a1, below the fold

© James Rajotte for The New York Times

Standing in line for coffee this morning, I was struck by this photograph on the front page of the New York Times. It accompanied a story titled, Old Enough Now to Hear How Dad Died at War.

We've become accustomed to seeing a standard picture of grieving subjects - where the person is shown holding a framed photo of their departed loved one. I'm not saying that's not a valid photograph to make (I've done it myself), but there's a forced drama to that type of image. In a journalistic sense, I suppose that type of shot contains all the important elements - the photograph tells a story without much need for a caption.

But this image is so much more subtle than that - with a sense of mystery and underlying emotion. And though it's technically a portrait, I think there's a wonderful moment captured here, most notably in the look on the mother's face.

Kudos to The Times for hiring James Rojette - who I hadn't heard of before - for the assignment. From his website, it looks like he's fresh out of graduate school.