Anthony Zuiker said:
CSI Files: Do any of those things hint at what's to come for the characters?
Zuiker: There's no hidden deeper storyline in the photo. I wanted the story of the photograph to tell a story about the characters. That reflects their love interest. With Gary and Melina, it's old media meets new media. Gary's got The New York Times in his hand, he's lowering it to look at Melina's new iPhone, which she's probably reading The New York Times online. And Don Flack (Eddie Cahill)--you have the streetwise kid cleaning his gun with the scientist Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper), holding a flashlight to the system as he cleans his gun. Every twosome tells a story and then you bring out of it what you may. Much like the Charles C. Ebbets photo, which was a sign of its times--those guys were drinking whiskey on the beams and smoking. It's the same kind of thing with technology and our characters in that photograph. We went into it to iconocize our cast members in CSI: New York by doing a homage to a wonderful, timeless photo.