2020 was an extraordinary year.
And now, finally, the finish line is in sight.
A year that started like any other quickly took a turn into chaos and uncertainty:
• The coronavirus killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
• Shutdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the economy, leaving tens of thousands of Illinoisans out of work.
• The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis prompted protests, rallies and looting, the likes of which this city — and country — hadn’t seen in decades.
• And a gun violence epidemic reached a grim milestone in Chicago, with more than 700 homicides, a number last seen in 2016.
Along the way, face masks, social distancing, working from home, nose swabs, e-learning, drive-thru graduations/funerals/birthdays/etc. and Zoom meetings all became part of the “new normal.”
Chicago Sun-Times photographers were there every day, in the streets and neighborhoods of their city, state and elsewhere, witnessing and documenting all of it.
Photojournalists don’t work from home.
Nurse Jeanette Averett comforts a 56-year-old woman suffering from COVID-19 who was struggling with anxiety because of her non-invasive ventilator at Roseland Community Hospital on the Far South Side, Tuesday afternoon, April 28, 2020. During the standard 12-hour day shift Tuesday, nurses and doctors responded to five code blues and three patients died from complications from COVID-19.
Chicago police officers block Michigan Avenue at 36th Street, using a CTA bus and their bodies, while Black Lives Matter protesters march toward CPD headquarters on the South Side, demanding justice for George Floyd on Thursday, June 4, 2020.
Jennifer Nava, 18, a graduate of Thomas Kelly College Prep, chants during a “teach-in” outside Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle’s home in Belmont Cragin, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The Chicago Board of Education on that day decided not to end Chicago Public Schools’ $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department and pull police officers from schools.
Members of the Vega family embrace one another during a vigil for Miguel Vega in the 1300 block of West 19th Street in Pilsen, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. Vega, 26, was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer on Aug. 31 during an exchange of gunfire with a group of people in the Southwest Side neighborhood, police said.
Health care workers at Stroger Hospital watch from the hospital’s main entrance as the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020.
More than a thousand supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters join the family of Jacob Blake to march through the streets of Kenosha on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. The march occurred six days after he was shot in the back by a police officer in the Wisconsin city.
Funeral workers carry the casket of Chicago Police Officer Ronald Newman to a waiting hearse after the officer’s funeral at Leak & Sons Funeral Home in Country Club Hills on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Officer Newman, 59, a 19-year department veteran, was CPD’s third officer to die of complications from COVID-19.
Phlebotomist Crystal Bovan, with Simple Laboratories, collects a nasopharyngeal swab sample from Harwood Heights Mayor Arlene Jezierny to test for the coronavirus. The testing was being done at the lab’s drive-thru testing site in the parking lot of St. Rosalie Catholic Parish in Harwood Heights, on Friday, May 1, 2020.
Bridges over the Chicago River are shown the morning of Sunday, May 31, 2020. They had been lifted to limit transportation to and from the Loop as looting broke out overnight while thousands of protesters in Chicago joined national outrage over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Chicago police investigate the scene where two people were shot, including 7-year-old Natalia Wallace who was shot fatally while attending a Fourth of July party at her grandmother’s home. The shooting occurred in the 100 block of North Latrobe Avenue in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side on July 4, 2020.
Ruth Novak holds a sign with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s picture during the Women’s March, which aims to rally voters, at Federal Plaza in the Loop, Saturday morning, Oct. 17, 2020.
Protesters pose in front of a burning truck outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, where police clashed with protesters in the second night of unrest after police shot Jacob Blake in the Wisconsin city, Monday night, Aug. 24, 2020.
A photographer walks his bicycle though the dust cloud descending on the Little Village neighborhood after the Crawford Coal Plant smoke stack was imploded, Saturday, April 11, 2020.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich greets supporters after a news conference outside his family’s Ravenswood Manor home the day after he was released from a Colorado prison, Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 19, 2020. President Donald Trump on Tuesday commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence on charges of public corruption.
Brinity Johnson, whose mother Andrea Stoudemire was shot to death on July 26, 2019, poses for a portrait in her Englewood neighborhood apartment, Thursday, July 23, 2020. Stoudemire, 35, and Chantell Grant, a 26-year-old mother of four, were both shot to death near the base of operations for Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings, the anti-violence group they volunteered for. No arrests have been made in connection with the incident.
