A year of resilience: Monitor photographers reflect on 2021

Two ways to read the story

  • Quick Read
  • Deep Read ( 5 Min. )

“This time last year, most of us were preparing – or at least hoping – for 2021 to bring a return to ‘normal,’” says Alfredo Sosa, the Monitor’s director of photography. “Now when I reflect on the past 12 months, I see a year of learning to flex and grow within a new reality.”

The past year may not have brought a full return to public life, but it did open up doors for Monitor photographers, who were eager to return to the field. Melanie Stetson Freeman found that traveling again felt even better than she remembered.

Why We Wrote This

When Monitor photographers returned to the field in 2021, they found a society eager to come back together – and a newfound joy of their own.

“I guess that’s what being cooped up at home will do – we realize what’s important, what we’ve missed,” she says. “But it was also comforting to see the broader world still intact and ready to roll with whatever comes next.”

Ann Hermes was also struck by what she calls “proof of the persistence of life.” Several of her assignments from this past year underscored just how hard-wearing we all are. “They’ve helped me to remember how readily life will return, even if it looks a little different than before.”

This time last year, most of us were preparing – or at least hoping – for 2021 to bring a return to “normal.” But hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. Now when I reflect on the past 12 months, I see a year of learning to flex and grow within a new reality. 

I have come to appreciate humanity’s immense ability to adapt to new and unprecedented situations. Throughout the year, I have seen demonstrations of this in myself and in society at large. 

Yes, the pandemic forced us to reconsider many things, from the most basic of human interactions to how we define the workplace. However, history has shown that humans are very good at adapting to radical changes. We redefined our way of life when we became an agricultural society, then an industrial one, and now we are learning to cope with the information revolution. Seems to me that humans in general embrace change as a path forward.

Why We Wrote This

When Monitor photographers returned to the field in 2021, they found a society eager to come back together – and a newfound joy of their own.

This year, I worked on three stories that helped to underscore that idea for me. In Houston, I met the director of the Houston Forensic Science Center, who overcame personal tragedy and injustice as a youth and made it his lifework to correct the failures of a system that had let him down. In the American Midwest, I met farmers who had embraced alternative sources of energy, even when the idea of a changing climate went against their core belief system. And a bit closer to home, in Massachusetts, I was introduced to a man who devoted himself to helping people overcome their fears and discover the joy of open water swimming, as a way to combat closures and restrictions due to the pandemic.

As we enter 2022, I am sure that we will encounter more challenges. But I’ve learned that humanity finds a way to adapt, whatever comes our way. Or, at the very least, I know in my heart that we will give it our best shot.
– Alfredo Sosa, director of photography

Swimmers conquer their fear of open water in a July safety class in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The class was held in response to an increase in open water drownings.

Contractors with the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority work on the East Somerville station as part of a project to extend Boston’s Green Line, June 23, Somerville, Massachusetts.

Fighting crime is personal for Peter Stout. As president and CEO of the Houston Forensic Science Center, he still visits crime scenes himself, Feb. 24.

Christopher Milledge, a technician with the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, discharges a gun in the firing range at the Houston Forensic Science Center on Feb. 24 in Houston, Texas.

Andrew Bowman has little time for political discussion about climate change. As a farmer, he listens to what his soil and crops tell him, May 3.

In search of light

For the first three and a half months of 2021, I went nowhere. At least not for one of the long and faraway trips that have been my routine for decades. And when I finally began traveling again, it wasn’t like before. It was better.

I guess that’s what being cooped up at home will do – we realize what’s important, what we’ve missed. Being out on assignment again was exotic and exciting. But it was also comforting to see the broader world still intact and ready to roll with whatever comes next.

My first multiday trip out of Boston was to my hometown of Washington, D.C., just as the city was starting to reopen in late April. Government workers and tourists were scarce. The streets and National Mall were quiet. At dawn, as I gazed out over the city from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the monuments spoke to me of our country’s long history of overcoming challenges – ones even bigger than a pandemic or insurrection. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded me that “the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.”

June took me to a county fair in San Diego. I found people yearning to reconnect, to be in crowds again – smaller crowds than usual but still … crowds. I admit to visiting the piglet races many times. I laughed at the same eye-rolling jokes about piglets named Brad Pig and Kim Kardashingham, reminders of just how fortifying humor can be. Bonding with the audience through laughter felt so familiar, so right.

All year, I found myself drawn to animals as a source of light. Animals are pure in their affections and reactions. Whatever happens, they just carry on. They stun me not just with their perseverance, but with their grace.

