Concept: To craft a series of three photo illustrations representing the individual chapters of an investigative report about a man who has been arrested for espionage.

Work: My role in this project was to conceive a visual conceit that would connect all three visualizations together while simultaneously representing the individual chapters of the story.

Chapter 1 (image above) is the introduction, so I opted for a photo of the man himself imposed over the official department of justice case files and an archival photograph.

Chapter 2 is about his participation in anti-China activism and his arrest, so I featured a photo of his ankle bracelet in front of a protest banner and his personal bookcase.

Finally, Chapter 3 is about his path forward, so I featured a photo of him walking away to represent his story moving forward.

The red and blue brush strokes in each illustration symbolize China and the U.S., as well as communism and democracy, respectively. The torn paper motif represents his torn loyalties between the two countries. I created the torn paper asset by ripping up a piece of black cardstock then scanning it into my computer before removing the white background in Photoshop to make a transparent PNG.

I also created versions of these photo illustrations for our Instagram page and guided our social media editor in his design of the post.   

Program: Adobe Photoshop

Timeline: 2 days

Read the full story at https://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/china-accused-spy-shujun-wang/index.html