12.23.18 SB_R

The Year in Pictures

Post-Dispatch photographers share their favorite photographs from 2018 Sunday • december 23, 2018

BEHIND THE LENS

OF A PULITZER PRIZE AWARD WINNING TEAM

DAVID CARSON

Post-Dispatch photojournalist, 18 years @PDPJ

ROBERT COHEN

Post-Dispatch photojournalist, 19 years @kodacohen

CRISTINA M. FLETES

Post-Dispatch photojournalist, 5 years @cristinafletes

J.B. FORBES

Post-Dispatch chief photojournalist, 43 years @twitjb

CHRISTIAN GOODEN

Post-Dispatch photojournalist, 19 years @pd_shutterspeed

HILLARY LEVIN

Post-Dispatch photojournalist, 20 years @D76

LAURIE SKRIVAN

Post-Dispatch photojournalist, 21 years @LaurieSkrivan

WE CAPTURE THE IMAGES THAT MAKE NEWS Photos at STLtoday.com and on Instragram @stltoday

Welcome CONNECTING THROUGH PICTURES

BY GARY HAIRLSON St. Louis Post-Dispatch

After looking through hundreds of images from our Post-Dispatch photojournalists in 2018, it’s clear that we serve as a barometer for covering our community. I saw images that make me sad, images that make me smile and images that make me hungry. But most of the images make me proud — proud to be associated with a talented group of visual journalists.

Some of our staff have worked for other news organizations before St. Louis; others started their careers here. Our seven photographers have a combined 146 years at the PostDispatch.

You’ll see our photographers and their work throughout this section; I’d also like to introduce our newest member of our staff, assistant multimedia director Jon Naso. Jon joined us in April of 2018 and acts as the departmental “air traffic controller,” working closely with editors, reporters and photographers to coordinate our daily visual report.

The photographers use cameras to document a pictorial history of our region. Some of their iconic images will live on for decades.

It’s a calling for most of us, trying to make meaningful work that represents our communities,tell stories and evoke an emotional response.

They are passionate about being journalists.

Hairlson

Naso

Photographers are humans who see some of the best and worst of people while on assignment. Some images captured in a moment will stick with us forever.

We’ve all met amazing people along the way. When I began my career as a photojournalist, someone told me what we do gives us a passport into people’s lives and to never take that for granted.

As you look through our second “Year in Pictures,” know that we take pride in presenting them to our readers.

This is our calling. This is our passion. Enjoy.

On behalf of our visual staff, we appreciate that you took the time to look at our section and would like to invite you to support local journalism by going to stltoday.com/subscribe.

Gary Hairlson • 314-340-8279 @fotobro on Twitter ghairlson@post-dispatch.com

Inside J.B. FORBES CHRISTIAN GOODEN HILLARY LEVIN ROBERT COHEN CRISTINA M. FLETES DAVID CARSON LAURIE SKRIVAN

PAGES 3-6 PAGES 7-10 PAGES 11-13 PAGE 14-18 PAGES 19-22 PAGES 23-26 PAGE 27-31

Cover photo “All I really need to accomplish are two lanes for my car,” said Richard Burst as he clears snow from his driveway and into Jefferson Road in Webster Groves while digging out from the St. Louis area’s first major snow on Nov. 15. • Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com

R2 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

J.B. Forbes

Timothy Hudgins, 30, of Harvel, Ill., shows off his jungle carpet python to the crowds on Feb. 18 at the Show Me Reptile & Exotic Show at the District 9 Machinist Hall in Bridgeton. Hudgins said it was a very docile snake that had never bitten anyone.

Shazmine Terrell, 26, of St. Louis, holds her daughter Se-Rae Adams, 2, on Feb. 5, as lab assistant Vickie Martin tries to draw blood from the scared little girl at the Affinia Healthcare Center at 1717 Biddle Street in St. Louis. The health care center had cut staffing and services as it waited for Congress to reauthorize funding.

2018 went by in a blur. The days seemed to melt together and race past. Finally, I have time to reflect on some of the photographic moments that stood out in this very busy year.

One Sunday in February, I was asked to check out the Show Me Reptile & Exotic Show at the District 9 Machinist Hall in Bridgeton. Near the entrance, Timothy Hudgins, 30, of Harvel, Ill., was showing off his jungle carpet python to the crowds. I stood behind him so I could get people’s reactions to the snake. Instead, the snake took an interest in me, or more specifically, my camera. It kept coming right toward my lens. Hudgins said it was a very docile snake that had never bitten anyone. But, I wasn’t taking any chances. I kept backing away while the snake kept getting closer. Finally, it lost interest and I had my picture.