Nurse practitioner Capri Reese (left) watches the monitor for a heart rhythm while respiratory therapist Khafran Alshahin performs chest compressions on an 80-year-old man suffering from the coronavirus. Respiratory therapists Dennis Kelly and Malcolm Love (right), also look at the monitor. The 80-year-old man was one of three patients to die from complications of COVID-19 at Roseland Community Hospital, Tuesday afternoon, April 28, 2020.
Nurse practitioner Capri Reese takes a minute to herself in an elevator after an 80-year-old man suffering from COVID-19 died at Roseland Community Hospital on the Far South Side, Tuesday afternoon, April 28, 2020. During Reese’s standard 12-hour shift Tuesday, she responded to five code blues and the 80-year-old man was one of three patients to die from the coronavirus.
Chicago police officers keep watch as a pro-police protester and supporter of President Donald Trump shouts at counter-protesters during the “Defend the Police” rally in Grant Park, Saturday afternoon, July 25, 2020.
Thousands attend C2E2 at McCormick Place, Saturday afternoon, Feb. 29, 2020.
Amid fears of the coronavirus pandemic and a stay-at-home order from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a man has Daley Plaza to himself as he walks through the Loop, as seen from the roof of City Hall during the Wednesday morning commute, April 1, 2020.
Participants of the 20th Annual Chicago Polar Plunge run to the shore after taking a dip in 35 degree water at North Avenue Beach, Sunday morning, March 1, 2020. Around 5,000 people attended Special Olympics Chicago’s largest fundraising event.
City crews remove the Christopher Columbus Statue in Grant Park about 3 a.m. Friday, July 24, 2020. The decision to remove the statue came after violent clashes between police and protesters broke out when activists tried but failed to take it down.
A woman gives a Chicago police officer the middle finger during a protest at East 53rd Street and South Lake Park Avenue in Hyde Park on the third day of protests in Chicago over the death of George Floyd, Sunday evening, May 31, 2020. Floyd died in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis.
Volunteers cross State Street as they work to clean up broken glass and storefronts from overnight looting during the George Floyd protest in Chicago, Sunday morning, May 31, 2020.
Fans of the Chicago White Sox tailgate outside of Guaranteed Rate Field during the Opening Day game against the Minnesota Twins, Friday afternoon, July 24, 2020.
Family members and mourners gather around a memorial during a vigil for Miguel Vega two days after he was shot to death by a Chicago police officer in the 1300 block of West 19th Street in Pilsen, Wednesday night, Sept. 2, 2020. Vega, 26, was shot and killed by an officer on Aug. 31 during an exchange of gunfire with a group of people in the Southwest Side neighborhood, police said.
Hac Tran, communications manager of Business Partners - The Chamber for Uptown, on West Argyle Street in the Uptown neighborhood on the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 13, 2020.
Olumide Olupitan looks down on his brother, Oyedele Oluptian, at his visitation at Sacred Memories Funeral Home in South Shore, Saturday afternoon, Sept. 5, 2020. Chicago police said Oyedele Oluptian, 42, was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound to his head on Aug. 18 in the 9300 block of South Halsted Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the South Side.
A masked man walks past a burning Chicago Police Department SUV near State and Lake in the Loop on May 30, 2020. Thousands of protesters in Chicago joined national outrage over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Federal prosecutors later charged the man, identified as 31-year-old Timothy O’Donnell, with arson after he was caught on camera setting fire to the police vehicle while wearing the Joker mask.
Adriana Torres reunites with her son Francisco Morales on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2020. Moreles spent nearly two years at an immigrant detention center in rural Wisconsin. Morales, 26, had been granted asylum in April 2019 but remained in the Dodge County Jail, in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Onlookers watch as a looter walks away with dozens of shoes stolen from a Foot Locker in Logan Square, Friday night, May 31, 2020.
People peer through a destroyed window of a Family Dollar at 4247 W. Madison St. in Austin on the West Side, Monday morning, June 1, 2020. Business owners and volunteers began clean up after a night of protests and looting in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Gigi Goode performs during Drive ‘N Drag presented by Voss Events at Soldier Field, Friday night, Aug. 7, 2020.
