YEAR IN REVIEW: 2020
{Originally published August 28, 2021}
After 2020, it’s hard to start a year in review post without platitudes.
In times like these.
These unusual times.
Trying times.
New normal.
Mushy middle.
(While we’re at it, go check out Jessica Salfia’s brilliant poem made from first lines of emails sent in the throes of things)
Truth be told, I had a relatively comfortable, safe pandemic experience. I feel I have no right to think it much of a difficulty. And yet, it was still difficult and complicated on about five different levels. These things can coexist, I think, and I’m trying not to assign anything too much weight until I have the benefit of distance — a strange task in a weighty year (that’s another thing we should establish up front; to me, 2020 lasted from January 2020 through May 2021. Who knows how long 2021 will be in this brain of mine!).
2020 was not all heaviness, though. It was also a year of seeing one of my dearest friends happily married, welcoming a new niece, painting a friend’s nursery, soaking in the sun and wrapping up in blankets during back yard conversations, seeing new families formed, and conducting interviews in swim trunks, cicadas whirring in the background. And despite spending much of the year in one place, it was not a year without change.
After taking a good long look at my priorities and time, I have decided to hang up my wedding photography uniform. I have only good things to say about my wonderful clients, who entrusted me with documenting one of the biggest days of their lives — and I truly enjoyed my time celebrating their love with them and their families! But I was finding myself pulled in about ten different directions, and it was showing in my calendar, my focus, and my health (there was an incident where I had to take a few minutes away from a bridal party to go lay on the bathroom floor and summon the strength to continue shooting — staring at that bathroom ceiling, I knew something had to change). I will miss the buzz and sweetness of wedding days, but I am also excited to see where the opportunity to do more focused work will carry me. This does mean that we’re due for a website change as I figure out what Thistle & Sun looks like going forward; but for now, I want to celebrate the last year in its original iteration.
This year, I’ll be including all the usual sections to mirror the current site: People and Love + Marriage, plus In-Betweens for the snippets of life that mostly escaped my big camera. And this year, I have a notable addition: A section on my biggest independent project to date.
AN UNUSUAL SEGMENT: LONG WAY AROUND
So, this was the Great Big Thing that I had planned for 2020 — to do extensive research into the life and times of Blackbeard (NC’s resident pirate and spook), to interview people whose lives are still impacted by the fragments of story he left behind, and to put it together into eight longform articles. In my infinite wisdom, I planned for interviews to start in the latter half of March 2020. The launch date creeped out month by month while I kept up with the research I could do without visiting archives and shuffled interview plans to Zoom and Skype, waiting for an appropriate, safe time to drive out and do some interviews that needed to happen in person. I should also add here that I had two wonderful collaborators while working on the series: Sharon Burroughs, copy editor and literary consultant, and Kelsey Martin, who illustrated the headline image for each edition. They were not only wonderful to work with, they were the perfect people to be in flux with. In late July/August the interview floodgates opened; within a couple of weeks I traveled to Ocracoke, Beaufort, and Bath for a happy marathon of interviews (and in a first, I vlogged a bunch of that here), snapping photos as I went.
Probably my favorite headstone in the state (yes, a favorite headstone is a perfectly normal thing to have, thankyouverymuch).
The much fought over remains of (probably) Edward Salter, crewmate of Blackbeard.
The oldest church in the state, St. Thomas’s, leaves its door open for passersby. I don’t think I’m capable of stopping in Bath without sitting here for a while.
Much to my astonishment, I bumped into pirate interpreters while in Bath. We whipped up a quick interview, the results of which you can read in Issue 7!
Looking out in the general direction of the wreck site of Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Also one of my favorite crannies in the coast.
Meet Carl Cannon, Beaufort’s resident Blackbeard interpreter and one half of the married duo that runs the annual Pirate Invasion. His family has lived in the area for forever, so his incredible stories are certainly not limited to pirates.
Due to the aforementioned Event, the full-blown pirate invasion was canceled — but a local farm put on a one-day pirate event, and the Cannon Crew was kind enough to let me tag along.
Redbeard.
Betty and Reid, in front of the Hammock House, which has served their family as a second home for decades. It’s also home to some of Beaufort’s biggest and best legends, including a quite brutal Blackbeard story.
The treasure collection above the mantle in Betty’s bedroom. She and her husband, Gilles, have an informal but fierce competition for most unique item scavenged from the beach/little scrubby islands nearby.
An intriguing piece of the collection: A human shoulder bone, found under the house during repair work.
Stories in the floorboards: Rounded cuts that bear an uncanny resemblance to axe marks on the bedroom floor, and mysterious stains on the landing.
Probably my favorite photo of the year, taken on the ferry from Swan’s Quarter to Ocracoke. Can’t be on a ferry without thinking about Hugh Morton’s imagery, and I like to think he took over for a second (also, I love that summer paperbacks are still a thing, and that people use ferry journeys to kickstart their beach reading).
Ocracoke’s most famous landmark. One of the things I found endearing about the island is that all of the streets are named very practically — the lighthouse is on Lighthouse Road, the sailors are buried on British Cemetery Road, and so on.
Philip Howard, of the Howards of Howard Street. He and his father started Village Craftsmen, an artisanal shop that also runs historical/folklore tours. You can read more about Philip and the Howards here!
One morning I got up super early, to photograph the island without having to worry about breathing on people.
Gifts left at the Old Diver grave.