I cover lots of shootings and fires in St. Louis. Sometimes I get there to the scene very quickly depending on traffic. Other times, I get there just as the police or firefighters are wrapping up the event. I heard the call for a shooting on Minnesota Avenue near Chippewa on Sept.

30, while I was still in the office downtown. I did my best to race to the scene. When I got there, a bystander told me that I had just missed everything. A woman had been shot and was lying in the front yard of a home. When I got there, the ambulance had just pulled away. The bystander told me that I was too late. Then I asked him why all the police on the scene had their hands on their guns. The startled bystander said he was leaving because there was going to be a shootout. I made my way to an alley where I had a good view of the scene and was there just in time when police coaxed the occupants out of the house. It made for a rare photo of an arrest.

I’m on my 43rd year at the Post-Dispatch. After taking millions of photos, I’m still looking for the next best one.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R3

J.B. Forbes

Kayaker Keith Stumphf of Florissant stops to watch the Canada geese take off in the early morning fog on Jan. 21 at Creve Coeur Lake. The fog lifted quickly as the sun rose. Most of the lake was still covered with ice.

Mary Nauert (right), a clinical dietitian at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, demonstrates for Jaylon Clair (left), 15, and his brother Kavi Draper, 9, of Overland, the proper response if they were attacked by dogs at the Safety Street interactive cityscape sponsored by St. Louis Children’s Hospital at the Back-to-School Empowerment Festival on Aug. 12 at America’s Center. The interactive cityscape showed kids about pedestrian and passenger safety, stranger awareness and home safety. The dogs were cardboard cutouts.

St. Louis police officers order a man to back down a set of steps with his arms raised on Sept. 30 in the 3700 block of Minnesota Avenue in St. Louis. A woman was found shot in the front yard at this address. Police took two men from the house into custody, and one of them was charged with murder.

R4 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

J.B. Forbes

Members of the Kentucky Wildcats hold the championship trophy after Kentucky beat Tennessee 77-72 on March 11 in the SEC Championship game at Scottrade Center.

Volunteer first responders from the western Taney County Fire District console each other after a memorial service for the 17 Table Rock Lake drowning victims on July 22 at the Williams Memorial Chapel at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. They had participated in the rescue and recovery effort after a duck boat sank July 19 with 31 people aboard.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R5

J.B. Forbes

Lightning struck all around the St. Louis area when a storm front moved through the evening of June 28. Lightning could be seen from Art Hill in Forest Park with the statue of King Louis IX in the foreground.

The Blues’ Jaden Schwartz slams into the Golden Knights’ Colin Miller in front of the Blues’ bench on Nov. 1 during the first period of the game between the St. Louis Blues and the Vegas Golden Knights at Enterprise Center.

R6 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Christian Gooden In a year of photojournalism capturing an emotional high for Mexico’s local World Cup fans, a family salsa recipe that possibly fueled a Cardinals slugger’s hitting streak, a congratulatory embrace of his new manager by a teammate, and a vice presidential campaign stop, PostDispatch staff photographer Christian

Gooden offers his best photos of 2018.

High emotion fed a campus protest aimed at forcing Washington University to re-examine its policy regarding student sexual assault. And a hopeful fervor surrounded the hunt for bargain properties when St. Louis put its tax-delinquent parcels on the auction block.

Abraham Valadez (center), of St. Louis, celebrates with other Mexico fans crowded around the Amsterdam Tavern bar on June 27 as they watch South Korea score a goal against the reigning World Cup champion Germany, eliminating them from the competition. Germany’s loss advanced Mexico to the next round.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R7

Christian Gooden

A Washington University freshman who declined to give her name reacts to a speaker on April 26 at a campus protest to criticize the university’s handling of sexual assault claims by students.

With support from Malik Leeks (right), 13, Austin Buhr, 14, offers his chest as a takeoff point for Finn McNamee, 13, to execute a running back flip on June 1 while practicing with their acrobatic team, the Arches of Circus Harmony, at City Museum.

The group of 13- to 22-year-olds was getting ready to travel to Puerto Rico in July through Circus Harmony’s “Peace Through Pyramids” program, which serves to connect communities through circus arts.

