The New York Times have published a thought-provoking look at their reasons for choosing their front-page photo from the Indian Ocean catastrophe.

“Two Mondays ago, the scale of the Indian Ocean catastrophe was just emerging from the incomplete earlier reports (from a Times article the day before: a tidal wave had “killed more than 150 people in Sri Lanka”). By the 4:30 Page 1 meeting, picture editors had examined more than 900 images of devastation to find the one that would stretch across five columns and nearly half the depth of Tuesday’s front page. Into a million homes came a grieving mother crouched beside the lifeless bodies of tiny children [photo], and perhaps more horrifying, three pairs of feet extending from beneath a white sheet in an upper corner, suggesting the presence beyond the frame of row upon awful row of the tsunami’s pitiless toll.”

Website: The New York Times - No Picture Tells the Truth. The Best Do Better Than That.