2022 saw the relaxation of several COVID-19 restrictions, allowing Chicagoans and its neighbors to return to their favorite experiences, make their voices heard, and come together in the face of tragedy.
And Sun-Times visual journalists were present during it all.
The following images represent the year from their point of view:
Nurse Alma Abad fixes an IV flow and attempts to make sure a patient, a woman with COVID-19, is comfortable in the Intensive Care Unit at Roseland Community Hospital on the Far South Side, Wednesday morning, Jan. 5, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Takina Martin, left, mother of LaNiyah Murphy, receives a hug during a press conference at Ark of Saint Sabina in the Gresham neighborhood, Friday afternoon, Jan. 7, 2021, where Murphy’s friends and family called for justice for Murphy, a 20-year-old anti-violence activist who was fatally shot in West Pullman on January 4. In 2018, Murphy survived a shot to the head and became outspoken about gun violence. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
A woman in a pink jacket shields herself from the rain with an umbrella while walking through the University of Chicago’s main quad, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Artistic Director for the Deeply Rooted Dance Theater Nicole Clarke-Springer walks through a lesson with student Taylor Myles of the Deeply Rooted Arts Theater Emerging Artist Ensemble at the Mayfair Arts Center at 8701 S. Bennett Ave in Calumet Heights, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Jalisa Hooks, 21, plays with her 2-year-old son, Kayden Swann, in the family’s South Chicago neighborhood apartment on the South Side, Tuesday morning, March 1, 2022. Kayden is blind in his right eye after he was shot in the head on April 6, 2021, during a road rage incident on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Former Speaker of the House Michael Madigan parks his SUV in the garage at his Southwest Side home, Wednesday afternoon, March 2, 2022. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced a 106-page indictment against Madigan, accusing him of leading a criminal enterprise for nearly a decade, alleging schemes involving ComEd and a parcel of land in Chinatown. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Color guard with the North Bay Haven Buccaneers marching band huddle together with a space blanket wrapped around them to keep warm before the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Chicago, Saturday, March 12, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Melissa Cobb, who’s been working as a nurse at the University of Chicago for 20 years, cries after finding out that her son was accepted into a residency program for family medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine on Match Day at the University of Illinois Chicago Isadore & Sadie Dorin Forum in the Little Italy neighborhood, where fourth year UIC College of Medicine students found out which hospitals accepted them for residency training, Friday morning, March 18, 2022. This was the first in-person Match Day since the COVID-19 pandemic began. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Businessman and former Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson pumps donated gas for a driver at a BP gas station at 5201 W. Cermak Rd. in Cicero, Thursday morning, March 24, 2022. Starting at 7 a.m., each vehicle got up to $50 of free gasoline at dozens of gas stations across the Chicago area, until $1 million was spent. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Edward Minieka speaks about the different pieces of furniture he has acquired over the years at his condo in Gold Coast, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Nicole Lee is introduced as the new 11th Ward Alderperson at the Zhou B Art Center, Thursday, March 24, 2022. (Brian Rich/Sun-Times)
On the one-year anniversary of the shooting, Elizabeth Toledo stands with family members and supporters as she looks at the spot where her 13-year-old son, Adam Toledo, was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer during a foot pursuit in an alley west of the 2300 block of South Sawyer Avenue in Little Village on the Southwest Side, March 29, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
7-year-old Annabel Lopez, cousin of Adam Toledo, who was fatally shot by Chicago police officer Eric Stillman last year, is comforted by Chantell Brooks, mother of Michael Westley, who was fatally shot by Chicago police in 2013, after Lopez teared up while saying how much she misses Toledo during a rally calling for justice for Toledo and Anthony Alvarez at Federal Plaza in the Loop, Saturday afternoon, April 2, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Alexis Rodriguez carries Alianna Martinez as Brian Ramirez high-fives Michael Mannion during an Easter-themed gathering for relatives of victims of gun violence at Piotrowski Park, April 16, 2022. Families received Easter baskets, toys and food during the event, which provided a space for kids to come together and play. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Twin brothers Alan, left, and Aaron Hicks, right, who restored the mural inside Antioch Missionary Baptist Church that was left untouched by the fire, look at the mural peeking through the broken windows outside Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in the Englewood neighborhood, Saturday morning, April 23, 2022. The church was set ablaze accidentally because of a propane torch that was used to work on the roof, according to the Chicago Fire Department. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
“Jungle” Cae Jones shows off what marijuana he is smoking at RISE at 1325 Armour Blvd. in Mundelein, Wednesday, April 20, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Hundreds of abortion-rights advocates march along East Randolph Street in the Loop during an abortion-rights rally on the Bans Off Our Body national day of action, Saturday afternoon, May 14, 2022. Thousands attended the rally, which was organized in response to a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, who supported overturning Roe v. Wade. If overturned, abortion would become illegal in 26 states. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Veteran soldiers participate in the wreath laying ceremony during the 26th Annual Major General John A. Logan Memorial Day Commemoration in Grant Park, Monday, May 30, 2022. (Brian Rich/Sun-Times)
