How do you tell the story of the place that’s told our stories?
If you’re journalist Louis DeLuca, you document it.
For the last few days, he’s been snapping photos of the empty rooms, blank walls, and the stuff left behind as his colleagues at the Dallas Morning News leave their home of 68 years.
“I look for the juxtaposition of the person who was here and the emptiness,” said Luca. “There’s something about that that touches your heart.”
For longtime employees, the move is filled with mixed emotions.
“[The building] is messy, it’s rundown and it’s filled with memories,” said reporter Jeff Mossier. “It’ll be weird not coming back here.”
Packing up means dealing with the decisions that come with good-bye.
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“[The hardest thing]… just the stuff. Dealing with the stuff,” said Dallas Morning News Editor Mike Wilson. “It comes with all those nostalgic feelings and hard decisions about what to part with.”
Some things automatically make the move. Like the hundreds of thousands of images captured by photographers through the decades.
Director of Photography Marcia Allert spent days organizing the careful handling of negatives.
“It reflects decades and decades of work,” said Allert. “It’s part of the story of Dallas.”
For many reporters, the move means downsizing a lifetime of work to just two boxes.
“I’ve been in the business 30 years,” said reporter Karen Robinson-Jacobs. “I have 30 years worth of notebooks and hand-written notes. I like my stuff. It’s mine and I want it.”
What captivates DeLuca is what gets left behind and what it represents – the people who left their mark.
“We can look back at decades and decades of excellence that this place was known for,” said DeLuca. “The people made this place for sure.”
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