Jerome Thompson
GRAPHICS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Vivid color and expert organization of tightly rendered elements highlight the work of a promising newcomer in Cox. He is Jerome Thompson of the News Art staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

His "Raising the Hunley" was an absorbing feature about archaeologists' plans for the recovery of the confederate warship from the Charleston Harbor. Later in 2000, Thompson taught himself sound and motion graphics. Soon ajc.com was enhanced by two of his productions, "Georgia's Gullah-Geechee Culture, The Saving of a Soul," and "An interactive look at an American hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." A third, about migratory birds, is in the works at this writing.

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"Jerome is developing into a strong visual storyteller by tackling tough stories, then explaining through graphics what happened or how the process works," said Rick Crotts, the Journal-Constitution's news art manager.

A native of Dillon, S.C., Thompson graduated from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.; before joining the Journal-Constitution, he worked for papers in South Carolina and Colorado. He mastered Photoshop and Freehand at the Colorado Gazette in Colorado Springs. He has a twin brother Tyrone, who is a Scientific Atlanta employee. Jerome is a good singer who likes "vocal jazz, gospel and alternative music."

In the Hunley incident of 1863, nine diehard Confederates bolted themselves inside history's first submersible, made from a cylindrical iron boiler, and submerged. Attacking at night, they rammed the Union warship USS Housatonic, sinking it and killing 5 of 115 people aboard. All aboard the Hunley perished, too, entombed in the harbor where the war had begun.

One hundred thirty-seven years later, an African American artist from South Carolina created a graphic about what had happened. He won a Best of Cox award for it. It says something about how wounds of the war steadily are healing.

"The thought entered my mind: I'm an African-American and I'm working on art about a Confederate submarine," he recalled. "But what I found interesting was the historical significance of it and the information behind it. It was just an opportunity to do what I enjoy."