Andrew Craft / Fayetteville Observer - First Lady Michelle Obama looks at a photograph that was given to her as a gift from the city as Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne introduces her Thursday at the Fayetteville Arts Center on Hay Street. The framed photograph was taken by Fayetteville Observer photographer Andrew Craft.

A lot of photojournalists hope their photos can make a difference. Informing the public is one avenue, having powerful people who make decisions see the photos is another. Andrew Craft’s great photo, of a military family saying goodbye as the husband and father ships off for deployment, will be doing the latter. He talks a little about it here and his paper mentions the event here.

The city of Fayetteville, North Carolina, decided to give Craft’s photo, taken as a staff photographer for the the Fayetteville Observer, to Michelle Obama on her recent visit to the city. Receiving the photo, a stark portrayal of the domestic toll of the war in Iraq, Michelle Obama said, “Thank you…this picture is just moving. It says so much, and it is going up in my office tomorrow.” Video of the speech at C-Span.