A year may seem an arbitrary way to carve up time, but as any schoolchild can tell you, the measurement, of course, stands for something very real — the time it takes the Earth to go once around the sun. So wherever you were 52 Sunday mornings ago, you have since traveled 584 million miles without even spilling your coffee.
To someone watching the planet from space, the trip would have seemed quite uneventful, but to those of us gutting it out on the surface it has been a crazy ride indeed. America has finally delivered, after 232 years, on some assertions made in a certain Declaration.
The economy has gone so far south, even penguins are grieving for their 401(k)s — at the same time their homeland melts. Genocide, war and other inhumanities continue to plague us, but for two weeks last summer the peoples of the world gathered for a rousing Olympics hosted by once-xenophobic China.
Journalism is how society stays up to date on these and other matters, but aside from keeping us all clued in on a daily basis, the profession also acts as our collective memory. Like Superman — it may be no accident that the Man of Steel’s alter ego, Clark Kent, is a new reporter — the media can push the Earth back through prior orbits, bringing the past to life on demand. It does so via text, but still more satisfyingly through the magic of photography, and more recently, videography. In essence, the public today has access to a near-inexhaustible library of frozen moments in time.
By tradition, the Chicago Tribune Magazine devotes its final issue each year to a visual safari through the previous 12 months. As always, the omnipresent viewfinders of the Tribune’s photography staff are the means of transport. In these pages, we have rewound 2008 for you, its highs and lows and in-betweens.
You are in Beijing, among the thousands of performers staging an incredible opening ceremony to start the summer Olympics, and you’re on hand as gold medalist-times-eight Michael Phelps tosses a bouquet to his mother in the stands. We help you relive the emotional scene in Grant Park when Barack Obama claimed victory over John McCain, and return you to the snowy day in February when a Marine veteran of World War II was finally laid to rest. We take you inside the unspeakable world of the mentally ill in Afghanistan.
The specter of campus violence looms anew as students place flowers on victims’ graves following the Valentine’s Day shootings at Northern Illinois University, and the helplessness of everyone who has ever been through a natural disaster is embodied by the man searching for his car in the floodwaters of Cedar Rapids last June. Outside Wrigley Field last September, when it still looked like the Cubs might end 100 years of solitude, ballhawks with mitts shagged baseballs that had left the yard. Across town in October, the Nation of Islam rededicated the Mosque Maryam after a lengthy renovation. And two politicians going in opposite directions were caught by the cameras: Barack Obama, during the primaries last March, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich leaving a bill-signing ceremony last May at Chicago’s Italian Village. Adding a sinister note to the photo of Blagojevich, now facing criminal charges, is the presence of actor Frank Vincent, who played Phil Leotardo on “The Sopranos.”
Finally, a young woman stands in deep contemplation as she cleans her 13-year-old cousin’s blood off the sidewalk, after another fatal shooting of an innocent teenager by gang members last August.
These photos were deemed among the finest shot by Trib photographers this year, and they display, for better or ill, a few measures of the discordant symphony of life as it plays out here on Earth, even as our planet circles eternally through a dark and indifferent void.
Oakbrook Terrace, Feb. 6
Alex Garcia
A U.S. Army honor guard stands next to the casket of World War II veteran Richard Bunge, 84, of Sandwich, before funeral services at Chapel Hill Gardens West Cemetery (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
Samarhill, Afghanistan, Nov. 12
Kuni Takahashi
Wali Sultani, who is mentally ill, sits chained in a cell at Mia Ali Saeb Shrine. He and other patients were brought here by family members to undergo a 40-day treatment during which they are chained up and given only water, black pepper and bread. The treatment is believed to rid a patient’s body of bad spirits.
“It was another shocking scene that I sometimes witnessed while traveling the world. The patients were treated inhumanely — sort of like animals — chained in a dirty cell. It was sad to see, but what made me wonder was that the local people believe that this has been an effective treatment and they said that they see improvement of the patient. . . .”
DeKalb, Feb. 15
Scott Strazzante
Northern Illinois University seniors Trisha Bryo (left), of Sycamore, and Jennifer McNeil, of Wilmette, place flowers at a memorial for the victims of a Feb. 14 shooting on the campus that left six students dead, including the gunman, Steven Kazmierczak.
Chicago, Sept. 1
Scott Strazzante
Yarita Nicholas pauses while cleaning the blood of her cousin, Eternity Gaddy, 13, off the sidewalk where Gaddy was fatally shot by youth gang members.
“I must have been sent to a dozen murder aftermath scenes and most were the same — incredible sadness centered around a makeshift memorial. On this day, the scenario was different. In addition to the grieving, the family of Eternity Gaddy took it upon themselves to clean Eternity’s blood off the sidewalk where she had been shot the day before. It’s tough to photograph something this real, this raw, but it is a reality that people need to see.”
Chicago, Nov. 4
Kuni Takahashi
Lazane Tyler (center) celebrates during the victory rally for President-elect Barack Obama in Grant Park.
“It was obviously one of the most important moments of American history. As I was looking at the people celebrating through the viewfinder, my thoughts went to what these older African-Americans had to go through during the ’50s and ’60s. I was very moved by the emotions that filled the park that night.”
Chicago, May 27
Chris Walker
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich leaves a bill-signing ceremony at the Italian Village restaurant, after signing into law a tax credit for filmmakers. Behind the governor is actor Frank Vincent, who played wiseguy Phil Leotardo on the HBO crime-family series “The Sopranos.” On Dec. 9, Blagojevich was arrested on several federal corruption charges.
Chicago, March 14
Chris Walker
Then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama during a visit to the Tribune Tower.
“It was a quick photo session in the hallway just after Sen. Obama’s visit to the Tribune. He was gracious for about eight frames, but the ring flash I used is very bright — almost blinding. He finally looked over my shoulder to his staff and said, ‘You gotta get me out of here.’ “
Beijing, Aug. 15
Scott Strazzante
Michael Phelps throws his flowers to his mother after winning the men’s 200-meter individual medley at the National Aquatics Center. It was the seventh of his record eight gold medals won during the Summer Olympics.
Chicago, Sept. 17
Chris Walker
Mike Pech, 14, wearing a very big glove, chases a baseball with fellow ballhawks on Sheffield Avenue during batting practice before a game between the Chicago Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cubs lost.
“The huge glove is a joke among the ballhawks outside Wrigley. Mike Pech borrowed it from a friend, who won’t tell Pech where he bought it. Pech said they brought it to a Sox game once, where Blue Jays player Kevin Mench tried it out during practice, ‘and he couldn’t catch anything with it.’
Pech has never caught anything with it either. ‘It’s really hard,’ he said.”
Cedar Rapids, IOWA, June 12
E. Jason Wambsgans
After a night of storms, a resident searches for his car in yet another downpour. Flooding sewers added to the deluge.
Chicago, Oct. 19
E. Jason Wambsgans
On the South Side, a Fruit of Islam security guard monitors the crowd entering a rededication ceremony for the renovated Mosque Maryam.
Beijing, Aug. 8
Scott Strazzante
These were among the 15,000 performers who took part in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games’ opening ceremony, an extravaganza of fireworks, acrobatics and pageantry.
“The Summer Games in China were the third Olympics that I have had the pleasure of photographing. Beijing was nothing short of spectacular. The venues were gorgeous, the competition was intense but above all else, the opening ceremonies announced to the world that China could put on a show. A seemingly endless stream of performers flowed through the National Stadium with the precision of a synchronized swimming team and the pageantry of a thousand Mardi Gras parades.”
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njlyon@tribune.com
