Award-winning photographer Regina H. Boone has pricked the nation’s conscience with her poignant photograph of a rash-covered child affected by the lead-contaminated water in Flint, Mich.

The former Richmond Free Press photographer’s image of 2-year-old Sincere Smith is featured on the cover of the Feb. 1 edition of TIME magazine.

The magazine hit newsstands Friday, Jan. 22, and is drawing critical attention to the plight of the largely African-American community in Michigan that has been dangerously exposed for nearly two years to hazardous levels of lead in their tap water.

Adding to residents’ worst fears, Flint officials have said it could be months or even years before they will have clean tap water to drink, bathe in or cook with again.

Ms. Boone, 46, is the daughter of Free Press President/Publisher Jean Patterson Boone and the late Raymond H. Boone Sr., founder of the award-winning weekly newspaper. She honed her photography skills at the Free Press from 1997 through 2001, and has worked as a photographer for the Detroit Free Press since 2003.

The TIME cover photo was among a series of Ms. Boone’s photographs of Sincere and other Flint residents published by the Detroit newspaper to accompany a Jan. 17 article on Flint’s toxic water situation.

In an interview Sunday from Michigan, Ms. Boone said she was notified in a Jan. 20 call from TIME senior photo editor Myles Little that her photograph was seen by TIME editors and selected for the magazine cover.

“I was in shock,” she said. “I can’t even say I have dreamed of being on the cover of TIME magazine because it’s such an honor,” Ms. Boone said. “This came out of left field.”

Ben Goldberger, nation editor at TIME, told a Free Press reporter Tuesday that Ms. Boone’s photo was chosen “because it captured the human stakes of the crisis in Flint.

“Too often, stories about policy and infrastructure seem abstract and detached from real life. What’s been happening in Flint has very real consequences for the daily lives of almost 100,000 American citizens,” he said. “Regina’s intimate, moving image perfectly illustrated this tragedy.”

Ms. Boone said she is overwhelmed by the outpouring of congratulations she has received from family and friends in her hometown of Richmond; from Baltimore where she was raised; from Atlanta, where she attended Spelman College; and other locales around the world where she has lived or visited.

Ms. Boone’s important work also has been recognized on national TV shows, including MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Acknowledgments also have flooded in via social media from countless people she doesn’t know, thanking Ms. Boone for drawing focus to the critical problem.

“It’s been amazing,” Ms. Boone said. “I didn’t even realize how this would impact others.”

Ms. Boone explained that she took the photograph of the toddler during a Jan. 13 assignment when she and Detroit Free Press reporter Elisha Anderson visited the home of Sincere’s mother, Ariana Hawk.

“My heart just became so heavy,” she said of first seeing the child, whose face, arms and body were covered with fine bumps. “His mother told us he had gotten the rashes after she bathed him in the contaminated water,” she said.

The problems began in 2014, after Michigan officials decided to switch Flint’s water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure amid a financial emergency.

Children and adults were sickened by the water, with reports of rashes, hair loss and other illnesses. High levels of lead can cause permanent neurological damage in children and older people. After a national outcry grew and people began to call for public officials responsible for the disaster to be fired or resign, the water source was switched back to Lake Huron in October.

“I’m honored that Sincere is putting a face to his horrible mess,” Ms. Boone said of the TIME cover photo.

“This shouldn’t be an issue in the United States in a city like Flint,” she added. “Water in any city in America should be a given. No one should have to think about having to buy water to bathe in, cook with or drink.”

Ms. Boone said she felt it imperative to tell the story of Sincere and others in Flint, a city of 99,000 people, 40 percent of whom live in poverty.

“I walked into their house that was very bare and sparse,” she said of Ms. Hawk’s home. “I could tell the family was struggling. Then, I saw this very cute little boy, who had rashes all over his body,” she added.

“From the moment I saw him, I began to observe him. I became attached to him in a way and I felt his pain. We just clicked.

“I began to feel this was no ordinary assignment,” said Ms. Boone, who has covered other high-profile stories such as the death and funeral of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, political scandals, court cases and the bankruptcy of Detroit for the Detroit Free Press.

“I began to feel a responsibility for this little boy,” Ms. Boone said. “At one point, I just put my camera down and I actually spoke to him. I said, ‘Sincere, I just want to tell you I’m taking your picture because you’re such a beautiful child. I promise one day my pictures are going to help you feel better.’ ’’

Ms. Hawk said Ms. Boone “is an angel and godsend” for focusing the nation’s attention on Flint’s health crisis.

“We went through two years without people knowing what we have been going through,” Ms. Hawk, 25, said. “Now, because of her photo of my son, people all over the world are seeing how our people here are suffering.

“This will open a lot of doors for the people in this city, I believe, not just my son,” she added.

She said she cried when she saw her son’s photo on the TIME magazine cover. “It made a powerful statement. That’s all I wanted for anybody to see. There’s some real people here and we need help now,” she said.

Ms. Boone said she wishes her father, a fierce journalist and advocate for the people before his death in June 2014, could share this moment with her.

“I know how proud my father would have been,” she said. “But I know he’s smiling now and I know he’s with me and helping to guide me.

“I’m a living legacy of my father, helping to carry on his mission — just like my mother and brother — by telling stories and making a difference in the lives of people.”