R8 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Christian Gooden

David Gajeski, with Gencorp Services, uses a torch to cut down a section of flooring on Jan. 15 that was left over from the previous occupants of the International Shoe Co. building in downtown St. Louis.

Milwaukee-based Fe Equus Development had secured funds for demolition, and reclamation had started in the 10-story structure at 1501 Washington Avenue.

Plans for the building were a restaurant and bar complemented by a boutique hotel. The building last housed the Imagine Academy of Cultural Arts, which closed in 2012.

St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill misses a pop fly hit in fair territory by Washington outfielder Michael Taylor on Aug. 15 in the ninth inning of a game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R9

Christian Gooden “Just gettin’ the blood pumpin’ today,” said Jim Tyra of St. Louis, during a morning workout on his skateboard on June 12 at the Peter Matthews Memorial Skate Garden in St. Louis’ Bevo Mill neighborhood.

Ramon Strickland, an EMT with the St. Louis Fire Department, checks the well-being of a woman who overturned her vehicle on Lagoon Drive in Forest Park on Oct. 1. It was unclear how her vehicle flipped over. Her injuries appeared to be minor.

Ebony (left) and Annie Butler of St. Louis scour listings for property in the city on Sept. 25 outside the courtroom in the Civil Courthouse, where tax-delinquent parcels go on the auction block.

Mike Shildt is congratulated with a hug and a squeeze by Cardinals infielder Jedd Gyorko before a game on Aug. 28 against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Shildt had the interim tag removed from his title that day.

R10 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Hillary Levin

Fresh summer cherries, both Bing and Rainier varieties, are plentiful in local stores.

Rhys Robb, 10, prepares to dump his chunk of snow while Rhys’ twin brother, Holden, sneaks up behind him with his own chunk of snow on Nov. 15 at Concordia Park in Clayton.

This summer, I returned to being a newspaper photographer after spending many years as a photo editor. It has been great to be making images again — meeting in person some people I used to just talk to on the phone, photographing the kinds of stories I used to assign to others, and getting to see the city and surrounding area from a new perspective. I’ve always been drawn to taking pictures of kids and animals, and to look for some of the more humorous or unexpected moments within the routines of life. This year’s first snow came early, and we were all assigned to find a “snow feature,” as it is called. I went over to Concordia Park in Clayton. I knew a lot of kids would be out there; the elementary school is across the street from the park, and it seemed like a likely spot to fulfill my assignment. The snow was perfect snowball fight-making texture, and mixing that with a few rambunctious 10-year-old boys I zeroed in on, I was able to find that moment where the intersection of kids-snow-fun came together. The Robb twins, with their identical coats and identical faces, proved to be my favorite photo of the day. A mischievous gleam in his eye, one brother snuck up behind his unsuspecting smiling twin, poised with a huge chunk of snow he was about to use to execute his surprise attack.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R11

Hillary Levin

Claire Linnenbringer (left), 9, and Jocelyn Jim, 10, have fun mashing the potatoes that will be used to create the shepherd’s pie in the Kitchen Wizard cooking class at COCA on July 19. The cooking class’ theme was Harry Potter, and the 14 kids in the class taught by instructor Cindy Panian also made butter beer.

As seen through a car windshield, campaign workers endure the rainfall on Election Day morning, Aug. 7, outside Wydown Middle School in Clayton.

R12 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Hillary Levin

Anna Belle makes a new friend in the person of Julie McCarter of St. Louis at the Strut Your Mutt walk Sept. 22 in Tower Grove Park.

The charity event was one of a series around the country by the Best Friends Animal Society that raise money to help save the lives of homeless pets. Anna Belle belongs to Nancy Ferguson of Overland.

Michael Nelson Jr., 5, poses for his kindergarten picture at Bridgeway Elementary School, taken by school counselor Taylor Adams on Aug. 9. The Pattonville District school initiated a Jumpstart to Kindergarten half-day of activities for all incoming kindergartners to ease the transition to school and to learn about their teachers and the classrooms.

Amy Scheer, of Clayton, votes Nov. 6 at Meramec School in Clayton.

A photo of fennel for the Let’s Eat cover.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R13

Lightning strikes on April 3 outside the National Civil Rights Museum and Room 306 of the old Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed almost 50 years ago. King was killed on April 4, 1968. On the night before he was killed, a rainstorm entered the city as he was preparing for his final speech at nearby Mason Temple.

Robert Cohen Missed photographs wake me up at night.

