NPPA | Sports Illustrated
At 7 a.m. on Saturday, April 12, at the finish line of the 2014 Boston Marathon, photographers for Sports Illustrated will shoot their next cover, NPPA posted on Wednesday.
The marathon itself happens on Monday, April 21. The magazine comes out on Wednesday, April 16. But to mark the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombings, Sports Illustrated’s holding a photo shoot, asking Bostonians to wear their Boston gear and join first responders and Mayor Marty Walsh, Sports Illustrated announced on their site Wednesday.
“Boston Strong” has served as a rallying cry for the city since the tragic bombing at last year’s marathon, in which three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two bombs exploded near the finish line. For the cover photo of the issue immediately following the bombings, Sports Illustrated used the famous image of a runner who had been knocked over by the force of the explosions lying before three police officers at the scene.
BOSTON: Be Part Of A Sports Illustrated Cover Shoot #photojournalism #BostonStrong @SInow https://t.co/EOfOEFgZN6 pic.twitter.com/rG6o8uR59p
— Donald R. Winslow (@donaldrwinslow) April 10, 2014
In November of last year, Sports Illustrated featured first responders with Red Sox hitter David Ortiz.
23 days until #WeRunTogether – #BostonStrong pic.twitter.com/6gJdBlCwcz
— Only In Boston (@OnlyInBOS) March 29, 2014
Boston Strong is really about ordinary people, Sports Illustrated’s managing editor, Chris Stone, said in SI. The idea for Saturday’s photo shoot came from creative director Chris Hercik, who “believed the best way to tell this story a year later was to bring all those people, or as many as possible, into a single photo at the finish line,” Stone said. “If you look at last year’s cover photo, you see all that empty space all the way down Boylston Street filled by smoke and that backdrop of chaos and destruction. This year’s photo fills those spaces with the Bostonians who wrote the Boston Strong story.”
In March, NPPA announced that the man who shot that SI cover, Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki, won NPPA’s 2014 Photojournalist of the Year award for large markets.
The Globe staffer literally had the Boston Marathon bombing story unfold in front of his lens. While others ran away from the first blast, Tlumacki ran toward the scene.
Since last year’s bombing, Tlumacki has spent the year following the recovery of Celeste and Sydney Corcoran. He told NPPA that the mother and daughter plan to run the last 25 yards of this year’s race, and he’ll be with them at the finish line.
