SAMPLE A YEAR IN PHOTOGRAPHY The Story of 2019 by the Los Angeles Times
The tears of UCI medical student Graciela Maldonado are those of joy after learning she will spend her residency at the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education in Minnesota. The news comes every year on Match Day, when medical students throughout the country, learn where they will start their medical career. ALLEN J. SCHABEN
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Eddie Serrano, a 6-year-old first grader, waves to L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti after leaving Western Avenue Elementary School. Garcetti was at the school to give a news conference to discuss a school-funding parcel tax went down to defeat. MEL MELCON
CALIFORNIA LIFE 11
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Climate and Environment
Jonathan Cruz, of an L.A.-based tree service, navigates the giant sinkhole left in La Habra after an underground flood control channel collapsed. M EL MELCON CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT 21
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It’s a sight you can see in the winter, but it always takes your breath away when you live in Southern California. The snow-covered mountains make a beautiful backdrop to downtown from the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area in Baldwin Hills. A L SEIB
LEFT:
Burbank Police Sgt. Marsha Laufer and officer Joseph Moreno carry Ginny McKinney from her car after it got stuck in the mud after rains brought debris to the road in Burbank. P ATRICK T. FALLON
ABOVE:
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT 23
The future of this pig isn’t very good but that doesn’t stop a group of people who routinely gather outside the Farmer John processing plant to give comfort to animals shortly before their slaughter. Here they give a pig some water. ROBERT GAUTHIER
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It’s not that the stop sign is low, it’s that the snow is that high in Aspendell near Bishop, Ca. The elevation is 8,000 feet so a lot of the roads near there were more than buried by snow. M ARK BOSTER
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT 25
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Entertainment and Arts
Amanda, left, is a producer and Nyfe is a vocalist-producer. They also are songwriters and these transgender artists make up the experimental R&B group Closegood. F RANCINE ORR ENTERTAINMENT AND ARTS 39
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Kanye West is greeted with enthusiasm as he brings his “Sunday Service” to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. There were dozens of musicians, singers and dancers who performed spiritual songs as well as others on Easter Sunday. K ENT NISHIMURA
LEFT:
ABOVE: The sights and sounds of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival become more
interesting as the sun sets and anticipation grows. B RIAN VAN DER BRUG
ENTERTAINMENT AND ARTS 51
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World and Nation
All that’s missing is the plane. Agents inspect the stairs that will be rolled up to Air Force One when President Donald Trump arrives at Los Angeles International Airport. KENT NISHIMURA WORLD AND NATION 69
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CLOSER LOOK
Chasing danger along the border The high-speed chases used by U.S. Border Patrol agents aren’t allowed in most areas of the country because, too often, they can end in tragedy. A joint investigation between the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica, anchored by photographer Gary Coronado and reporters Kavitha Surana, Brittny Mejia and James Queally brought many issues to light. They were sent to both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and here’s a sampling of what they found.
O
n a rainy November afternoon last
crossed into the United States.
year, eight men held tight to a gray
When the smuggler’s Chevrolet Silverado
tarp, their bodies pressed against
jerked onto Interstate 8 in San Diego County,
a strip of spikes in their path. The truck ran over it and swerved. It hurtled up an embankment and flipped onto its side. Alongside the wreckage were bodies, scat-
one another as they lay feet to head in the bed
the passengers were convinced they would be
of a pickup truck. Most knew one another
stopped for speeding. Then, they heard sirens.
from Acatic, a Mexican town in the state of
Ya nos agarraron, one said. They’ve caught us.
As many modern police agencies move
That might have remained the worst-case
away from high-speed chases, placing tight
Jalisco, where the country’s most vicious cartel has caused the morgue to overflow. Rainwater pooled on the tarp, running in
scenario, but then the driver accelerated. Two U.S. Border Patrol agents followed as
tered on the freeway.
restrictions on when their officers can pursue suspects, the Border Patrol allows its agents
rivulets down the sides and soaking the men
the truck reached 80 mph, then lost sight of
wide latitude to use them to catch people
underneath. The closeness provided only
the pickup as it pushed past 100. The men in
trying to enter the country illegally, a practice
some warmth, as the men lay shivering, feel-
the truck bed remained silent, frozen in fear.
that often ends in gruesome injuries and,
ing every bump of the rocky scrubland as they
More agents spotted them, and one threw
sometimes, death.
