Newsweek often creates different covers for the domestic and international magazines, and while the Russia story ran in both issues, American newsstands and subscribers received a cover featuring Bernie Sanders. The issue became one of Newsweek's best-selling of the year, internationally. 'Hopefully, it's an image that will stop people when they're walking home, make them do a double take and make them want to know more,' concluded Goesele. 'We ended up building a platform for the bear out of wooden boxes and scrap wood to get the right angle.'ДЇinally, the words 'New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures' were added digitally in post. 'Because the paw was facing down, I was working upside down,' Voorhes said.

The only tricky part was snapping a shot while keeping the book poised behind the animal's claw. This is the Voorhes' sixth cover for Newsweek, and they say it was comparatively low-stress. And it wasn't our first bear either! We jump through all kinds of hoops to make images happen.' Why arenвЂ™t you atheists up in arms > about this hypocrite government official quoting Bible verses in her role > as Speaker of the House Is it only Republicans you point fingers at Yes, because Democrats follow biblical teachings. According to Voorhes, 'Nick drove across town with constant cell phone snaps being taken of him the whole way. They etched scratches on the book's surface, then placed it beneath the claw of a full-sized, stuffed bear, rented from a local taxidermy shop, hauled to their studio on the back of their camera assistant's flatbed truck. Voorhes and Finlay, known professionally as The Voorhes, executed the idea in their Austin, Texas studio. One detail stood out to them in the story: The Russian government banned the Jehovah's Witness translation of the Christian Bible, which replaces the words 'God' and 'Lord' with 'Jehovah.' The team wondered, 'How do you create a visual that represents the ban of the holy scripture, of a religious text?' The answer became the cover: The claw of a bear, representing Russia, tearing through the cover of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures-the Jehovah's Witness Bible. Goesele turned to photographers Adam Voorhes and Robin Finlay, to brainstorm. In 2017, Russia's Supreme Court declared the Jehovah's Witness denomination an 'extremist organization.' Since then, increasing numbers of Jehovah's Witnesses have been thrown in prison-simply for practicing their faith.

In July 2016, President Vladmir Putin signed a law that made it illegal to share religious beliefs outside of state-registered places of worship.

How do you conceptualize religious persecution? How do you capture violence, silence and fear in a single photo? Those were the questions Newsweek's creative team asked themselves when tasked with creating a striking image for the Jcover story of Newsweek International, Marc Bennetts's expose of the discrimination faced by Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.Д¬reative Director Michael Goesele wanted a visual that was 'as jarring and graphic' as their situation.

Bible thumper