69. SAMATAMASON, INC., CHICAGO
Evan’s Life Foundation was created in 1992 as a nonprofit organization that aids children at risk. It began when SamataMason creative directors, Greg and Pat Samata, lost their two-year-old son, Evan Wilder Samata, in a tragic car accident. To date, the Foundation has raised enough money to assist over 10,000 children in need, often providing the kinds of things larger aid organizations can’t—bus tokens to avoid dangerous streets, braces to heal self-esteem, tuition for a decent education in the heart of neighborhoods filled with gangs, a special bike for freedom from cerebral palsy. Unlike other nonprofits, 100 percent of its contributions go to meet the children’s needs.

One Girl is an annual fundraising piece that features a “day in the life” of one of the Foundation’s kids. “I wanted to capture a slice of Angela’s life as an outsider might see it. The photography is editorial in nature and nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s the shocking statements that draw the readers in and makes us understand that this young girl has been raised in an extremely dysfunctional situation. She is at risk and the ‘typical’ kid that Evan’s Life Foundation assists,” affirms Pat Samata. She continues, “It is easy to dismiss a single photo of a needy child and much more provoking to do a simple but hard-to-forget story on a girl like Angela. The few words and images we use tell the whole story.”
Terry Lee Stone