The confluence of nationwide racial justice protests, economic hardship, and environmental destruction, all within the framework of a deathly and unrelenting global pandemic, reached and maintained profoundly palpable levels of reckoning in Kentucky. The Little Mercies is a state-as-subject portrait of our complicatedly beautiful, deeply resilient contemporary Old Kentucky Home, capturing the lived experience of Kentuckians. Whether documenting a disaster, or an individual’s success, Jon Cherry’s storytelling is one of shared humanity.

Jon Cherry is a photojournalist based in Louisville, Kentucky. Jon works as a stringer with Getty Images, Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg News, and The New York Times and has been published independently by The New York Times, Sierra, TIME Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, New York Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and others. Cherry was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography as part of the Getty Images team for “comprehensive and consistently riveting photos of the attack on the U.S. Capitol” with Win McNamee, Spencer Platt, Drew Angerer, and Sam Corum.