A Slice of Life

NPR's Code Switch, a site comprised of a team of six NPR journalists who cover race, ethnicity and culture, highlighted a photo taken by photographer Joseph Crachiola in 1973. 

This 1973 Photo by Joe Crachiola / The Macomb Daily

As a staff photographer for the Macomb Daily, Crachiola kept an eye out for "those little slices of life that can stand on their own."

"It was just one of those evenings," Crachiola remembers. "I saw these kids — they were just playing around. And I started shooting some pictures of them. At some point, they saw me and they all turned and looked at me and struck that pose that you see in the picture. It was totally spontaneous. I had nothing to do with the way they arranged themselves."

40 years later, in 2013, after the verdict of the George Zimmerman trial, the image went viral when Crachiola posted the image on his Facebook page, with over a million hits on his original post.  He wanted to put something out that was positive.

"For me, it still stands as one of my most meaningful pictures," he wrote in his post. "It makes me wonder... At what point do we begin to mistrust one another? When do we begin to judge one another based on gender or race? I have always wondered what happened to these children. I wonder if they are still friends."

With the new interest in the photo, the Macomb Daily dug up the microfilm to find the caption for the photo: The children are Rhonda, Roger and Lisa Shelly, ages 3, 6 and 5, as well as Kathy and Chris Macool, ages 7 and 9.

There is talk of a reunion soon.