Chester Lynn: Antique seller, florist, fig expert, son of both Ocracoke and nearby Portsmouth.
Springer’s Point, the best tunnel of trees in the state.
This was actually taken on a scouting trip back in February 2020, but how often do you see a church hoisted into the air?
Oh hey.
Decoys on Howard Street.
PEOPLE
Finally got to photograph Macbeth, 10/10 would recommend.
One of my absolute favorite portraits to come out of 2020. My neighbor, Mary-Margaret, found the Getty Art Museum hosting an online challenge to recreate a piece from their collection with items around the house. One bathrobe, my kid sister’s hot pink sheet, and a scrap of fabric later, this is the result.
St. Livvy of Meredith College.
LOVE + MARRIAGE
This is a last for Thistle & Sun — but the last year and a half had a lot of sweetness in the margins, and I didn’t want to shortchange it here.
I got to photograph the beginning and end of my friend Claudia’s wedding day — and naturally, the day began with milking.
An anniversary shoot with one of my biggest cheerleaders (love you, Tori!).
I was actually supposed to photograph Rachel and Gant’s wedding in April 2020 — they went ahead with the wedding with only close family (totally understandable!), so we got to do a one year anniversary shoot together instead this spring.
First look tears. I cried behind my camera, because I’m becoming more and more soft every year.
Morgan, speaking volumes for all sisters-of-the-bride.
Letter reading around the corner.
I come from a singing family — so getting to capture a bride and groom singing their hearts out during their ceremony was a particularly wonderful thing.
IN-BETWEENS
There are more of these than usual, because it was a very in-between span of time spent not quite in one place, but not quite anywhere else, either.
February 2020, getting to sit down for a Sweet Tea Shakespeare production!
Ferrying homewards in February.
This year brought quite a bit of note writing — on Twitter, Rachel Syme organized a letter exchange, and I offered snippets of poetry/song/writing on postcards to whoever would send me an address. At least half the fun was trying to match the poetry to the artwork.
This sign was tacked up on the door quite a bit throughout the year.
Easter Sunday, over Zoom.
Here’s the thing: Put me on a ferry and I turn into a pensive golden retriever. It’s an unchangeable fact of nature.
Had plans for walking/taking pictures. Got poured on (twice). Gave up, got lemon cake, and wrapped myself up in a towel waiting for my ride back to mainland. After months of spinning my wheels and hoping, I felt what a gift it was to be able to travel out to Ocracoke — but because of chronic health issues, this trip was really, really hard physically. You can’t tell here, but after snapping this photo I immediately went to lay down in my car. Not sure why it feels important to temper the sunshine of phone snapshots, but it does. So there.
A side benefit of having an aunt whose life is consumed by studying piracy: She brings you swords from out yonder.
Left: “Do you want to hold a piece of the Hindenburg?” That wasn’t a question I could have ever anticipated when visiting a small archive in Morehead City, but my immediate answer was yes. // Right: I officially launched LWA from the pool (because there was dependable wifi here). Not shabby!
Family members gathered outside for pizza to celebrate sending the first issue. While I did plan the dinner, the costumes were a complete surprise to me.
Employing the high school method of subject organization.
Made it out of the bunker for quick visits.
Somewhere around my birthday, my mom needed to go pick up a couch from Williamsburg — we were both happy to turn it into an excuse to bop around town and I introduced her to the religious experience that is the French bread at The Cheese Shop.
A front porch exchange of Christmas gifts, because…I mean, you know why.
When members of my household came down with Covid, I got tested then hightailed it to the beach. While isolating even further was not my preferred plan for these days, it turned out to be a good time of reflection and setting a direction for the next couple years — and the view wasn’t bad either. I’m immensely thankful to have access to such a wonderful place.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the floor is the workplace of true intellectuals. :)
In a very 2020 moment, making edits while in line to get the vaccine.
When museums opened back up, there was great rejoicing. I usually made it out to one the Monday or Tuesday after publishing a LWA issue, to give my brain a break.
Went to the VA state archive in Richmond, took a side-junket to finally visit the Poe Museum. They had two cats, both of whom held me in contempt.
My dad sizing up the Griffin at Busch Gardens. He had never been on, and watched every big plunge as our line inched forward. Was this daytrip a great idea, given a pressing deadline? Not really. But I did get to watch my dad reconsider all his life choices while watching this one roller coaster, so there’s that.
Last bit of late night work before sending Issue Eight to the wonderful Sharon for edits.
Again, a very 2020 image: Doing fact checks/citations while trying to soak away jab-induced aches (all things considered, my experience with the vaccine was pretty mild and worth my time — just required some ibuprofen and warm water).
Publishing the last issue of Long Way Around called for a celebration of the classiest nature: Cookout for dinner and Cheesecake Factory for dessert (my celebratory treat of choice is the chocolate tower truffle cake…pretty sure it’s my entire love language).
For me, the end of 2020 is a day trip into Virginia, some time in mid-May. I’d bought a drop-leaf table from an estate sale, and used the pickup as an excuse to visit Bacon’s Castle. On a whim, I took the ferry across to Williamsburg and had an impromptu picnic dinner while reading Ann Patchett essays. A day so ideal it feels both out of place and entirely necessary as a bookend for the year. I look forward to having some of you over for dinner on my antique, bumped-up-but-much-loved table.
As a parting gift, may I commend to you A Time For Flowers, by Emily Scott Robinson? It’s a good song for these unusual times.