In Broad Daylight

In tiny Chester, Pennsylvania, which has more murders per capita than almost anywhere in America, one man grieves for his fallen brother.

Chester, Pennsylvania has a population of approximately 34,000. Yet it currently ranks among the four American cities with the highest per-capita murder rate and as one of the “most dangerous,” which takes into account the number of violent crimes per 1,000 residents. You have a one in forty-six chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime in Chester. Thirty minutes away in Philadelphia, with a population of 1,500,000, you have a one in ninety-one chance. New York City does not even rate in the top 100 most dangerous cities.

The violence in Chester is persistent and permeating. Photographer and visual artist Justin Maxon has spent seven years collecting stories from families in Chester who have lost a loved one to murder and feel that justice was not served. Maxon’s work from Chester has led to his projects When the Spirit Moves and Heaven’s Gain, which Maxon calls visual “investigations into the emotional, physical and spiritual landscape that transpires from unresolved trauma.”

One …