While these pages capture the joy, pain and beauty of St. Louis and our surroundings,they capture it in microseconds of time. I spend too much time thinking about moments never seen — images not patient enough to find a camera.

Last spring the newspaper sent me to Memphis to cover the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Close to town with the soulful WDIA on the radio, I heard the story of a thunderstorm over the city 50 years ago when King gave his final “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. Rain was in the forecast.

The King family joined guests inside Mason Temple to commemorate his last sermon. I was locked out, caught with-

out the right media pass. A light rain began to fall as I drove away.

Then it hit me. History could repeat itself. If I was patient I might capture it.

The Lorraine Motel, where King was shot, was nearby. The area was quiet — everyone was inside the church as a storm approached.

Lightning photographs are made with a lot of luck. It’s all in the timing as the bolts paint the sky. I used a stairway to brace the camera, the same stairs used to remove King after he was shot in 1968.

Lightning flashed on the horizon, miles away. Then one final bolt soared overhead, splitting into two strands. I was able to shoot two pictures.

I missed the first one. Still wondering what that would have looked like.

Erick Williams, the grandson of famed civil rights photographer Ernest Withers, joins a gathering on Beale Street in Memphis to kick off the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4.

Holding signs made famous by striking sanitation workers in 1968, the gathering was held for movie producers to gather footage for an upcoming film on the sanitation workers.

R14 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Robert Cohen

Some spectators turn their backs on the National Rifle Association entry in the Webster Groves Community Days Fourth of July parade as it travels west on Lockwood Avenue on July 4. Some residents were concerned that riders would openly carry weapons in the parade, but they did not. Webster Groves police officers on motorcycles escorted the float through the parade route.

Jordon Jenkins finishes strapping a mattress to the roof of his Pontiac Grand Prix after buying it from Dorothy’s Resale, 5917 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, on March 22.

Owner Dorothy Tripp recalls the J.C. Penney and Woolworth stores that anchored the neighborhood when she opened 35 years ago. Both closed long ago, but Tripp points to the addition of new lighting in 2008 as hope for the street.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens leaves the Civil Courts building after speaking with reporters on May 14. Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner dropped a felony invasion of privacy charge after Circuit Judge Rex Burlison ruled that she could be called as a witness at trial.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R15

Robert Cohen

Eddie McGehee and Bebe McBride keep warm around a kerosene heater inside the vacant home where she lives in north St. Louis on Nov. 5. McBride, 55, has ravioli for breakfast, the leftovers from a meal served the night before by a homeless outreach group. McGehee, 58, chain-smokes hand-rolled cigarettes, declining McBride’s offer to share her food. He lives next door in a shed behind another vacant home.

The icon of the downtown St. Louis skyline rises above the vacant shell of a home in the 1400 block of Chambers Street in the Old North neighborhood on March 16. More than 7,000 homes are vacant in St. Louis, and many are falling apart.

Brick cleaner David Higgins (center) sorts through brick alongside Albert Toliver (left), 16, and Johnathan Smith in an industrial lot off Goodfellow Boulevard and Natural Bridge Avenue on July 7.

Through a job-creating initiative of Fred Weber Construction and Better Family Life, workers recover brick from homes demolished during summer Clean Sweep events, selling them for re-use. As homes were taken down, materials were hauled to this lot where brick cleaners sorted through construction debris, picking and cleaning the bricks. They were paid $50 per pallet of 520 bricks.

St. Louis firefighters work a vacant home fire in the 2400 block of Bacon Street in the Jeff Vanderlou neighborhood on April 13. The remains of at least seven burned vacant homes sat in one block of Bacon near North Market before all were demolished months later.

R16 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A man pulls a lawn mower down the 3900 block of Labadie Avenue in the Greater Ville neighborhood, passing five vacant homes with overgrown yards on Sept. 4. Of the five, four are owned by the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA), one is privately owned. Two of the five were recently slated for demolition after a 2017 fire. The sixth at right is occupied by two families. This one-block stretch contains 14 vacant properties.

As morning temperatures begin to rise in October (left), Jimmy Johnson sweeps dust and burning embers from a warming fire out of his living room. Three weeks later he woke to snow (right), and had to tear cardboard to start a fire. The crumbling 1892 row home in north St. Louis is owned by the city’s land bank. Johnson, 58, uses the living room but sleeps in an adjoining closet. “This house could fall down at any time,” said Johnson. “I guess God has my back.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R17

Robert Cohen

Sophia Carter of the Arkansas Razorbacks completes a back walkover during warmups of the semifinal round of the National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships at Chaifetz Arena on April 20. A multiple-exposure photograph illustrates the move.

