For me, the blank space around this kind of article is the most interesting part. When you profile a handful of people, the defining feature of the piece is jou

For me, the blank space around this kind of article is the most interesting part. When you profile a handful of people, the defining feature of the piece is journalistic discretion. Which of the several million Bay Area residents do they choose to speak with? Of those, which end up published in the final piece? The degrees of freedom are such that a piece like this can tell almost any story the author wants to tell. The individual experiences and visual representation of the subjects are still true in a literal sense, but the narrative arc is wholly constructed by the author. A painter is constrained by the physical properties of paint and canvas, but the selection of materials and subject are discretionary. Articles like this are closer to art than anything else.