Back in March we linked to a haunting photo gallery put together by a designer at the San Jose Mercury News.

The gallery dramatically recorded the emptying out of print journalism newsrooms in The Great Purge of 2008, and was seen by thousands of people — much to the chagrin of Merc management.

Martin Gee, the man who noticed the nothingness — which sometimes is easy to overlook — was himself laid off on Friday.

A story on his layoff was published on Editor & Publisher’s website and can be linked to through this stop of the Romenesko blog.

Gee was on record suggesting he would be the next to go, after having the audacity to record the emptying out of the Merc newsroom under the MediaNews aegis.

He called it. He was one of nine editorial employees set adrift in the next round of layoffs. The editor in San Jose is Dave Butler, former LANG boss, and he isn’t known for having a sense of humor about these things.

Have to give Gee a lot of credit for calling his shot, for knowing the risk he was taking … but still bringing us the images that can stand as the silent scream from the demise of an industry.