Book Iterations
The book Sandy Stories went through many iterations before its final version.
- The initial proposal was for the book to include iconic pictures of Sandy-devastated locations around New York City, immediately after Sandy, alongside pictures of those locations in October 2013. Many of the October/November 2012 pictures were from the web, and the students soon found it difficult to get releases for these image to appear in a book.
- The second proposal was to use the locations shown in the iconic images, but to just use October 2013 images. This idea was scuttled when it became apparent that the images were not powerful enough to evoke a response.
- The third idea also involved using the iconic images, but having students traveling to those neighborhoods with a video camera to capture local citizens' Sandy Stories. The students thought these stories would resonate with the reader. However, it became apparent that it would be difficult to find the right person to tell the story in each location.
- Because our school community was deeply affected by Sandy, the students decided to use our own faculty and students to tell their own stories about the impact of Sandy. This required sensitivity, as some members of the community might not be comfortable telling the story publicly.