Cataleya takes a bite of a necatrine alongside her father Elier as they wait for a bus to take them to a refugee center outside Union Station Wednesday, August 31, 2022. Migrants from Venezuela were transported from Texas and dropped off at Union Station without notice. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Desiree Ortiz waves while boarding a bus that will bring her to prom outside Northside Learning Center in the Hollywood Park neighborhood, Wednesday morning, June 1, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Officer Fernanda Ballesteros is wheeled out of the hospital to applause and salutes outside of the University of Chicago Medical Center June 6, 2022. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
A protester clasps her hands together during a March for Our Lives rally where hundreds gathered to demand gun control at Federal Plaza in the Loop, June 11, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Workers with the Conservation of Sculpture and Objects Studio work to deinstall the Art Institute of Chicago’s lions, bronze sculptures made in 1893 by Edward Kemeys, from the front steps of the museum’s Michigan Avenue entrance for conservation treatment, June 14, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Larese Jones, 9, of East Garfield Park, plays with other children in her mother’s day care in the Crown Fountain on Michigan Avenue, as temperatures spike in Chicago, June 14, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
As the Chicago area experiences one of the hottest day of the year, a group of people cool off in Lake Michigan at Montrose Beach on the North Side, Tuesday, June 14, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders listens to speakers as he awaits his turn at the podium during a rally at the Teamsters Local 705 at 1645 West Jackson Boulevard in Near West Town, Thursday, June 16, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
A member of Redd’s Angelz with Hiplet Ballerinas whips her hair as she performs during the first Juneteenth Village Fest at Douglass Park, June 18, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Post Malone performs on the Lyrical Lemonade stage at the 2022 Summer Smash Hip Hop Music Festival at Douglass Park, Saturday, June 18, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
A parade goer laughs while holding a flag during the West Garfield Park Juneteenth Parade along Central Park Avenue in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, Saturday morning, June 18, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Chris Christmas, 70, of Portage Park, plays “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles as the sun rises over Lake Michigan near Foster Beach on the North Side, Friday morning, June 24, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
State Rep. Delia Ramirez hugs her mother Maria Ramirez before voting at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School in the Humboldt Park neighborhood during the 2022 Illinois primary election, June 28, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Newman stands with volunteers and supporters at a voting site at Sportsplex at 11351 W. 159th St. in Orland Park, Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
State Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, and his wife Cindy wave as they walk on stage to speak at an election night rally at the Thelma Keller Convention Center in Effingham after Bailey won the Republican gubernatorial primary election, Tuesday night, June 28, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Sharaina Latrice, a performer with Operamatic holds up a figure of hearts behind a sheet at ACTIVATE an event by the Chicago Loop Alliance (CLA) near the Intersection of W. Quincy St and S. Lasalle St in the Loop, Thursday, June 30, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Shanee Edwards-Keller, a mother of a four-month-old who says she is afraid for her child, tears up during a press conference with activists and South Side residents who are calling for an end to gun violence, Friday morning, July 1, 2022, in the 7700 block of South Shore Drive. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Residents and tourists line the edge of Lake Michigan near Navy Pier to watch Chicago’s Fourth of July fireworks display, Saturday, July 2, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Bishop Luis Andrade of Parroquia La Misericordia looks back during a bishop ordination ceremony at the Concordia Lutheran Church at 3144 Home Ave in Berwyn, Sunday, July 3, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Local, State and Federal police work the scene where 6 people were shot and killed and at least 2 dozen others were injured in a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Monday, July 4, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Mourners gather for a vigil near Central Avenue and St Johns Avenue in downtown Highland Park in Highland Park, Tuesday evening, July 5, 2022. On Monday, a gunman killed seven people and wounded dozens more by firing military-style rifle from a rooftop onto people gathered for Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
A person who was wounded in a shooting is loaded into a waiting Chicago Fire Department ambulance in the 6500 block of South King Drive, where at least four people were shot in Parkway Gardens on the South Side, Monday, July 4, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Time)
