2020 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Design > Opening Page/Spread-Photo > Less Than $3 Million Revenue > Upper Midwest

Awarded to

Sara Wadford, Senior Designer; Wayne Slezak, Photographer

Entry details

Marked for Life

Issue or publication date: May 2019
Publication name: ABA Journal
Publishing company: American Bar Association
Website home page: ABAJournal.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

The ABA Journal is the flagship magazine for the American Bar Association and signature publication for the legal profession. The Journal is an award-winning, dynamic multimedia platform delivering legal journalism with an independent voice. The Journal informs, engages and stimulates important conversations that define the American legal system and help it respond to important issues of the day. The Journal and its companion website, newsletters and podcasts ensure it has among the largest readership of any legal publication in the world. While the Journal serves as a key benefit to members of the American Bar Association, it maintains editorial independence and integrity, allowing it to provide critical coverage of the trends, people and business of the legal profession from Wall Street to Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

“Marked for Life” is the first in a series of original reporting by our own managing editor, Kevin Davis. The focus of the story is the difficulty of overcoming a criminal past. Since those depicted suffered many hardships and overcame them to successfully enter back into society, we wanted strong emotion to speak from the images. The photography of Wayne Slezak was therefore essential in this piece. The dramatic lighting forced sharp contrast in the imagery and the stark transition from dark to light represents the past leading to the present of each of the subject’s lives. It also was important for us to show the subjects so they would be proud of themselves. We wanted to visually compliment and reward them for their positive lifestyle choices and the hurdles they have overcome on their journeys.

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:

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