The third-prize winner in AJN' s photojournalism contest, Tom Fox captures a heartrending moment between nurse Cindy Johnson and mother Jenny Scott: they were discussing seven-month-old Allie's decline from acute myeloid leukemia, at the Stem Cell Transplantation and Research Program at the Medical City of Dallas Hospital.
This photograph accompanied an article in the Dallas Morning News in August 2004 chronicling the friendship that grew between two mothers whose children were treated for leukemia in the Dallas hospital. Fox was double-checking his facts for the story when Johnson came into the room to check ivs, and Scott started crying. Fox was packing his equipment and looked up. "This moment was happening that I didn't expect, so I unpacked my camera and shot the photo," he says. Allie died on September 13, 2004. For more information, visit the Scotts' online journal at http://www.scotthousehold.com.
Fox began as a painter in college and explored different mediums, including photography, as a fine arts major. His training as a painter has influenced his work as a photojournalist, he says; he has received numerous awards, including the Vivian Castleberry Award from the Association for Women Journalists in 2000 for a series of photographs on two women living with HIV.
Fox had a baby daughter when he photographed Jenny and Allie Scott. "It was hard to think about my own family while on this shoot," he says. "But that's probably why I was given the assignment. Photos tend to be better if you have a vested interest in the subject." In the photograph on this page, mother and daughter share a laugh.