Usually I know right away what my image of the year is but this year was hard. I struggled with what stood out to me. I can think of many stories. George Emeny when the Hatfield Board of Health was evicting him from his home and how the community rallied, Warfield Place in Northampton and how the community was divided so intensely on the issues of cherry trees, schools opening, schools closing, and then just the images of found graphic moments I took kept popping up.
But I kept coming back to this photo. Somehow it summed up how I felt. The photo of Roy Van Driesche and Shelia Marks walking down Stage Road in Westhampton during the snow was just the mood I was looking for. It’s the opposite of a teacher zooming in an empty classroom, masked faces, and empty space.
All of the above are still very much a part of our reality and all a visual challenge, especially for someone like me who loves to get close to the people I am photographing. I am drawn to this photo because it is a socially distanced picture that worked, it has emotion without showing eyes and faces. I love the quiet, the togetherness, and the feeling of saying yes to a snowy day. A friend recently wrote about the power of saying yes, and I am looking forward to saying yes more in the coming year.
Carol Lollis is the Gazette’s photo editor. She can be reached at clollis@gazettenet.com.