Fred Lum
In 2024, Mr. Lum marked his 40th anniversary as a staff photographer, and in some ways, the history he chronicled had come full circle. The Globe hired Mr. Lum in September, 1984, the month of the federal election that first brought Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives to power. When the former prime minister passed away this February, Mr. Lum and reporter Frédérik-Xavier D. Plante set off to Baie-Comeau, Que., to hear locals’ stories about the hometown son.
Plans for Mr. Mulroney’s state funeral took shape while they were there, and Mr. Lum backtracked to Montreal to cover the service. “It was a cold, wet snowy day” of waiting across the street for dignitaries to arrive and leave, Mr. Lum says, “but this is what we do.”
Melissa Tait
One of Ms. Tait’s favourite images of 2024 was an adorable epilogue to an assignment from the year before.
Adrial and Adiah Nadarajah were born 22 weeks and zero days into their mother’s pregnancy, a world record for surviving. Ms. Tait photographed them for a 2023 profile published soon after their first birthday, in which health reporter Kelly Grant explored the ethical questions around the babies’ care. Ms. Tait saw the twins again this past March at their second birthday party, where Adrial was walking confidently, something doctors feared he might never do.
They also have a new sibling: after new baby Alissa was born in November, the parents said the twins were “chatty, with big personalities, and in love with their little sister.”
Goran Tomasevic
Haiti and Lebanon were among the world’s least safe places to be this year, but Goran Tomasevic went anyway. In Port-au-Prince, the dangers he faced came mostly from street level – gangs, rebelling against the dysfunctional state, had seized control of most of the city – while in Lebanon, Israeli and Hezbollah rockets were unpredictable threats from above.
Dead bodies were an inescapable sight, and Mr. Tomasevic and his editors had to choose carefully which photos to publish: showing just enough graphic detail can kindle compassion for the suffering of others, but showing too much – or framing it tastelessly – will only traumatize the reader. Sometimes, the absence of people is equally disturbing: in southern Lebanon, a horse in a long-abandoned market stall was a “surreal” scene, Mr. Tomasevic said. “Unlike anything I’ve seen in past assignments.”
Deborah Baic
Photo and video journalist Deborah Baic had less time for assignments in the field in 2024, but when she did go out, it was to a place dear to her heart: Sault Ste. Marie, where she grew up.
Algoma Steel, the region’s largest employer, is upgrading its Sault plant to emit less carbon dioxide and other pollutants, so she and energy reporter Jeffrey Jones went to see that work in progress.
Other Saultites shared a less hopeful story about the state of local medicine: cutbacks at a community clinic – which a steelworkers union had fought to build in the days before universal health care – left more than 10,000 people without a family doctor.
