For the final blog post of 2016, here’s a selection of 15 photos representative of the year as experienced by my camera. These are not necessarily “the best” photos of the year — I’m still not sure how to make this kind of selection — but they are ones that I like. They are mostly in chronological order, and you’ll notice there’s nothing before the summer. That’s because I focused the first half of the year on other projects.
Wishing you each a good year to come. But even more, I’m wishing that all of us will bring good to this new year; it’s going to need it.
Mahlet, age 13, emigrated with his family from Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, earlier in 2016. This was his first Fourth of July fireworks celebration, viewed from the National Mall in Washington DC.
People practice acroyoga on a Sunday afternoon at Meridian Hill Park in Washington DC. I like this photo not only because it brings to mind the welcoming spirit of the people pictured but also because in it I see the issues of our time symbolized, like government and the environment and the delicate balance that makes it all work.
On a school field trip — and in a break during an afternoon rain — a girl walks with eyes momentarily closed at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial in Washington DC. Another photo that holds much symbolism for me.
Black Lives Matter protestors march down a street in Times Square in New York City, demonstrating against police violence. One man marches with arms outstetched, a crucifix in his right hand.
A crowd stands on 34th Street in front of the Macy’s Store in Midtown Manhattan to watch the Manhattanhenge sunset. Manhattanhenge, also called the Manhattan Solstice, refers to the two or so days each year when the setting sun is aligned with the east–west streets of the main street grid of Manhattan. Here we see a brief moment in time. Am I speaking of the few minutes of this sunset or the lifespans of the people in the photo?
Terrance Miller sits beside the East River in Astoria, Queens. I really enjoyed the few days I spent in New York City and the people I met there. I might have stayed a few days longer had it not been for wanting to be at the event below…
This is the end of the Tyler and Erin Ross wedding on July 16 at Villa Nove Vineyards in Butler, Tennessee. In terms of friends, community, and location, it doesn’t get much better than this.
This picture was taken on September 2, in the New Jewish Cemetery in Kraków, Poland. The cemetery was founded in 1800 and is located in the historic Jewish neighborhood of Kazimierz. During World War II the Nazis sold or otherwise used the Jewish tombstones for other purposes. Following the war many tombstones were recovered and the cemetery renovated.
Some days later in Lviv, Ukraine, shortly after photographing two Ukrainian students eating watermelon in the grass, I saw this man running down the street and a moment later saw two police officers running as well. Since it seemed to be the thing to do, I also ran. With the help of a couple civilians who blocked his path, the man was subdued and arrested. I don’t know what he did, but it probably wasn’t a good choice.
This is Alan, who was on a weekend trip to the sea with his mom Angelina in Odessa, Ukraine. I admired his curiosity.
This is Julia, a young woman from Ukraine looking out a cabin window aboard the Kaunas Seaways, a ferry traveling 45 hours across the Black Sea from Odessa, Ukraine to Batumi, Georgia. She was on her way to see new countries, and I admired her curiosity as well.
I had briefly passed through Sarpi, Georgia one cold winter day in 2004 and was excited to return again this year, not least while the weather was still warm. Located on the Turkish border — the mosque in the background is in Turkey — it’s a place I wish I could visit more often. Something there is that loves a pretty beach on a border, and the people who sunbathe there.
2016 marked my first visit to Armenia as well as to Nagorno-Karabakh, where this photo was taken. I had never fallen in love with the beauty of laundry hung out to dry until visiting Karabakh, and every apartment complex in this troubled region displayed its drying clothes with order and forethought. I have better pictures; maybe one day I’ll devote a post just to the “Laundry of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Beams of morning sunlight stream into the church at Tatev Monastery in Armenia on October 1. The light was always on the move inside this church, and I watched it for several hours. Here were the best sunbeams I saw all year.
Jake Gallagher, an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker hiking from Maine to Georgia, pauses at dusk at a Coke machine at the Fontana Dam visitor center on November 10. He and several other hikers had just exited the Smoky Mountains National Park, more than 2,000 miles into their journey to Springer Mountain, Georgia. Forest fires in the area made for some very smoky days, and parts of the trail still ahead were temporarily closed.