A digital billboard along the Dan Ryan Expressway with “#SayHerName” written on it in between ads near35th and LaSalle, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. The hashtag refers to the fatal Louisville, Kentucky, shooting of Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Children in small boats are tugged along in the waters of Lake Michigan near Belmont Harbor in Lakeview, Tuesday afternoon, June 30, 2020.
Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, his 1st deputy superintendent, Eric Carter, and his deputy superintendent, Barbara West, made history on July 15, 2020, as the department’s three highest-ranking officers were African-Americans — for the first time in CPD’s 185 years.
Nikolette Baxter, 30, and her 2-year-old son Jeremy, both of the West Side, masked up when Baxter came to vote in the Illinois primary election at Midwest Terrace senior apartments at 150 S. Campbell Ave on the Near West Side, Tuesday afternoon, March 17, 2020
While the school building is closed amid fears of the coronavirus pandemic, teachers and other staff at John C. Dore Elementary School parade around the neighborhood waving to families and children on the Southwest Side, Thursday afternoon, April 2, 2020.
Luis Rodriguez, 20, who would be a first-time applicant for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Thursday afternoon, Oct. 8, 2020. Rodriguez remains shut out of the program because of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security decision this summer rejecting all initial DACA applications.
Inmates at the Metropolitan Correctional Center hold up signs reading, “please help” and “virus is here” during the coronavirus pandemic, Monday afternoon, April 20, 2020.
Lisa Simpson, the mother of Richard Risher, who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police in 2016, chants during a Black Lives Matter protest on the Magnificent Mile, Saturday evening, Aug. 29, 2020.
Thousands march though Chicago’s West Town neighborhood demanding that the city defund the Chicago Police Department, Friday afternoon, June 6, 2020.
Employees from the Oak Park Department of Public Works clean off black paint from the Black Lives Matter mural after it was vandalized to read “All Lives Matter” near North Scoville Avenue and Lake Street in Oak Park, Wednesday afternoon, July 8, 2020.
Kyle Rittenhouse (in green t-shirt), who is charged with first-degree intentional homicide for shooting protesters in Kenosha Tuesday night, helps clean the exterior of Reuther Central High School, Tuesday morning, Aug. 25, 2020. Two protesters were fatally shot and one injured.
Firefighters work to extinguish a four-alarm fire at Best Value Autobody Supply Inc. at 4425 W. 16th St. in Lawndale, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. More than 250 firefighters and 90 engines and trucks were called to the fire, which was considered a hazardous materials incident due to the nature of some of the items stored in the building.
A man sits in the barber chair for a haircut at C’Styles Barber Shop at 2024 W. 163rd St. in Markham, Friday afternoon, May 29, 2020. Illinois entered Phase 3 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan for the state Friday, allowing many nonessential businesses to reopen with guidelines for social distancing and capacity limits amid fears of the coronavirus pandemic.
A group of neighbors survey the damage near West Schubert and North Magnolia avenues after a tornado with peak winds of 110 miles per hour touched down in Rogers Park, Monday afternoon, Aug. 10, 2020.
People wait hours in line at Mission Dispensary in South Shore on the first day of legalized recreational cannabis in Illinois, Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, 2020.
Cannabis consultant Mike Malcolm smokes a joint in a North Side home as he explains what customers can expect at dispensaries now that recreational marijuana is legal in Illinois, Jan. 8, 2020.
Kanye West and the Sunday Service Choir perform at the Credit Union 1 Arena during the NBA All-Star Weekend, Sunday afternoon, Feb. 16, 2020.
Construction workers and Illinois National Guardsmen construct medical rooms at McCormick Place’s Hall A, Friday afternoon, April 10, 2020. McCormick Place’s Hall A was transformed into a 500-bed alternative care facility to combat the coronavirus pandemic in Chicago, though only a fraction of the space ended up being used.
The iconic lion statues wear face masks outside the The Art Institute of Chicago during the coronavirus pandemic, Friday afternoon, May 1, 2020 — the first day of a statewide mandate requiring masks in public places. The masks had been installed as a symbolic gesture the day before.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot wears a face mask as she tours a new coronavirus drive-thru testing site at Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy, 2231 N. Central Ave. in Belmont Cragin, Monday morning, May 18, 2020.
People with improvised face masks walk by signs of encouragement outside a home in the 2600 block of West Wilson Avenue in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, Tuesday afternoon, April 7, 2020.
