How we captured the photo of a mother recording a song that honors a son lost to gun violence

This week’s top photo comes from Visual Journalist Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere. Follow him on X, Bluesky and Instagram.

What makes this photo important?

For most of my career at the Chicago Sun-Times I’ve been covering gun violence mostly as breaking news — arriving just moments after it happens while investigators attempt to piece together a crime scene and try to bring the victim and their families closure and some form of justice.

Rarely do I get the opportunity to follow the story long after the incident has passed. This was a unique glimpse at a subject that turned heartache into activism and required the same reverence as some of the scenes I’ve had to cover.

How did you get the photo?

When I arrived at Lost Boy Sound studio in the West Loop, I met with Racquel Perry, a mother who lost her son to gun violence and who was afforded a chance to honor her son through a Chicago Symphony Orchestra program that pairs mothers who’ve lost their children to gun violence with professional musicians to create original pieces to commemorate them.

The audio engineer let me stay in the music room for the recording as long as I was still and my camera was absolutely silent. Sara Lee, artistic director of the Irene Taylor Trust was in the room as well, taking her time with Perry, going over the spoken word lyrics and making sure everything flowed properly to the beat and to the song.

Then in one take, to the surprise of Lee and the audio engineers in the sound booth, Perry performed her part.

After which she broke down in tears. Since she was away from the mic I rushed over to get the tender moment of Lee comforting Perry. Perry a little embarrassed made it clear to Lee, the audio engineers and myself these tears were tears of joy and not sorrow.

Everything about this image and the story helped show that gun violence doesn’t go away when the police and reporters do or when the offenders are brought to justice. It sticks with communities and people forever. The pain and trauma never goes away, and I hope to continue to explore and capture images of it.

Technical details:

• Equipment: Nikon Z6 II
• Focal length: 30mm
• Aperture: f3.5
• Exposure: 1/100
• ISO: 4000

Here are 21 more Sun-Times photos from this week of coverage.