Members of New Beginnings Fellowship in Hollister, Mo., gather July 20 in the Ride the Ducks parking lot in Branson to pray over a 15-passenger van with Indiana license plates that they believed to have carried nine of 11 members of an Indiana family that died when a duck boat capsized in a storm on Table Rock Lake.

Gian Wessel of Brentwood is attended to by medical staff after being hit on the head from a Justin Thomas tee shot that landed in the rough above him on the 12th hole. After Thomas checked on Wessel and found that he was OK, he took his next shot perched above him. Wessel just needed a bandage for the cut; Thomas finished the 100th PGA Championship tied for sixth place on Aug. 12.

R18 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Cristina M. Fletes Lonni Schicker was always one to say she’d work until she died. She had gotten her dream job as a professor and never planned to retire. That all came to a halt when Lonni started forgetting lesson plans and getting lost on campus. A disease that Lonni had never bargained for stole her career and sent her into an early retirement. Lonni had dementia.

For the past year I have followed Lonni and her son, Dan, as they navigate the

unclear path of dementia. Dan, who had spent his life under the doting and watchful eye of a single mom, was now having to learn to how to parent her. Doctors appointments, medical bills, Lonni’s deteriorating health and her emotional roller coasters are all part of Dan’s life now.

I’ve been amazed at how graciously they’ve opened their world to me.

They’ve let me see the unglamorous

ways that dementia has degraded Lonni’s physical well-being and their financial well-being. An educator for most of her life, Lonni hopes sharing her experience will guide the millions of others who are either experiencing the disease or taking care of someone who is. It’s been powerful to hear from all the people who relate to either Lonni or Dan on this journey.

We’re dealing with dementia in my family as well, but it is my parents who are

in Dan’s shoes. Deep down I know we also worry if there will come a day when they’ll be in Lonni’s shoes instead.

But this is why we do this. This is why Lonni has bravely opened her life to all of us and this is why I do this job. Lonni feels that if even a few people can be helped by hearing her story, it would have all been worth it. I have the same goal with all the stories I tell: to make the road just a little easier for the next person.

Lonni Schicker, 63, becomes emotional while talking to her son, Dan, 31, about finances at their apartment in Fenton on Feb. 11. Lonni, who has dementia, worries that taking care of her is ruining her son’s life. Dan tries to reassure her. “It’s never been a burden,” he says. “It’s my mom.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R19

Cristina M. Fletes

2018 Miss Gay America winner Deva Station attempts to fit her headdress through a doorway before performing the opening number for the 47th annual Miss Gay America pageant at America’s Center in downtown St. Louis on Oct. 6.

Charlie Grace, a 7-month-old golden retriever, attempts to eat the water spraying from a fountain at Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis on May 31. Her owner, Kris Hurley, of LaGrange, Ga., was in town for a business trip.

R20 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Cristina M. Fletes Corey Allred (far left), 11, eats dinner with his mom, Terry Tipton, 45, and children from two other families at a safe house on Sept. 28. From left to right are siblings Demarcus Adams (seated on floor), 9, Eli Parnell (with pillow), 7, Demetrius Adams (seated on couch), 9, Dorian Boyd, 1, and Saniya Parnell, 10. Jayden Maclin (in sweatshirt at far right), 12, is part of a third family staying at the safe house. The families are staying in the house through New Life Evangelistic Center as they work to secure housing.

Ella Gochenaur, 10, of Beaver Dam, Wis., smiles back at her family after Jeff “Juggling Jeff” Koziatek, of St. Louis, picked her and her brother, Drake (left), 6, out of the crowd during a performance at Fair St. Louis on July 4. Fair St. Louis returned to the Gateway Arch grounds after being held in Forest Park for four years during renovations.

Alaysia Belmo, 16, of Mascoutah, a member of the Mascoutah Marching Indians, waits for instructions before the start of the Veiled Prophet parade in downtown St. Louis on July 4.

Falon Patton, of St. Louis, cheers on performers while her son, Chance, 8 months, sleeps soundly during UniverSoul Circus in downtown St. Louis on July 18.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R21

Cristina M. Fletes

Jaleel Walters, 18, of St. Louis, laughs and dances while dressed in a cluster of balloons shaped like a star at the Veiled Prophet parade in downtown St. Louis on July 4.

