ProPublica’s Year in Visual Journalism 2023

Photo illustration by Hisham Akira Bharoocha, photography by Kathleen Flynn, art direction by Anna Donlan, Lisa Larson-Walker and Peter DiCampo for “How We Used Machine Learning to Investigate Where Ebola May Strike”

Photography by Stephanie Mei-Ling, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “The Community of Mothers Who Lost Sons to Police Killings”
Photography by Elianel Clinton, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “This Man’s Conviction Was Overturned After Two Years in Prison. But the City Said He Didn’t Deserve a Dime.”

Photography by Jamie Kelter Davis, photo editing by Alex Bandoni for “As Rail Profits Soar, Blocked Crossings Force Kids to Crawl Under Trains to Get to School”

Illustrations by Michelle Urra for ProPublica, art direction by Max Herman and Lisa Larson-Walker for “New York Workers Are Waiting on $79 Million in Back Wages” and “127,000 New York Workers Have Been Victims of Wage Theft”

Photography by Kathleen Flynn, photo editing by Peter DiCampo and Anna Donlan for “On the Edge”

Animation by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, directed by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Almudena Toral and produced by Lynzy Billing for “The Night Doctrine: ProPublica’s First Animated Documentary Traces Reporting on Afghanistan’s Zero Units”

Photography by Trent Davis Bailey, photo editing by Andrea Wise and Jillian Kumagai for “In the Child’s Best Interest”

Design and development by Zisiga Mukulu for “Someone Tell Me What to Do”

Illustrations by Pei-Hsin Cho, art direction by Zisiga Mukulu for “Someone Tell Me What to Do”

Illustrations by Laila Milevski, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker and Max Herman for “TitleMax Demands High-Interest Payments From Borrowers in Bankruptcy”

Design and development by Al Shaw for “How Forest Loss Can Unleash the Next Pandemic”

Photography by Kim Raff, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “Barricaded Siblings Turn to TikTok While Defying Court Order to Return to Father They Say Abused Them”
Illustration by Rose Wong, art direction by Alex Bandoni for “The Newest College Admissions Ploy: Paying to Make Your Teen a ‘Peer-Reviewed’ Author”

Illustrations by Cheryl Cook, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “Years After Being Ticketed at School for a Theft She Said Never Happened, Former Student Prevails in Court”
Illustrations by Lauren Crow, art direction by Andrea Wise for “A Former NFL Player Persuaded Politicians That His Child ID Kits Help Find Missing Kids. There’s No Evidence They Do.”

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker for “The Supreme Court Will Decide if Domestic Abuse Orders Can Bar People From Having Guns. Lives Could Be at Stake.”

Photography by Stacy Kranitz, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “Doctors Warned Her Pregnancy Could Kill Her. Then Tennessee Outlawed Abortion.”

Map by Lucas Waldron for “The Colorado River Flooded Chemehuevi Land. Decades Later, the Tribe Still Struggles to Take Its Share of Water.”
Map by Lucas Waldron for “Wisconsin’s Legislative Maps Are Bizarre, but Are They Illegal?”

Cinematography by Liz Moughon for “The True Dangers of Long Trains”

Illustration by Tara Anand, art direction by Andrea Wise for “What ProPublica Is Doing About Diversity in 2023”

Photography by Natalie Keyssar and Nitashia Johnson, photo editing by Peter DiCampo for “What You Need to Know About Stillbirths”

Short documentary by Liz Moughon, executive produced by Almudena Toral with additional editing by Margaret Cheatham Williams and graphics and animations by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, for “‘With Every Breath’ Captures the Human Toll of Philips’ Failure to Disclose Dangerous Defects of Its CPAP Devices”

Development by Ash Ngu, illustrations by Ana Galvañ, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “Claim File Helper: Find Out Why Your Health Insurer Denied Your Claim”

Illustration by Regan Dunnick, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Local Newspapers Are Vanishing. How Should We Remember Them?”

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker, portrait illustrations by Brian Lutz, photos by Andrew Dolph for “A Christian Health Nonprofit Saddled Thousands With Debt as It Built a Family Empire Including a Pot Farm, a Bank and an Airline”

Animation by Kolin Pope for “A Christian Health Nonprofit Saddled Thousands With Debt as It Built a Family Empire Including a Pot Farm, a Bank and an Airline”

Photography by Philip Cheung, photo editing by Alex Bandoni for “Inside the Secretive World of Penile Enlargement”

Illustration by Max Erwin, art direction by Andrea Wise for “The Ugly Truth: Inside the ‘We Buy Ugly Houses’ Company”

Video by Nadia Sussman for “In the Child’s Best Interest”

Photography by Annie Flanagan, photo editing by Peter DiCampo for “‘Where Is There to Go?’ He Needs Gender-Affirming Surgery, but His State Is Fighting to Deny Coverage.”

Graphics by Lucas Waldron for “Erasing the ‘Black Spot’: How a Virginia College Expanded by Uprooting a Black Neighborhood”

Design and development by Ash Ngu and Andrea Suozzo for “Does Your Local Museum or University Still Have Native American Remains?”
Photo illustration by Alex Bandoni for “Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art Displaying Objects That Belong to Native American Tribes?”

Animation by Irene Suosalo, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “How a Top Mutual Fund Executive Made Millions for Himself Trading the Same Stocks His Giant Fund Was Trading”

Illustrations by Katherine Lam, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker and Anna Donlan, development by Anna Donlan for “The Scientist and the Bats”

Graphics by Lucas Waldron for “A Top Mutual Fund Executive Made Millions for Himself Trading the Same Stocks His Giant Fund Was Trading”

Photo illustrations by Mark Harris for ProPublica, art direction by Alex Bandoni, Max Herman and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Chaos at the School Board”

Design and development by Lucas Waldron for “How School Board Meetings Became Flashpoints for Anger and Chaos Across the Country”

Photography by Russel Albert Daniels, photo editing by Alex Bandoni and Jillian Kumagai for “A Scientist Said Her Research Could Help With Repatriation. Instead, It Destroyed Native Remains.”

