We Published Nearly 2,800 Stories in 2020. Here Are 22 of Our Favorites of the Year
We take a look back at some of the most serious, most joyful, and most compelling stories of 2020 with a selection of staff favorites.
December 29, 2020
A protester speaks to a crowd from the pedestal that once hosted the statue of Edward Colston. Photo by Giulia Spadafora/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
There’s no way around it: it’s been a bruising year.
The coronavirus pandemic taught us (as if we needed another lesson) that no one is an island. The police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others reminded us that struggles for political justice are only just beginning. And the election of President Joe Biden suggested a potential return to order but really, how can things ever be as they were?
A look back at memorable moments in Richmond, Va., from 2020.
From pandemic to protests, from voting to vaccines and everything in between, 2020 in the Richmond area â and across the globe â has been a year like no other.
âUnprecedentedâ is a word thrown around when describing the past 12 months (or was it 12 years?), but to come up with one that better encapsulates what has happened across our region, state, country and world would be to perhaps create a new language.
As we prepare with hopeful anticipation for a new year with new promises and priorities, the Richmond Times-Dispatch looks back on what happened locally and across the commonwealth in 2020 â the year that was.
Working Together
Saturday 21 November 2020 - Sunday 28 March 2021 - Event ended.
Working Together is an unprecedented exhibition that chronicles the formative years of the Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of Black photographers established in New York City in 1963. “Kamoinge” comes from the language of the Kikuyu people of Kenya, meaning “a group of people acting together,” and reflects the ideal that animated the collective. In the early years, at a time of dramatic social upheaval, members met regularly to show and discuss each other’s work and to share their critical perspectives, technical and professional experience, and friendship. Although each artist had his or her own sensibility and developed an independent career, the members of Kamoinge were deeply committed to photography s power and status as an independent art form. They boldly and inventively depicted their communities as they saw and participated in them, rather than as they were often portrayed.
Inside page of
Peter Beard published by TASCHEN.
Why it’s worth it: When the writer, photographer, and all-around bon vivant Peter Beard died this year at age 82, he left an indelible mark on the art world and everyone he met, from the wilds of Africa to the seedy bars of New York City. His life was marked by a ferocious pursuit of adventure, photographing endangered species and documenting his travels in beautifully intimate diaristic form, collaging photographs with drawings and notation.
A gadfly who was equally at home as a social fixture, Beard delved into fashion photography, and collaborated with the likes of Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, while living up to his nickname as Walkabout, cutting a fine figure with his year-round tan, blue eyes, and revolving door of beautiful women at his side. This book captures the spirit and craft of a man who lived large in every sense.
âTake Beautiful Pictures of Our Peopleâ
Born in 1960s Harlem, the Kamoinge collective was influential in Black photography but ignored by the mainstream until recently. This exhibition should change that.
Anthony Barboza photographed “Kamoinge Members” in 1973. Back row, from left: Albert R. Fennar, Ray Francis, Herbert Randall, C. Daniel Dawson, Beuford Smith, Herb Robinson, Adger Cowans and Anthony Barboza. Front row, from left: Herman Howard, Ming Smith, James Mannas Jr., Louis Draper, Calvin Wilson and Shawn Walker.Credit.Anthony Barboza and Whitney Museum of American Art
By Siddhartha Mitter
Published Dec. 22, 2020Updated Dec. 23, 2020
Shawn Walker was up on 125th Street with Louis Draper and Ray Francis, hanging out and taking pictures. It was the summer of 1964 and the friends, in their 20s, were members of a fledgling photography collective in Harlem called the Kamoinge Workshop. Thatâs when the celebrated photographer Roy DeCarava walked up. The works