Home after tragedy – photo essay
On December 14, 2012, tragedy struck where nobody thought it ever would. 20 students – no older than 7-years-old – and 6 faculty members were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. It was the type of town that everyone considered totally safe; nothing bad ever happened. However, what was previously considered a quiet and unassuming town had now been permanently rattled by an unimaginable, inhumane evil.
The Sandy Hook Elementary shooting is the second worse school shooting to happen in the United States to this date. It’s the type of thing that you hear on the news and think “that will never happen to me”. Most people send their best wishes to a town when these all-too-common crimes happen, but never consider how they rebuild after the fact. The following photographs are scenes taken around Newtown 12 years after the tragedy. They show how the community has adapted and changed but was never truly able to move on.
After the shooting, Sandy Hook Elementary School was demolished by the town. Four years later, a new school building was opened on the grounds of it’s predecessor.
Cameras, gates, and security checkpoints can be seen on and around the school grounds, resembling a high-security prison more than a school.
A metal gate and intercom system greets those who visit the new Sandy Hook Elementary School at the school’s main entrance.
Just over a quarter of a mile down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary lives the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial, built to acknowledge and remember those lost in the shooting.
A plaque greets visitors at the entrance of the Permanent Sandy Hook Memorial. It details what happened 12 years ago and what the memorial serves to remember.
The names of the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting are engraved into the wall of memorial’s centerpiece.
Other memorial efforts can be seen scattered around town, including the 26 stars that sit on the roof of Newtown’s Volunteer Fire Department building.
A few miles down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary, St. Rose of Lima Church acted as an immediate place of asylum for Newtown’s residence during the days directly after the shooting.
The “Garden of Peace” located on St. Rose’s campus was erected in memory of the victims of the tragedy and is dedicated in tribute to Monsignor Robert Weiss – the parish’s pastor at the time of the shooting.
Sharing a parking lot with St. Rose of Lima Church is Saint Rose School. This school, along with the other schools in town saw a number of safety changes after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.
A security entrance has been added to the main entrance of the school. During operating hours a security guard is positioned at the desk to vet all who enter the building.
All exterior windows at Saint Rose School are outfitted with bullet proof glass – an addition that became common in many surrounding schools after the shooting.
A painted rock that reads “End Gun Violence” sits on the center fountain at the Permanent Sandy Hook Memorial, serving as a lasting reminder of what happened twelve years ago.
Newtown is just one example of a town that can’t ever forget gun violence. Despite memorials all around town, these crimes still happen almost daily in the United States. Schools are beginning to look more and more like high security prisons rather than a place to learn. Don’t let more children suffer, end gun violence.
Thoughts and analysis
Having lived in Newtown for over 15 years now, I have seen how the shooting that took place permanently rocked the town. Although I was not at Sandy Hook Elementary at the time of shooting, I saw the grief and despair of everyone around me.
It has bothered me that after a school shooting, people seem to forget about it until the next one. Sandy Hook seems to only be brought up to compare how devastating it was to the most recent shooting at a given moment. Unlike what the public may thing, people don’t simply move on.
I saw my home and school change. Security measures increased and fear lingered. I wanted to show these feelings using my skills as a photographer, presenting still images of places around Newtown that remind us of what happened that day. The photos don’t include people or action, just places.
This intentional choice to keep the images relatively still and lifeless was done to make the viewer feel the emptiness that was created by the shooting in 2012. This is supported by the color choices I made during the edit of these photographs. The dark, faded oranges, browns, and greens symbolize apprehension and vigilance – as explained by Plutchik's wheel of emotions. These are the feelings that have yet to fade from the community in Newtown.
Most of the images use depth to guide the viewer through the story. Linear perspective and overlapping are the two most common forms of this in the images. An example of this is in the image of the plaque at the permeant memorial. Depth and focus are used in this case to draw the viewer to two specific sets of words in the image – “Welcome” and “December 12, 2012”.
Another way viewers are drawn to the subjects in my images is using proximity and enclosure to create frames. This is seen most notably in the image of the fire station, which is framed by the tree in the foreground. Proximity is also crucial to giving context in the images, such as the image of Saint Rose School, which shows the sign giving its name to the viewer while also showing the new security entrance at the front.
It's important to note that the story I presented lacks a definitive three-act structure or arch. This structure works because the images are not the whole story. Rather it is more of a focus on the end of the bell curve after the falling actions. What was the resolution? Where is the community now?
The images I created are incredibly telling of what Newtown is today. Although we have learned to move on after the tragedy, we have certainly not forgotten. Although it is still quiet and unassuming in many ways, the feelings of anxiety and tentativeness shown in the images do still linger – and they likely always will.
Hi! My name is Peyton McKenzie.
I am a professional graphic designer, photographer and content creator.
I encourage you to explore my portfolio to get a better idea of the work I create. If you are interested in working with me or have inquiries of any kind, don’t hesitate to reach out over email.
