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A man falling into a dark bottomless pit is the focus of artist Ping Zhu’s haunting illustration, published with The Times Opinion article, “A Letter From the Edge of the Abyss,” June 25, 2016. The image is part of our collection of editorial illustrations being offered for the first time ever to the public as unframed or framed fine-art prints.

Illustrations have played an instrumental role in The Times’s journalistic legacy since December 11, 1861, when we published our first drawings – front page cartoons of James Gordon Bennett, rival publisher of The Herald. Today, The Times commissions thousands of original illustrations from freelance artists around the world. Artists, each with a distinct approach and personality, enhance stories with thought-provoking images that enrich the reading experience.

The Opinion article, “A Letter From the Edge of the Abyss,” details how author Hisham Matar’s father, a Libyan political activist who opposed Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s dictatorship, was kidnapped and entrapped in the abyss of a prison in Tripoli, Libya. 

Ping Zhu is a Los Angeles native based in Brooklyn. Since her first illustration for The Times in 2009, she has worked with a range of clients, including The New Yorker, Criterion Collection, Warby Parker, The Atlantic and Google. Despite how far technology has come, she creates her work with gouache on paper. She was named an ADC Young Gun in 2013 and received a rather heavy glass cube as a trophy. American Illustration and the Society of Illustrators have also recognized her work, but by letting her know via email. On top of the editorial and advertising jobs, she is currently illustrating two children’s books that will be released in 2020 by Enchanted Lion.