For 10 Years, I Read the Comments

In 2008, I started an experiment that became a career. I began posting photo stories focused on the news that were made up of large images all on a single web page—as opposed to tiny slideshows, which were the standard back then. That first photo blog, “The Big Picture” at the Boston Globe, always included a space for user comments at the bottom of each page. My next photo blog here at The Atlantic continued this tradition. For the past decade, comments have been a part of every photo essay I’ve published—until The Atlantic closed commenting site-wide last month.

When I first started posting these photo stories, I was aware of the possible downsides of allowing comments. But I was always hopeful that readers would have interesting responses. I wanted the ability to prevent