Protesters pay respect to George Floyd and other individuals who have suffered police brutality. They were part of a demonstration at West 79th Street and South Racine Avenue in Auburn Gresham, Thursday afternoon, June 4, 2020.
With temperatures in the 80s, Steven Gomez, 40, and his 9-year-old daughter, Hannah Gomez, of Humboldt Park, cool off in the water from an open fire hydrant in Bridgeport on the South Side, Thursday afternoon, July 9, 2020.
Kastumi “Kitty” Perez, 19, holds her 2-year-old daughter, Xochitl, at Warren Park on the North Side, Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 2, 2020. Perez, who had experienced homelessness, received help from The Night Ministry.
Flanked by attorneys and supporters, former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett walks out of the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on Monday morning, Feb. 24, 2020 after pleading not guilty to a new, six-count indictment charging him with falsely reporting he was the victim of a hate-crime attack near his Streeterville apartment in January 2019.
Community members walk down the street during a march down South Michigan Avenue in Roseland, Wednesday afternoon, June 10, 2020. The mach was organized by W.O.K.E Up, a coalition of Far South Side organizations aiming to improve the quality of life in the Roseland area.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections’ Community Corrections Division at 1212 60th St. in Kenosha was one of several buildings set afire Monday night, Aug. 24, 2020 during the second night of unrest after police shot Jacob Blake.
Law enforcement officers advance on protesters through a curtain of tear gas in Civic Park in downtown Kenosha on Tuesday night, Aug. 25, 2020, during a protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Jacob Blake’s father, also Jacob Blake, speaks to a crowd of more than a thousand during a rally in Civic Center Park in downtown Kenosha on Aug. 29, 2020, six days after his son was shot in the back by a police officer in the Wisconsin city,
Family members release doves and balloons for 20-month-old Sincere Gaston during a vigil on Wednesday afternoon, July 1, 2020 near West 61st and South Halsted streets, not far from the spot where Sincere was shot to death, in Englewood. Gaston was shot in the chest while riding in a car driven by his mother on June 27.
Brian Kuhns, 62, the second COVID-19 patient to receive a double-lung transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, speaks to his doctors after a press conference at the hospital, Thursday morning, July 30, 2020.
Hundreds of protesters rally outside the Thompson Center in the Loop demanding that the state of Illinois be “reopened” amid the coronavirus pandemic, Saturday afternoon, May 16, 2020.
Chicago police investigate the scene of a mass shooting after more then a dozen people were shot in the 7900 block of South Carpenter in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side, Tuesday night, July 21, 2020.
Hundreds of people raise their fists in Mt. Greenwood cemetery after marching from Morgan Park, Sunday afternoon, Jun 7, 202. The protesters were calling for police accountability and an end to police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Signs on Election Day sit outside Edward Duke Ellington School at 243 N. Parkside Ave. in Austin on the West Side, Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 3, 2020.
Incumbent Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx defeats Republican candidate Pat O’Brien in the general election and dances as she finishes her election night headquarters speech at the Kinzie Hotel on the Near North Side, Tuesday night, Nov. 3, 2020.
Supporters of President Donald Trump wave flags and hold signs during a rally at Firewater Saloon at 3910 W. 111th St. in Mount Greenwood, Sunday afternoon, Nov. 1, 2020.
At least 1,000 protesters march through the Loop to demand every vote be counted in the general election, Wednesday night, Nov. 4, 2020. A full day after Election Day, neither candidate had cleared the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House as President Donald Trump’s campaign has filed lawsuits and attempted to stop ballot counting in several key battleground states.
People cheer on North Sheridan Road in the Rogers Park neighborhood, where dozens gathered after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory was announced, Saturday morning, Nov. 7, 2020.
A woman and girl hug as hundreds gather in the Loop to celebrate President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Saturday afternoon, Nov. 7, 2020.
Chicago firefighters salute as the procession carrying the remains of retired firefighter Dwain Williams arrives at the Cook County Medical Examiners Office, after Williams was shot and killed in the 2400 block of West 118th Street in the Morgan Park Neighborhood, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020.
Pallbearers carry the casket for Chicago Police Field Training Officer Titus Moore after his funeral at Leak & Sons Funeral Home on the South Side, Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 8, 2020. Moore, 46, died Nov. 24 of complications from COVID-19 while quarantining at home and family members were initially upset the police department hadn’t declared that Moore died in the line of duty.