R22 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

David Carson

Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright embrace as they walk to the dugout after warming up before the Cardinals game in Chicago on Sept. 28, 2018. At the time, it was possibly Wainwright’s last start as a member of the Cardinals. Wainwright and the Cardinals agreed to a contract early in the offseason, meaning the duo could take the field again in 2019.

Fireworks explode over the Mississippi River in front of the Arch in downtown St. Louis on July 4. Pictured to the bottom left is the newly opened museum entrance to the Arch.

I love watching fireworks. I hate photographing them.

Alright, maybe hate is a bit of an overstatement but for me, photographing fireworks on a tight deadline for the next’s day’s front page is among the most stressful of assignments. There are just too many variables. How high, bright will the fireworks be? What’s the exposure of the other elements in the photos? Can I get an internet connection to send the photo to the page designer?

All these challenges need to be solved on the fly as bursts sound and color fills the sky. Each concussion of the bursting shells is like seconds ticking off the clock as you adjust exposures and pray you’ll figure it all out to make as least one photo.

Picking your spot to shoot from is the most important part.

In the months leading up to the Fourth of July, I scouted several possible locations. We ended up on the 19th floor of One Memorial Drive, which provided a great view of the Arch and the newly opened visitors center, which needed to be in this year’s photo.

For photo geeks out there, this image was shot with a Canon 5D Mark IV and a 16-35mm lens that was set to 20mm. The camera was mounted on a magic arm and clamped to a railing on a balcony overlooking the Arch. The exposure for this image is 8 seconds at f11 with the ISO set at 250 and the color balance was set for daylight. It was shot as RAW image file.

Special thanks to Tom Nagel at the Gateway Arch Park Foundation and the people at Jefferson National Parks Association who helped me get the access I needed to shoot the photo.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R23

David Carson

Cousins Marisha Wilson (left), 9, and Kendra Cross, 8, eat the lunches they picked up from a mobile meal van that’s part of the Operation Food Search Summer Meals program on June 4. The mobile meal van visited 28 sites around St. Louis city and county during the summer.

“She had to have her own umbrella,” says Karen Hall as she waits with her granddaughter Camarin Hall, 3, for her other granddaughter to get off the school bus on a rainy Monday afternoon in St. Louis on Aug. 20.

Men riding a Lime scooter and a Bird scooter cruise past a statue on Olive Street in St. Louis on Aug. 30. Bird and Lime were the two companies who had placed battery-powered scooters for use in St. Louis.

R24 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

David Carson Gen. Maryanne T. Miller gives a brief speech after she assumed command of the Air Mobility Command during a ceremony at Scott Air Force Base on Sept. 7. During the ceremony, Gen. Carlton D. Everhart II passed command of Air Mobility Command, which is based out of Scott Air Force Base, to Miller.

Everhart retired after 35 years of military service.

Miller is the first reservist to be made a four-star general and the first reservist to lead the Air Mobility Command.

St. Louis Aldermen Terry Kennedy (left) and John Collins-Muhammad talk by an open door in the aldermanic chambers at City Hall on May 18. Collins-Muhammad was sponsoring a bill asking voters to reverse a 2012 decision to cut the number of St. Louis aldermen in half. Kennedy, chairman of the Aldermanic Black Caucus, was in favor of the bill. Collins-Muhammad feared ward reduction will hurt the power of black leaders and residents in the city.

Artist Kristen Cassidy walks through a field down to the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis on Sept. 6. Cassidy searches along the banks of the Mississippi River for discarded objects in the mud and water that she uses to create art.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R25

David Carson

People cheer and wave flags as the limo carrying President Donald Trump passes along 19th Street in Granite City on July 26. The president was in town to visit the Granite City Works steel plant and promote his trade policies. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump can be seen waving to the crowd from the rear passenger seat of the limo.

R26 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Laurie Skrivan It takes courage to stand for what you believe in, when society is telling you that you’re wrong.

This year, some of my favorite images come from telling the stories of those who have done that, standing their ground and, in some cases, defying the law or mainstream social norms.

When Alex Garcia took sanctuary in September 2017 in a Maplewood church, he chose an uncertain future apart from his wife and five children rather than follow an

order from the federal government to report for deportation to his native Honduras.

