The year in Post-Gazette visuals

This year, Post-Gazette photographers captured indelible images from events that garnered international attention to moments only they witnessed. Looking through the best images of the year is a time to revisit the moments that shaped our community and consider their impact.

Alexandra Wimley reflects that part of the job of a photojournalist is to make sure people don’t forget what has happened. “It’s really important for people to have that visual memory of these things that happen in history, whether they’re good or bad.”

Andrew Rush captured the moment Tim Bendig returned to the place where he was abused by a former Catholic priest. “My heart broke for him, you know, to think about what he went through at such a young age and that has really had a huge impact on his life. And he really felt powerless then. Hopefully, through this story, he felt like he was getting some of the power back, or having some justice in it.”

As Wimley documented the Tree of Life mass shooting, she was “struck by how people’s response to the tragedy evolved over time … It was powerful to see how people were healing together and how the communities came together.”

After months of documenting the effects of the opioid epidemic on a community, Stephanie Strasburg experienced “one of the most intense and intimate moments” as a photographer when a mother confronted the man who moved her daughter’s body as she fatally overdosed from heroin in 2017.

“It both felt like 30 seconds and an eternity because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that both of them were at a place where they could have that conversation and confront each other.”

On the first day of school, a father surprised his three daughters after returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. “To see those faces and the tears and the celebration of him and his family. I think that those sort of stories are just as needed in our daily coverage as everything else we do to keep the public informed,” said Steph Chambers.