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Our photographers' favorite pictures of the year are mostly about seeking refuge.
By JOHN BARRY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 1, 2003
St. Petersburg Times photographers were asked to choose their favorite photographs from 2002. No restrictions. Just whatever they liked best.
But as you look through this extraordinary collection of photos from the past year, you will find in nearly all of them the same humanistic theme, the same artistic expression. They are images of safety, of refuge, of pillars of strength surviving in places of peril.
You'll see a legless dad, struggling to restart his life, at peace in a swimming pool with his daughter; a posse of last-of-a-breed cowboys trailing a cattle herd in Hernando County; endangered manatees finding refuge from boat propellers in a federal sanctuary; Bucs running back Mike Alstott impossibly on his feet, carrying three tacklers on his back; Pentecostals praising God at an old-time revival.
The photographers each had a different vision, but each seemed to share a collective hope: that we be safe. You could say the unanimity of theme was accidental. But in the kind of year we had, it may have been inevitable.
An unidentified Orthodox Jew prays at the Western Wall in troubled Jerusalem just after sunrise.
JAMIE FRANCIS: I spoke to many of the Orthodox Jews gathered there that morning, but not to this man. In fact, I never saw his eyes. He was backing away from the wall in a fierce wind. I didn't want to know more.
Three small children, rescued from harm, play in the safety of Sallie House, a shelter for abused and neglected children run by the Salvation Army in St. Petersburg.
LARA CERRI: When the story and photos ran last June, they generated a flood of phone calls from people who wanted to donate time and money. The Salvation Army recruited 15 to 20 new volunteers and collected $18,000, including a single donation of $11,000 from a local foundation. The message got through to people, said one Salvation Army official. The message was, "We're here."
Trenton Shenefield, 2, takes it easy on a Hudson Beach park bench as his grandfather, Ray Shenefield, 57, keeps an eye on an approaching squall sent by Tropical Storm Edouard last September.
BRENDAN FITTERER: When I spotted Trenton and his grandfather, I couldn't get out of the car fast enough. This photo makes me smile every time I look at it. It's proof once again that it's often the little things I encounter in my daily work that I enjoy the most.
Jorge Luis Calunga, 11 months, gets his first haircut in Guanabacoa, Cuba.
JOHN PENDYGRAFT: I like this picture because a baby's first haircut is something simple that people anywhere can identify with. It reminds me that despite language, culture and politics, we all have more in common than we have differences.
A mother alligator keeps an eye on her brood of newborns in a small pond in John Chesnut Sr. Park in Palm Harbor last April.
SCOTT KEELER: I had noticed this alligator for several days while passing by Chesnut Park on other assignments. She usually sunned herself on the bank. But on this day, she had moved into the duckweed for cover as she watched her young. I waited until a lone leaf floated by to make the image.
From his perch on the rooftop of the 15 Park Row building in downtown Manhattan, Luis Cruz, 28, a masonry waterproofer, watches the massive demolition work at the World Trade Center site last January. He had witnessed the collapse of the twin towers from atop another building on Sept. 11.
CHERIE DIEZ: Luis told me that by staying on the job after the terrorist attack, he felt part of the rebuilding. He said felt like a soldier, out there trying to make people see that things aren't so bad, rebuilding, getting rid of the old to make way for the new. "It was a terrible end to witness," he told me, "but it's a whole new beginning now." This is my favorite photograph because, to me, it shows hope and the resilience of the human spirit.
Johnny Melton, far right, leads friends and family members on a morning cattle roundup on his spread in Hernando County. Though the Meltons mostly grow farming seed, cutting nearly 10,000 acres in a season, they also continue to tend to a few hundred head of cattle.
DANIEL WALLACE: For this assignment, I declined a horse in favor of a four-wheel ATV. This photo was taken as we rode away from the bar, the cool blue of the western horizon looming overhead. In many ways, it sums up why I love living and working in Hernando County. Maybe next time, I'll take the horse.
Jim Miller, who lost his legs when he was struck by a car in 1999 in St. Petersburg, was the subject of a three-part Floridian story in 2002 called "Walking to Paris" that documented his long struggle to put his life back together. He is shown swimming at home with his daughter, Giselle.
BILL SERNE: Jim tried so hard to be "normal," and that's probably why he succeeded in walking on artificial legs. In this picture, captured early in his quest to walk again, he is momentarily free of his disability.
Manatees huddle in a federally protected sanctuary in Kings Bay near Three Sisters Spring in Citrus County during an aerial count of the endangered animals by U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials.
RON THOMPSON: I'm always amazed at how the animals have learned exactly where the boundaries of the sanctuary are and how they know when they are safe from human intrusion. Since it was a weekday, there were few tourists and just one Manatee Watch volunteer keeping an eye on things from his kayak.
The Rev. Martyn Ballestero leads his congregation, the Pentecostals of Clearwater, during an old-time revival last July.
CARRIE PRATT: In Kentucky, where I grew up, Pentecostal churches and revivals are a common sight. My appreciation grew as I became a photojournalist and began documenting them. When I photographed the Rev. Ballestero, I was excited to feel the energy resonating throughout such a diverse group of people.
Bucs running back Mike Alstott fights off multiple Atlanta Falcons tacklers, including helmetless cornerback Ray Buchanan, during a 33-yard run that help set up Tampa Bay's fourth touchdown and seal a 34-10 win in December.
JAMES BORCHUCK: I've photographed Mike Alstott for three years, and I've always wondered what it's like to try to tackle him. It looks like the whole Falcons football team is trying to bring him down and not having much luck.