The purpose is to encourage attention to the small events in life that are often overshadowed by news and celebrate images that reflect the experiences and dreams of humankind.
A “community” may be defined as a neighborhood, a town, a commune, a rural agricultural area, a city subdivision, or socioeconomic region.
Murals honoring Jayce Luevanos, Jailah Silguero, Xavier Lopez and Annabell Rodriguez are seen in Uvalde, Texas, on Aug. 25, 2022.
Grief and Grace in Uvalde
On May 24, 2022, 19 children and two teachers were massacred at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. It took 77 minutes and the arrival of over 350 law enforcement officers before the classrooms were finally breached and the gunman killed. In the year since the shooting, the families of the 21 victims have slowly been working their way through a wilderness of grief, anger, despair, frustration and confusion - searching, if not for peace, then at least purpose.
The children were athletes, artists and gamers who loved ramen noodles and TikTok. They dreamed of being marine biologists, lawyers and world travelers. The teachers loved their students and shielded them with their bodies in their final moments.
The loss is staggering, and each family has charted their own path through the mourning process. Many channeled their grief into activism by packing public meetings and organizing marches, demanding accountability for the failed police response and joining the chorus of Americans calling for stricter state and federal gun laws. The mass shooting in Uvalde was one of 648 in the United States in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive. In a nation marred by gun violence, many Uvalde families are fighting to make their tragedy the last of its kind.
Moments that once brought joy marked the painful passage of time in the months after the shooting. The first day of school. 10th and 11th birthdays celebrated graveside. A holiday season distorted by grief. But amid the grief, there were tender moments of beauty, kindness, compassion, and levity, with the families serving as a source of comfort for one another. There is no script for recovering from a mass shooting but the families are determined to keep the memory of their loved ones alive while together moving forward – not moving on. This project documents over a year in the lives of these families.