I can’t do my job without light. I love that it’s always there to find.
– Melanie Stetson Freeman, staff photographer

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

People enjoy the rides at Home Grown Fun, the San Dieg o County Fair, on June 18 in Del Mar, California.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Piglets race around a sawdust-covered track at Swifty Swine Racing at the scaled-down San Diego County Fair on June 17 in Del Mar, California.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Veronica Robles (in red) performs with her all-female mariachi band at the 2021 Boston University Global Music Festival on Sept. 18. Ms. Robles started a Latino cultural center in East Boston in memory of her teen daughter, who died about six years ago.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Two young elephant seals are ready to be fed at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center on June 23 in Laguna Beach, California.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Dawn breaks behind the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool in Washington on April 28.

Persistence of life

What does resilience look like? I’ve found proof of the persistence of life in the strangest places – a popcorn stand, a riverbank, even from the air.

A few photo assignments from this past year stand out to me as evidence of how hard-wearing we all are. They’ve helped me to remember how readily life will return, even if it looks a little different than before. 

With indoor cinemas shut down early in the year, many of us were watching from home, missing the collective experience of going to the theater. Good thing a pandemic solution already existed in the form of drive-in movies. In warm-weather places like Los Angeles, new pop-up and old-school drive-ins were thriving and finding ways to accommodate customers.

I saw a different kind of revival, in Northern California, along the banks of the Klamath River. The Yurok and other Native American tribes have been working hard to maintain the health of the salmon and the river, which is central to their culture. Four dams that have long disrupted salmon runs will be coming down. The river will run free once again.

A New Mexico community also celebrated a kind of liberation this year, with the return of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. After a pandemic hiatus, hot air balloons once again soared over the city by the hundreds. As I photographed from one of those balloons looking down over the city, I experienced the endurance of these traditions and found it lovely to capture them firsthand.
– Ann Hermes, staff photographer

Spectators watch at twilight as over 500 tethered balloons light up simultaneously at the Balloon Glow during the 49th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta on Oct. 3 in New Mexico.

From left, Yurok fisheries technicians Gilbert Myers Jr., Keenan O’Rourke, and Jamie Holt prepare to catch fish as part of a parasite investigation.

Gilbert Myers Jr., a fisheries technician with the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, catches fish for a research project near the confluence of the Trinity and Klamath Rivers on Sept. 9, Weitchpec, California.

From left, Amy Taylor, Ally Malick, Leuwam Tesfai, and Emily Rodrigues play games before an Electric Dusk Drive-In show on April 1 in Glendale, California.

Moviegoers watch previews at the Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre on May 6, in Montclair, California.

You’ve read  of  free articles.Subscribe to continue.

Help fund Monitor journalism for $11/ month

Already a subscriber? Login

Mark Sappenfield illustration

Mark Sappenfield

Editor

Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.

Our work isn’t possible without your support.

Unlimited digital access $11/month.

Already a subscriber? Login

Monitor Daily

Digital subscription includes:

  • Unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.
  • CSMonitor.com archive.
  • The Monitor Daily email.
  • No advertising.
  • Cancel anytime.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Note: This article have been indexed to our site. We do not claim legitimacy, ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here

Related Posts
Recall: Asus mainboards grill themselves thumbnail

Recall: Asus mainboards grill themselves

04.01.2022 Das Rätsel über schmelzende Asus-Motherboards ist gelöst. Der Hersteller hat ein Austauschprogramm ins Leben gerufen. Seit einigen Wochen wird über Asus-Motherboards gerätselt, die plötzlich Feuer fangen. Mehrere solcher Berichte sind auf Reddit und in anderen Foren aufgetaucht. Nun hat der taiwanesische Hersteller den Grund für die schmelzenden Mainboards gefunden. Demnach handelt es sich nicht…
Read More
A public–private partnership model for COVID-19 diagnostics thumbnail

A public–private partnership model for COVID-19 diagnostics

To the Editor — The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on diagnostic systems worldwide. In early 2020, most countries were completely unprepared to carry out the massive systematic testing of symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals necessary to monitor and control spread of a virus undergoing community transmission. Not only were the established procedures for viral molecular…
Read More
בום באמצע היקום: התגלתה סופנובה מסוג נדיר thumbnail

בום באמצע היקום: התגלתה סופנובה מסוג נדיר

מדעני מכון ויצמן זיהו סוג חדש של סופרנובה בגלקסיה המרוחקת מאיתנו מיליארד שנות אור סופרנובה. אינפוגרפיקה, איתי רווה, מכון ויצמן בעבר הלא-רחוק, איתור סופרנובה – כוכב מתפוצץ – נחשב למחזה נדיר. כשפרופ' אבישי גל-ים, למשל, למד לתואר שלישי, הוא מצא שבע סופרנובות בארבע שנים. כיום, שיפורים באמצעי המדידה והניתוח מאפשרים לחזות בכחמישים פיצוצים כאלה מדי…
Read More
Index Of News
Consider making some contribution to keep us going. We are donation based team who works to bring the best content to the readers. Every donation matters.
Donate Now

Subscription Form

Liking our Index Of News so far? Would you like to subscribe to receive news updates daily?

Total
0
Share