Pouya Dianat and Ryon Horne weren't born when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Yet Dianat, 22, and Horne, 30, consider themselves the beneficiaries of King's life and legacy.

Dianat, an AJC photographer, and Horne, an audio/video producer for ajc.com, teamed up with veteran reporters Jim Auchmutey and Ernie Suggs to produce a story and photo package that will appear in Sunday's @issue section. Auchmutey has written a piece for Sunday about Atlanta's reaction to King's assassination. On ajc.com, the project will unfold as a three-part multimedia show marking the 40th anniversary of King's passing.

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The first part chronicles King's premonition about his death and the dread he felt until he delivered his famous "mountaintop" speech on the eve of his death at the Mason Temple in Memphis.

Part 2 features interviews and news clips on King's assassination; Part 3 explores why the riots that took place in other cities did not happen here.

Dianat and Horne shot still photos and more than 13 hours of video with two of King's children, his close friends and a few people who were with him that fateful day in Memphis. Since many are now in their 70s and 80s, it's important to document their stories.

The Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles, the pastor who invited King to Memphis, and Earl Caldwell, a New York Times reporter who was waiting to interview King when he heard shots ring out at the Lorraine Motel, are among those interviewed.

Horne was most struck by the interview with Juanita Abernathy, one of the surviving matriarchs of the movement and the wife of King's close friend, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy Jr.

"We don't hear a lot from her," said Horne. "She was very lively and knew and remembered so much about him. She sat there with King for so many years; they raised their children together."

The beauty of the project is in the words spoken by those closest to King.

"It's a continuing of history," said Horne. "People who are listening and looking at it will get a different connection to it. I'm hoping teenagers who don't know who he was and how powerful he was will see this."

Growing up in a diverse community in South Florida, Horne had a teacher who spent a great deal of time teaching black history.

"I had read a lot about Martin Luther King," he said. "It's one thing to read something, it's another to hear the words of actual people who were around him and knew him."

Bernice King, who was 5 when her father was killed, shared one of the few memories she has of him: the two of them playing the "kissing game."

"Being the father of three girls, I do the same thing with my girls," said Horne.

Dianat, who moved to the United States from Iran when he was 6, grew up in Washington, D.C. He began the project with a limited knowledge of King. "I knew exactly what I had been taught in elementary school — that he was a great man who had helped a lot of people," Dianat said. "This project opened me up to the world that really shaped him into someone who I know now and have a connection to. It humanized him but also showed that he was superhuman."

Dianat shot digital images, then turned them into black-and-white portraits, hoping to convey a sense of history and the passing of time.

On March 23 he made a second trip to Memphis to visit the Lorraine Motel. It was a dreary day, and because it was Easter, no one was around. Dianat was shooting video when he noticed a splash of sunlight illuminating the green door of Room 306, where King had stayed.

"I put away the video camera and pulled out my still camera," he said. "It was quite a moment of serendipity. ... I had a picture that perfectly told the story. It was eerie and haunting."

To view the project, go to ajc.com/mlkvideo.