Illustration by Nolan Pelletier, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “How the Ultrawealthy Use Private Foundations to Bank Millions in Tax Deductions While Giving the Public Little in Return”

Design and development by Ash Ngu and Nat Lash for “Las Vegas Needs to Save Water. It Won’t Find it in Lawns.”

Photography by Russel Albert Daniels for “Waiting for Water: Tribes’ Fight for a Promised Resource”

Illustration by Micha Huigen, art direction by Anna Donlan for “The EPA Has Found More Than a Dozen Contaminants in Drinking Water but Hasn’t Set Safety Limits on Them”

Photography by Sylvia Jarrus, photo editing by Max Herman for “Could a Michigan School Shooting Have Been Prevented? Families Still Waiting for a Full Accounting of What Happened.”

Photography by Kriston Jae Bethel, photo editing by Alex Bandoni for “Unstoppable: This Doctor Has Been Investigated at Every Level of Government. How Is He Still Practicing?

Photo illustrations by Justin Metz, development by Lena Groeger, art direction by Andrea Wise for “The Inside Story of How the Navy Spent Billions on the ‘Little Crappy Ship’”

Illustrations by Matt Huynh, art direction by Max Herman and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Minnesota Lets Nurses Practice While Disciplinary Investigations Drag On. Patients Keep Getting Hurt.”
Photo illustration by Peter DiCampo, photography by Tara Rice for “Maine Rarely Sanctions Residential Care Facilities Even After Severe Abuse or Neglect Incidents”

Photography by Sebastián Hidalgo, photo editing by Max Herman for “Can Community Programs Help Slow the Rise in Violence?”

Photography by Kitra Cahana, photo editing by Andrea Wise for “Here’s What Can Happen When Kids Age Out of Foster Care”

Cinematography by Katie Campbell and Mayeta Clark for “Silver Dollar Road,” a feature documentary directed by Raoul Peck and co-produced with Velvet Film and Amazon Studios
Illustration by Chantal Jahchan, art direction by Peter DiCampo for “A Lab Test That Experts Liken to a Witch Trial Is Helping Send Women to Prison for Murder”

Design and development by Sergio Hernandez for “Supreme Risk”

Interview by John Harwood, production and cinematography by Katie Campbell, Gerardo del Valle, Bruce Liffiton and Sean Healey for “The Biden Interview: The President Talks About the Supreme Court, Threats to Democracy and Trump’s Vow to Exact Retribution”

Illustration by Klaus Kremmerz, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “The FCC Is Supposed to Protect the Environment. It Doesn’t.”
Illustration by George Wylesol, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker and Peter DiCampo for “How a Big Pharma Company Stalled a Potentially Lifesaving Vaccine in Pursuit of Bigger Profits”

Illustrations by Nate Sweitzer, art direction by Alex Bandoni, Anna Donlan, Lisa Larson-Walker and Zisiga Mukulu for “We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority”

Photo illustration by Alex Bandoni for “Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel”
News app design and development by Sergio Hernandez, Al Shaw, Jeff Frankl, Nat Lash and Alec Glassford, illustration by Nate Sweitzer, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “Supreme Connections”

Illustration by Simon Bailly, art direction by Peter DiCampo and Lisa Larson-Walker for “The U.S. Banned Farmers From Using a Brain-Harming Pesticide on Food. Why Has It Slowed a Global Ban?”

Animation by Lisa Larson-Walker for “How Verified Accounts on X Thrive While Spreading Misinformation About the Israel-Hamas Conflict

Illustrations by Nash Weerasekera, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Arterial Motives”

Illustration by Alvaro Bernis, art direction by Alex Bandoni for “The Hidden Fee Costing Doctors Millions Every Year”

Animation by Lisa Larson-Walker for “How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them”

Illustrations by Laila Milevski, art direction by Lisa Larson-Walker for “What to Know About the Risks of Gas Stoves and Appliances”

Art direction by Peter DiCampo and Anna Donlan, design and development by Anna Donlan for “Falling Apart”

Illustrations by Pia Guerra, art direction by Peter DiCampo and Anna Donlan for “Falling Apart”

Photography by William DeShazer, photo editing by Peter DiCampo for “How Tennessee’s Justice System Allows Dangerous People to Keep Guns — With Deadly Outcomes”

William DeShazer for ProPublica, Photo editing by Peter DiCampo “How Tennessee’s Justice System Allows Dangerous People to Keep Guns — With Deadly Outcomes”

Illustration by Zeke Peña, art direction by Peter DiCampo for “Mississippi Says Poor Defendants Must Always Have a Lawyer. Few Courts Are Ready to Deliver.”

Design and development by Jason Kao for “Bodycam Videos of Police Killings Remain Out of Public View”

Illustrations by Cuauhtémoc Wetzka, art direction by Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker for “Dairy Workers on Wisconsin’s Small Farms Are Dying. Many of Those Deaths Are Never Investigated. ”

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker, based on an original daguerreotype of an enslaved African named Renty, for “A Racist Harvard Scientist Commissioned Photos of Enslaved People. One Possible Descendant Wants to Reclaim Their Story.”

Graphics and animation by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, producing and reporting by Brandi Kellam, Lisa Riordan Seville, Christopher Tyree and Louis Hansen for “Uprooted”