There was no age limit when migrants seeking asylum were detained near the U.S. border. Some were put in a transition area under the Paso Del Norte bridge in El Paso, Tex. G ARY CORONADO WORLD AND NATION 71
ABOVE RIGHT: David Kim, assistant chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol, demonstrates a devise, known as the “Grappler,” that is thrown across the highway in order to stop vehicles. G ARY CORONADO BELOW RIGHT: A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands at
the New River, which separates Calexico, Ca., and Mexicali, Mexico. G ARY CORONADO U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehend a man from Mexico and a 15-year-old boy from Honduras in the El Centro Sector in Imperial, near the California-Mexico border. G ARY CORONADO FAR RIGHT:
72 A YEAR IN PHOTOGRAPHY
WORLD AND NATION 73
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Nadia Valdivia Gonzalez, 4, carries a balloon to the grave of Jorge Luis Garcia Isordia, her mother’s boyfriend, at a cemetery in Acatic, Jalisco. Garcia was killed when a pickup truck flipped while being pursued by U.S. Border Patrol agents. G ARY CORONADO
LEFT:
Santiago Ruvalcaba Medina, 20, receives electrotherapy from Laura Lopez Avila to treat injuries sustained while trying to elude U.S. Border Patrol agents. Ruvalcaba lost hearing in his left year, paralysis to the left side of his face and a fractured spine. G ARY CORONADO
ABOVE:
WORLD AND NATION 75
Obstacle course races are becoming popular with women and millennials who compete on the Tough Mudder circuit of competitions. Danielle Petze captures the exuberance of this event at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino. I RFAN KHAN
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Beneath the splash and spray of water, competitor Omar Rivas completes the next obstacle in a Tough Mudder competition in San Bernardino. I RFAN KHAN
SPORTS 107
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LEFT: Journalists and the people they report on shouldn’t
get too close, but this moment between Magic Johnson and Lauren Jones of the Los Angeles Sentinel seemed genuine. Johnson had just stepped down as president of basketball operations for the Lakers. G ARY CORONADO ABOVE: A lot of new faces on the L.A. NBA scene, such as Anthony Davis, left, being greeted by LeBron James and his friend Randy Mims after Davis’ introductory news conference. M ARCUS YAM
SPORTS 113
ABOVE: How could it be anything but all smiles, or whatever it is that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is doing, when Kawhi Leonard is brought out at a news conference that included coach Doc Rivers. WALLY SKALIJ
Life imitates art, or is it the other way around, as new Clippers player Paul George looks at a mural of himself at the Green Meadows Recreation Center. WALLY SKALIJ
RIGHT:
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SPORTS 115
ABOVE: It didn’t take long before Angels fans, devastated by the news that pitcher Tyler Skaggs had been found dead in Texas, did the only thing they could, create a makeshift memorial outside Angel Stadium. ALLEN J. SCHABEN
It couldn’t have been more surreal as the Angels pitched a combined no-hitter in their first home games since the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs. Pitcher Felix Pena celebrates with catcher Dustin Garneau. WALLY SKALIJ
RIGHT:
FAR RIGHT: Angels players lay down their jerseys with Tyler Skaggs’ name and number after their first home after his death. It was later revealed that Skaggs had opioids and alcohol in his system when he died. K ENT NISHIMURA
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SPORTS 117
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CLOSER LOOK
Spirit of Paradise rises from the ashes Photographer Wally Skalij and sports columnist Bill Plaschke were given the assignment to capture the tragedy of the Paradise fire and how, when all is done, sports can be a unifying factor that can heal and bring people together. Here is a closer look at what they saw.
T
he hills that stretch above this grassy
awoke at 5 a.m. after sleeping on an air mat-
pasture were once ablaze, an apoc-
tress 90 minutes away.
the Bobcats are searching for normal. Though all 104 players in the Bobcats pro-
They are overwhelmingly tired. They feel
gram survived the deadliest fire in California
disrupting their families, melting their
like they are homeless. They shuffle their feet
history, 95 of them lost their homes. With the
childhoods.
across a concrete parking lot and step wearily
fire leading many to move elsewhere to find
through an opening in a fence.
housing, the team also lost many of its players
alyptic fire consuming their homes,
Now, six months later, on a makeshift practice field with no yard lines or end zones, the Paradise football team smolders.
But once their toes touch the grass on this
to relocation. One running back moved to
soft spring afternoon, they run. Oh, how they
Oregon. Another one is in Pennsylvania.
run, together in their green Paradise Football
Another one is in San Diego. A 76-person
the front seats of their dusty trucks and rick-
T-shirts adorned with the giant face of a
varsity squad has been whittled to 36.
ety sedans because there is no locker room.
bobcat, running from their aborted sea-
Some are wearing second-hand cleats. Others
son, running from disrupted lives, running
another, so on this spring afternoon they play
are wearing borrowed shorts.
through their pain.
through every whistle, smother every blocking
The several dozen teenagers get dressed in
Their young faces are consumed by yawns
In these first days of Paradise High’s spring
They lost so much, yet they still have one
bag, climb over one another in every scrum,
because they spent the night sleeping on a
practice, their first official workouts since
awash in the joy of being together again and
couch. Or they spent the last three months
the historically hellish Camp fire on Nov. 8
the hope of an autumn reborn.
sleeping on the floor of a trailer. Or they
destroyed their town and caused 85 fatalities,
—Bill Plaschke
How fitting that on the first day of football practice, Paradise High football players were jumping over obstacles, something they’ve proven to be very good at. W ALLY SKALIJ SPORTS 121