2020 was a very long year. It’s hard even to remember what happened in the first few months of it, the months where we Americans lived in ignorant bliss. It’s also hard to remember that those months were, much like the rest of the year, rife with political tensions.
At the end of the year, TIME released its Top 100 Photos of 2020, paying pay tribute to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the previous year. M. Scott Brauer’s photo — taken on February 11, 2020 at Pete Buttigieg’s rally in Nashua, New Hampshire — was chosen as one of these top photos.
Scott was at the rally on assignment for TIME as part of the New Hampshire primaries’ general coverage. As we’ve written about before, he had started working on the presidential cycle in 2016, generally looking at the circumstances and methods of modern American political campaigns. Those procedures would drastically change in the coming months.
Looking back, it was about a month before the world shut down. A crowd like that was absolutely ordinary for a major candidate at that stage in the race. No one was talking about the coronavirus during these campaign events; it was just a normal crowd at a normal political event.
According to Scott, the night was a mix of emotions. Buttigieg had just possibly won the Iowa caucuses, but the results were muddled due to glitches in the system. Both Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders had declared victory in Iowa, and they were neck and neck in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Biden was doing so poorly that he had already left the state.
The crowd was watching the results come in, and it was taking forever. People were excited when positive results came in for Buttigieg, sad when another candidate went up, but mostly they were bored and tired.
It was a late night, and the room was getting hot and stuffy with so many people’s body heat bouncing off each other.
People might not remember what it’s like to be in a huge crowd indoors, but the temperature really starts to rise.
Scott steered clear of getting too up close and personal with the podium, something that may be many photographers’ first instinct. But Scott wasn’t interested in that shot; instead, he held back, weaving through the crowd and capturing the atmosphere.
I’ve become known for a particular style of political photography, but within that style, I’ve got a few different modes: there are detail shots, really claustrophobic shots with supporters and candidates uncomfortably crammed together, there are backstage shots, and then there’s what I call my tableau shots.
These tableau shots capture an entire scene with seemingly hundreds of moving parts. Each moving part is, however, focused on this one moment; this is one such shot. There’s not only one subject, but everyone is hyper-focused on one man, one moment.
With political coverage, I always aim for the bigger picture. I think about the news of the day but also broader themes that have emerged throughout the campaign.
Pete was winning the Iowa caucuses, but pundits were saying that things were likely to go downhill for him after New Hampshire.
This seemed like the pinnacle of his campaign, I wanted to capture the entire world of this peak moment, and I think it does that.
This image is from a different perspective than we’d typically see. Everything is merging into one moment, summarizing his whole campaign from start to finish in a shot. Scott ignored the stage lights that were set up to focus every ounce of attention on the candidate. With these lights, you’d only be able to see Pete perfectly, the background falling away into a sea of patriotic darkness.
With my flash, you can see behind the curtain, Pete’s husband Chasten beaming with excitement, ugly poles holding the curtain up, press photographers by the stage, fans, supporters, close advisers, friends, party officials, the griminess of the stage floor, and above it all rises the candidate.
Of course, this was a historic moment, the pinnacle of a legendary political campaign, captured by an image that reminds us of being able and willing to be in crowds, which reminds us of unadulterated hope and excitement.
It was amazing to witness it all first hand: a young gay candidate, who few people had ever heard of, exceeding expectations in ways no one thought was possible.
Scott captured this moment in a photo named one of the Top 100 of 2020. Maybe more accurately, though, it was one of the top moments of 2020, one that’s at the very least nice to be reminded of.
See more of Scott’s work at mscottbrauer.com.
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