Last June, we published our first-ever People Issue, photographing and profiling 30 of our most interesting fellow humans — everyone from well-known Olympians and All Stars to unrecognizable faces that nevertheless make the DFW landscape more colorful. It flew off the stands, was nominated for an industry award and we loved producing it. But not long after it came out, I was drinking with a counterpart from a similar paper in a similarly sized city, and I told her about the issue.
Her face scrunched up. This being a newspaper function, I knew it wasn't Booze Face.
"But how will you do it next year?" she asked. "Where will you find another 30 people?"
Now my face was crumpled — and not because I was worried about finding them. The problem, I told her, is never getting to 30. The problem is stopping at 30.
Just like in Year One, our initial list in Year Two swelled well into the hundreds, with politicians and pros, artists and activists, people as young as 5 and as old as really-damn-old, people rich and poor and smart and funny and, in some cases, quite weird. We argued and trimmed, argued and trimmed, and when we finally confirmed our 30th photo shoot, I instantly felt sad about the portraits that would never arrive in my inbox, and on your newsstand.
At least not until Year Three.
Read the full issue: Dallas People 2013
