2021 NPPA Best of Photojournalism

2021 Online Video Storytelling – Pandemic – Large Team

First Place
Earliest Heartbreak
Brian Kaufman, Producer / Director / Editor / Studio Cinematographer Elisha Anderson, Reporter / Producer Gina Kaufman, Reporter / Producer Kristi Tanner, Reporter / Producer Junfu Han, Drone Cinematographer Kelly Jordan, Drone Cinematographer Mandi Wright, Drone Cinematographer Ryan Garza, Photographer Kimberly P. Mitchell, Photographer Eric Seals, Photographer/Detroit Free Press
First Place

Detroit Free Press investigative reporters worked for months to uncover the identities of Michigan’s first victims of COVID-19. Over 100 interviews with family members of the deceased were conducted. From those, 20 were selected to recount the lives of their loved ones during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Because victims and their families were scattered throughout Metro Detroit and across Michigan, these interviews were conducted and recorded by phone. Combined, their voices speak as one and lay the narrative framework for this video. Each family supplied a single portrait of their loved one, which the videographer then printed and filmed in a studio setting. It is a testament to the lives we’ve lost as well as government missteps along the way.