2001 Top 10 Favorite Photographs

Through the course of 2001, our many photographers were present at over fifty events, running and otherwise, and took over almost 2,000 photos for the website.  At the end of 2001, this web site has more than 6,400 photos.  

Following our strong tradition (see 2000,  1999 and 1998), we have selected our favorite photos of the year.  The rule of selection is simply this one --- there is no rule of selection!  If you insist on an explanation, then certainly the visual quality of these photos was important.  But, above all, we felt that these photos conveyed some essential qualities of the subjects.  When we look at these photos, now and later, they remind us fondly of these people who have made running so much more enjoyable for us.  In return, we would also like to think that we have made them happier as these pictures (or, at least, most of them) suggest.  Here they are:

PHOTO:  At the Chicken Soup Loop 10K, Michele Tagliati got some extra motivation by being chased by a snow removal vehicle.  By now, Michele has set himself with a reputation of being pursued by public service vehicles.  A top 10 favorite photo for 1997 had him being chased by a police vehicle with flashing lights at the Holiday 4 Mile Run.  Since he is a medical doctor himself, his chances of being chased by an ambulance is remote and chasing ambulance would be a different theme.  So we'll have to work on a fire engine next (are you listening, John "The Fireman" Gleason?)...

PHOTO:  What we avoid like death and taxes are those photos of people standing in rigid poses for the photographer.  Instead, we know that our subjects will fled at the sight of our photographers, so we must resort to sneak attacks.  Nevertheless, there are still moments when social obligations force us to work in the traditional setup.  This is a photo of Stacy Creamer, Amy Sheeran, Audrey Kingsley and Margaret Angell picking up their trophies after the New York Women's Mini Marathon.  This photo breaks out of the traditional straitjacket, but only because the subjects truly SPARKLE!!!  This photo also demonstrated the fact that our runners are actually not well-practiced in the art of stationary posing --- Stacy and Margaret must learn not to place their trophies in front of the Central Park Track Club letters on their singlets!!!

PHOTO:  Unfortunately, running is not all fun.  It can be VERY PAINFUL in a race.  This is a photo of Richie Borrero at the end of the Al Gordon 15K.  Sarah Gross observed, "Everyone should look like Richie at the end of the race."  What a marvelous idea!?

PHOTO:  Paul Sinclair notes at the Joe Kleinerman 10K at the end of the year: "I just got a team singlet, and now all of a sudden I get about 87 photos taken."  Conversely, we should add, you are nobody if you don't wear that singlet.

PHOTO:  This is our legendary Wall of Orange picture, featuring Margaret Angell, Tyronne Culpepper, Harry Morales, James Siegel and (out of orange) Ramon Bermo and Patrick Cowden.  After you've seen this picture, you cannot possibly conceive that long-distance running is a lonely experience.

PHOTO  At this year's New York City Marathon, Craig Chilton was patient enough to follow teammate Alan Ruben as long as possible (10K split: Alan 36:35, Craig 36:45; half marathon split: Alan 1:17:31, Craig 1:17:35.  At the 8 mile mark, Craig has this mysterious smile.  What was going on through his mind?  (1) "Ah, I made it through 8 miles without losing Alan over the horizon." (2) "Whew, that was a loud Central Park Track Club cheering contingent at the turn." (3) "Wow, we're running with Joan Samuelson!"

PHOTO:  This is a long-range zoom shot from a brand new digital camera of Stacy Creamer winning the Central Park Triathlon.  All of the elements are in place --- the overhead banner, the clock, the ribbon, the upraised arms.  This was a particularly gratifying win, since Stacy had finished in second place in the same race the four preceding years, to a different person each time.

PHOTO: It may be perhaps unfair to choose only the photo of Kevin Arlyck from the album for the Peter McArdle Cross Country 15K.  This was the longest distance cross country race on the race calendar, and it provides wonderful photo ops as the runners are strung out on the grass field.  These photos brings out the best in cross country racing --- serene surroundings and hard running.

PHOTO:  Traditionally, we sometimes have a separate section for the kids.  But we looked at this photo of Rhya Gwendolyn Evans again and again, but there was just no way that we could exclude this from our top ten list.

The tenth slot is left blank, for the void of the World Trade Center towers and 5,000+ people ...

PHOTO:  The eleventh photo was voted by the subject himself.  Ordinarily, we would not include photos of people not wearing our team uniforms during races.  But Bill Haskins explained: "Finally, a photo of me!  Alas, I can prove that I am a runner --- I was running on air and my hair was flying straight up.  The next day after that photo was published, I emailed 50 friends and family members to look for it.  This is the photo of the year for me."

A Photograph is Not an Opinion. Or is it? (by Susan Sontag)

   One of the tasks of photography is to disclose, and shape our sense of, the variety of the world.  It is not to present ideals.  There is no agenda except diversity and interestingness.  There are no judgments, which of course is itself a judgment.

   And that variety is itself an ideal.  We want now to know that for every this there is a that.  We want to have a plurality of models.

   Photography is in the service of the post-judgmental ethos gaining ascendancy in societies whose norms are drawn from the practices of consumerism.  The camera shows us many worlds, and the point is that all the images are valid.  A woman may be a copy or a beauty queen or an architect or a housewife or a physicist.  Diversity is an end in itself --- much celebrated in today's America.  There is the very American, very modern faith in the possibility of continuous self-transformation.  A life, after all, is commonly referred to as a lifestyle.  Styles change.  This celebration of variety, individuality, of individuality as style, saps the authority of gender stereotypes, and has become an inexorable counterforce to the bigotry that still denies women more than token access to many occupations and experiences.

   That women, in the same measure as men, should be able to fulfill their individuality is, of course, a radical idea.  It is in this form, for better and for worse, that the traditional feminist call for justice for women has come to seem most plausible.

GREAT PHOTOS, BUT EXCLUDED FROM COMPETITION
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