babe wake up the vice president tweeted my photo

well, kinda. technically she just tweeted a texas tribune article with my photo as the dominant but I'm going to take what I can get

Today, my friend and former Texas Tribune editor Eddie Gaspar texted me.

There on Kamala Harris’ twitter was a TT article, my photo as the dominant.

Aside from crossing something off the photo-j bucket list I didn’t even know I had, it’s even cooler to know my spring semester documentary was focused on just that — the chaos, confusion and fear we in Texas face post-roe. 

From left: Anna Zargarian, Lauren Miller, Lauren Hall, and Amanda Zurawski at a press conference announcing the filing of Zurawski v. Texas at the Texas state capitol on March 7, 2023. The four plaintiffs have been denied life-saving medical care during pregnancy complications in Texas and demand clarity on what constitutes a “medical emergency” exception to abortion bans.

My excitement is mixed with a nostalgia that I have no business feeling at this point in my career — I cherish it now because one day (I hope) it will just be another day on the job. Right? Or will that excitement never falter?

I think about the first rush I felt seeing my words printed in a publication as big as the Dallas Morning News the summer after high school (or the thousands of views on the DMN YouTube channel on my feature video with hundreds of dislikes). Two years later I see that, out of all the photos from press conferences populated with dozens of photographers and broadcasters, mine was on the white-house’s-second-in-command’s-page on twitter (a totally real and very reputable publication to add to my portfolio, I delude myself.) It’s a clarifying career moment, where I can zoom out and place myself among the huge living, writhing organism of political journalism.

Starstruckness aside, this is not the first time I’ve been surprised to see the potential scope and magnitude of my work. It often comes from individuals and families we reported on giving thanks for telling their stories. I’m proud of what produced at The Tribune, knowing that even after I’m gone my work can still do something. I’m proud to see my photo alongside descriptions of these women’s powerful court testimonies.

Anna Zargarian and Lauren Miller, two of five plaintiffs denied abortions in Texas during life-threatening pregnancy complications, during a press conference announcing the filing of Zurawski v. Texas.

The brave women fighting against the state have been the subject of massive regional and national media coverage since the lawsuit’s announcement.

When I had to show the first dailies of my documentary, I took the photos from this assignment and put them along with audio of their testimonies in a last-minute shuffle. The pressure of the daily was necessary, though; it crystallized that this was a relevant, timely issue I was personally passionate about. My initial vision for the project was to interview and shadow the former physicians who also filed the lawsuit. But for my story, the lawsuit served best as a marker on Texas’ post-roe timeline, of what this legal misery has amounted to. My documentary was better (and more feasible) to detail the stories and insights of those not already plastered in the New York Times. 

I hope to release a finalized version at the end of the summer, including more than what the April cut had, like the experiences of abortion youth activists at the state capitol and live documenting the trip a Texas resident took to receive the procedure in another state. 

It truly took the Vice President to make me publish another substack. The longer I went without posting the more I convinced myself the makeup post had to be bigger, and bigger, and longer, and more interesting to compensate. But my self-expectations are often paralyzingly high. I think I’ll just hit publish.

Amanda Zurawski speaks at a press conference announcing the filing of Zurawski v. Texas at the Texas capitol.