Best of Pictures 2011

The holidays are approaching and 2011 is coming to a close. This is the time of year I look back on all the pictures I made throughout the year and ask myself are any of them worth entering in a contest. I’m never satisfied with my work and am often frustrated that I didn’t do more. I tried to keep my selection this year to ten images but I couldn’t get past 11. So here are my favorite pictures of 2011. These are in a visual arrangement not chronological.

Starting off with a bang, the birth of our second child. Our boy Hudson a.k.a. Sonny was born on July 25. I documented the whole pregnancy and labor with a fifty-five year old Nikon S2 rangefinder. In this image my wife Jennifer labors in the jacuzzi tub of our room at the birthing center at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan.

This image is from one of my favorite stories of the year. I spent about five months photographing Damian Lopez Alfonso, 34, a Cuban cyclist who was severely injured in an electrical accident as a boy. Damian was able to come to the U.S. for reconstructive facial surgery and prosthetics because of the hard work and charity of many local and professional cyclists including Tracy Lea. Despite his terrible injuries Damian discovered his love of cycling as a boy and it is his dream to be able to compete in the Paralympic Games. Here, Damian walks through Brooklyn with his aunt Edilia Tamargo the night before his major facial operation at NYU. View the story along with the slideshow and video here.

Remember that ridiculous blizzard we got in New York right after xmas? Well I went out about three weeks after for a fashion shoot of sorts in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. In this photograph, Colby Smith and Steve French enjoy the fog and snow. Previous post.

I made this photograph while on assignment in Roswell, Ga. for the Wall Street Journal. The boys expression, as his mother cleans up his hair, is priceless.

This photograph was made in January at NYU Medical Center. It’s part of a long term piece I did for The New York Times called Love Endures Even Cancer. During my time on this story I became very close with the couple, Gavin and Haley. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think of Gavin. R.I.P. brother. In this image Haley and her brother Colin join Gavin at NYU for a procedure to target his terminal cancer. See the rest of the story here.

Ralph Branca, 85, photographed in Rye Brook, N.Y., became famous as the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher who gave up the “shot heard round the world” home run in 1951 to Bobby Thompson of the New York Giants. This image was the cover of The New York Times Sports section on August 15. 

Modern dancers Heather Seagraves and Matthew Cichon photographed in SoHo. This was fun and hard.

I made this photograph of my buddy Colin Tanner during a fashion shoot in Brooklyn in July.

Summer on Rockaway Beach in Queens. It’s a beautiful thing. See the story here.

I photographed The SuperGroup, an interactive ad agency in Atlanta, for Adweek in October. This image is super clean and simple and the guys were so rad. Their office is filled with vintage arcade games and other nerdy things. Good times.

Foundation, the best straight edge hardcore band playing today. What more do I need to say. Previous post.

I know there are many special images I have looked over or forgotten about but these eleven are a good synopsis of the body of work I produced in 2011. So, what does 2012 hold? More work with the excellent Redux Pictures, as much time as possible with family and hopefully a Griswald-esque trip to Sweden in July. Stay tuned for more.

-Ray