These larger-than-life portraits turn statistics on gun deaths into indelible stories

July 6, 2024

PHILADELPHIA — Zarinah Lomax is an unlikely documentarian of our time. She has designed dresses out of yellow police tape and jackets with hand-painted demands like “Don’t shoot” in purple, black and gold lettering. Every few months, she curates exhibitions of dozens of portraits of Philadelphians — vibrant, brave, larger-than-life faces — in pop-up galleries to raise awareness of gun violence in her hometown and in America.

Lomax estimates she has a thousand canvases by local artists in her storage room. Most of them depict young people who died in gunfire, but some also depict mothers, sisters, friends and mourners wondering why they died.

“It’s not about making people cry,” says Lomax, a Philadelphia producer, talk show host and community activist who has traveled to New York, Atlanta and Miami to collaborate on similar art exhibitions about trauma. “Families and people who have been through this should know that they are not forgotten.”

Each person “is not a number,” she said. “This is somebody’s child. Somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter, who has worked toward something,” she said. “The portraits are not just portraits. They tell us what the consequences are of what is happening in our cities.”

In 2020, firearms were the leading cause of death among children and adolescents—both from suicide and physical injury. Recent research on the public health crisis from Harvard Medical School’s Blavatnik Institute shows how these losses impact families and neighborhoods, inflicting significant economic and psychological costs.

Painted portraits commissioned by Zarinah Lomax. Each person “is not a number. This is someone’s child. Someone’s son, someone’s daughter, who have worked towards something,” says Lomax. “The portraits are not just portraits. They tell us what the consequences of what is happening in our cities are.”

Bringing statistics to life

On June 25, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, noting, “With each passing day, we lose more children to gun violence. The more children witness gun violence, the more children will be shot and survive, and will have to deal with the physical and mental health consequences for the rest of their lives.”

Since 2020, more than 9,000 fatal and non-fatal shootings have been recorded in Philadelphia. According to the city manager, about 80% of the victims were black. Among those injured or killed, about 60% were 30 years old or younger.

Lomax has helped make that statistic unforgettable in a unique and perhaps surprising way. Since 2018, when a young friend about to graduate from Penn State University was shot and killed on a Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia, Lomax has made it his goal to support the healing of victims of violence.

She started a show on PhillyCAM, a community media channel to encourage people to talk about guns, opioids and grief. She organized fashion shows with local artists and families that focused on bearing witness to suffering. And she turned her attention to portraiture, commissioning local artists to create pieces to honor the lives, not deaths, of young Philadelphians through her nonprofit, The Apologues.

She began following the shootings on social media, in news reports and sometimes through word of mouth. In 2022, City Hall opened a remarkable three-floor exhibit about lost lives, organized by Lomax and created by dozens of artists.

She recently presented the portraits at a summit sponsored by the nonprofit Brady: United Against Gun Violence and CeaseFirePA. The meeting offered guidance on enforcing regulations to prevent bogus gun purchases that encourage crime and provided data on gun smuggling across state lines. Lomax knew the artwork displayed on stage would drive home the importance.

“Look at these faces,” she said. “These people showed promise. What happened? What can be done?”

Lomax, now 40, says the conversations she sparks have a purpose. She gives some paintings to families. Others she keeps for future exhibitions.

“This is not what I wanted to do in life,” she said. “When I grew up, I thought I would be a nurse. But I guess I’m taking care of people this way.”

Healing for “invisible injuries”

According to an online database from AH Datalytics, the number of murders in Philadelphia has decreased this year, but Philadelphia is among the five cities with the highest murder rate. Last year, Harvard researchers found that communities and families are at risk from gunshot wounds.

The 2023 study was led by Zirui Song, an associate professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School, and examined data from newborns to age 19. The research documented “massive” economic harm, with health care spending for survivors increasing by an average of $35,000 in the year after a shooting and life-altering mental health problems emerging.

Shooting survivors and their caregivers, whether dealing with physical injuries or general anxiety, often struggle with “long-lasting, invisible injuries, including mental health and substance use disorders,” according to Song, who is also a general internist at Massachusetts General Hospital. His study found that parents of injured children were 30% more likely to experience mental health disorders than parents whose children had not suffered gunshot injuries.

Desiree Norwood, who paints with acrylics, has been helping Lomax since 2021. Like all artists, she is paid by Lomax. She has completed about 30 portraits, always after sitting with the subject’s family. “I get a backstory so I can incorporate that into the portrait,” she said. “Sometimes we cry. Sometimes we pray. Sometimes we try to cheer each other up. It’s hard.”

“I hope one day I won’t have to paint another portrait,” said Norwood, a mother of five. “The idea that Zarinah has had so many exhibitions with so many people dead is frightening and heartbreaking.”

Mike Doughty, a self-taught digital artist, was one of those who wanted to help “honor these people and offer a better look at who they were.” Doughty, a city employee who works in a courthouse, is perhaps best known in Philadelphia for a series of imaginative murals in which he grouped famous locals such as Will Smith, Grace Kelly and Kevin Hart.

He worked with Lomax’s group The Apologues to create around 150 portraits on his iPad and laptop, trying to best match a face with a phrase embedded in the scene that conveys the lost potential of youth.

“It was difficult at first,” says Doughty, who works with family photos. “I look at them and think: These are children. Just children.”

One day, he received a text message from Lomax asking for a portrait of a rapper he knew from art and music shows. Another day, he opened an email and found a photo of a man he knew from high school.

In May, Doughty shared on Instagram his work process for a portrait of Derrick Gant, a rapper with the stage name Phat Geez who was gunned down in March. The killing came weeks after the rapper released “No Gunzone,” a music video related to an Instagram account promoting anti-violence efforts in the city.

Doughty, 33, who grew up in the Nicetown neighborhood of North Philadelphia, noted wryly, “It wasn’t so pretty.” Lomax’s exhibitions, he said, allowed families, even neighborhoods, to process grief and pain.

“I was there last time and a mother came up and asked, ‘Did you paint my child’s portrait?’ She fell into my arms, crying. It was a great moment,” he said. “And a reminder of why we do what we do.”

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