Garcia had lived in Poplar Bluff for 14 years, married and made a life. His decision to walk into that church played a role in forcing judges to squarely confront rigid family separation rules.

I saw another way of bucking society’s norms when the mother superior of the Passionist Nuns of St. Louis let me photograph Sister Isidora Maria taking her first set of vows to become the newest member

of the cloistered order. It was unusual access, allowing me to capture the happiness of Sister Isidora on what she considers her literal wedding day to Christ. Her parents initially did not understand their daughter’s choice, but once they saw her newfound happiness, said they realized she’d found her place in the world.

Then there was my photo story on John Chaney, who at 90 still performs in drag as Bonnie Blake. At an early age, Chaney knew he was gay. He earned a Purple Heart in the

Korean War, started a business and eventually discovered drag culture and began performing as a singer. Now a fixture in St. Louis’s LGBT community, many younger people admire Chaney for taking that risk and inspiring them to be themselves as well.

This kind of intimate storytelling is the reason I’m a journalist. If I do my job right, I usually learn life lessons along the way from my subjects.This year,I learned about living with conviction and authenticity, no matter what society tells you.

“It’s been a long time. It’s a little hard sometimes,” said Alex Garcia, who pets his cat Lucy on Feb. 21 at Christ Church United Church of Christ Maplewood. The married father of five has been at the church taking sanctuary from immigration agents since September 2017. Garcia’s family brought Lucy to help with loneliness. “If they say no, I just don’t know what I am going to do,” said Garcia, referring to his application seeking a stay. “I don’t want to go back home (Honduras). I don’t want to leave my babies. It would be different if they were all grown up, but they need me,” he said.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R27

Laurie Skrivan Les Kimes, who plays Cousin Grumpy with the Pork Chop Review, rehearses parts of his act with Big Mac the pig for Circus Flora’s show “The Case of the Missing Bellhop” on April 13 at the group’s new home in Grand Center.

Jockey Danny Campbell gets in the zone in the jockey’s room before the second race on the opening day of horse racing at Fairmount Park Racetrack on May 1 in Collinsville.

“I am feeling incredible joy. I am shaking I am so happy. I know this might sound weird but I am in love. It’s hitting me that it’s really happening. I am actually going to be His. I am champing at the bit,” said Sister Isidora Maria, as she prays the stations of the cross within a half-hour of taking her first profession of vows on April 3 at the Immaculate Conception Monastery of the Passionist Nuns of St. Louis.

R28 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Laurie Skrivan

Missouri Attorney General and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Josh Hawley relaxes with his son Elijah, 6, on the campaign bus on Oct. 31 near Macon, Mo.

“I support him because he is fighting for our constitutional rights,” said Nicole Shipley (far left), who chats with Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, during a late breakfast at Stacey’s Place on Oct. 31 in Mexico, Mo.

Josh Hawley’s “Stop Schumer, Fire Claire” campaign bus exits Highway 54 on the way to a meet-andgreet with the Republican U.S. Senate candidate at Stacey’s Place on Oct. 31 in Mexico, Mo.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R29

Laurie Skrivan

“I am just a country girl at heart,” said Bonnie Blake, who lip-syncs to Susan Raye’s “LA International Airport” during a drag show on Nov. 11 at Bar PM. In August, the St. Louis LGBT History Project bestowed the title of “Oldest Performing Drag Queen in the World” to John Chaney, who, as Bonnie Blake, has performed in St. Louis since the late 1950s. Chaney turned 90 on Aug. 18.

“I just don’t know what I am going to do. No one want antiques anymore. I can’t sell even a chandelier anymore, and those always went,” said owner John Chaney, who greets a customer arriving for an auction on Sept. 28 at John’s Furniture and Antiques.

The auction was canceled due to low attendance. Chaney’s store, once a destination for antiques, is struggling to survive.

R30 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Laurie Skrivan

Fans cheer on Tiger Woods after he hits out of the rough on the 8th hole during the final round of play of the 100th PGA Championship on Aug. 12 at Bellerive Country Club in Town and Country. Despite hitting into the rough, Woods birdied the hole, finishing second in the tournament with a score of 14 under par.

U.S. golfer Rickie Fowler signs autographs after he finishes a practice round at the 100th PGA Championship on Aug. 8 at Bellerive Country Club in Town and Country.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • The Year in Pictures • R31

R32 • The Year in Pictures • Sunday, December 23, 2018 • St. Louis Post-Dispatch