Confronting An Addiction Crisis And a Viral Photo

Freelance photographer Ian Brown pitched this story to NPR. In 2016, a photo of a couple who had overdosed in the front seat of a car with their grandchild in the backseat went viral. The photo came from the East Liverpool, Ohio police who had decided to make the image public.

A year later, Ian visited East Liverpool to ask residents how the national attention had affected them and whether any progress had been made on the small town’s addiction crisis. I produced the story with Ian, and along with editor Carmel Wroth, we distilled interviews, edited images and gave the story a structure that made the residents’ voices front and center.

Read the full story here.