Former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) walks with family members and supporters out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse after being sentenced to four months in federal prison, Wednesday morning, July 6, 2022. A jury convicted Thompson in February of cheating on his taxes and lying to federal regulators. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Yesenia Hernandez (right), granddaughter to Nicolas Toledo, is hugged and comforted by another mourner as they walk into Iglesia Evangelica Bautista in Waukegan for the funeral for Hernandez’s 78-year-old grandfather, who was one of seven people killed in a mass shooting that left more than three dozen others injured during Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade, Friday afternoon, July 8, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Mourners gather for two minutes of silence in Port Clinton Square in Highland Park, one week after a gunman killed seven people and wounded dozens more by firing military-style rifle from a rooftop onto people gathered for Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade, Monday afternoon, July 11, 2022. (Brian Rich/Sun-Times)
Chicago police officers salute as Officer Danny Golden leaves Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Friday afternoon, July 15, 2022. Golden was off-duty when he was shot in the back and paralyzed after he tried to break up a bar fight July 9 on the Far South Side. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Kids from Girls Inc. try on Chicago Fire Department gear during “Firefighter for A Day” festivities at the Quinn Fire Academy, Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Brian Rich/Sun-Times)
Miyanda Rainey (left) hugs a supporter during a vigil for her 22-year-old twin sister, Dyanla Rainey, outside their home in the 700 block of South 6th Avenue in Maywood, Monday evening, July 25, 2022. Dyanla Rainey, who played basketball at Robert Morris University and was known as “DeDe,” was shot to death Sunday in the driveway of her home. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot hosts a news conference and offers to put a dome on Soldier Field, at a potential cost of $2.2 billion, in an attempt to keep the Bears in Chicago, Monday afternoon, July 25, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Måneskin performs on day four of Lollapalooza in Grant Park, Sunday afternoon, July 31, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Family, friends, and community members gather for a memorial and balloon release for Lauren Dobosz and her four children at Oriole Park, Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. Lauren and her children were killed when a driver drove the wrong way on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway striking them over the weekend. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Bruce Groeper, a massage therapist who owns Coups De Main Massage, massages Erica Bennett, his client for at least four years, as she sooths her daughter Inari Tsang at Oak Street Beach on the North Side, Thursday morning, Aug. 4, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Mecca Highsmith, 25, cuts the hair of 16-year-old Emry Thomas at the offices of I Am a Gentleman, Inc. at 540 W. 35th St. in Bridgeport, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. I Am A Gentleman, Inc. held a back to school event by providing free haircuts to students. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
New police officer Jeremiah Davis, who received awards for firearms proficiency and physical training, kisses his daughter Ava while they take family photos after the Chicago Police Department’s graduation and promotion ceremony at Navy Pier, Aug. 9, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Balloons are released during a vigil held for Myron Richardson, who was killed on July 6, 2021, on the far South Side. (Brian Rich/Sun-Times)
People watch as passengers hang out the windows of a car as it drifts in circles during a takeover in a South Side intersection, Friday night, Aug. 12, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Passengers hang out the windows of a car as it drifts in circles during a takeover in a South Side intersection, Friday night, Aug. 12, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Rob Heitz, 41, who was paralyzed after diving head first into shallow water in Lake Michigan in Racine, Wisc. in 2003, swims in Lake Michigan near Ohio Street Beach in the Gold Coast neighborhood, Tuesday morning, Aug. 16, 2022. Heitz is training to swim a mile to two miles in San Francsico Bay on August 19. Heitz, who describes himself as a “high functioning quadriplegic,” had an incomplete spinal cord injury in 2003 and still feels weakness and tingling on the left side of his body. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
People cheer for Jordan Body during Chicago CRED’s graduation ceremony outside the South Shore Cultural Center, Aug. 17, 2022. After taking part in Chicago CRED’s violence prevention programs, 58 graduates “recovering from trauma and gun violence” were presented with their high school diplomas. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Sister Jean sits in front of the newly renamed Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, BVM Plaza which sits next to the Loyola Red Line station, during Sister Jean’s 103rd birthday celebration, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Participants and spectators harass Chicago Police Department officials after a man climbed onto their vehicle as officials attempted to break up a street takeover, at West 119th and South Halsted streets, Aug. 26, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Documentary Filmmaker Steven Walsh sits on a fallen branch where the old steel plant yards once stood at Big Marsh Park at 11559 S. Stony Island Ave on the Southeast Side on Tuesday, August 30, 2022. Steven has been working on a documentary chronicling the decline of southeastern Chicago neighborhoods after fall of steel mill industry and the ‘rose growing from the concrete’ today. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Chicago police work the scene where a 24-year-old man was shot and killed in the 4400 block of West Jackson Boulevard, in the West Garfield park neighborhood, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Kids walk on a platform at Calumet Beach on the Far South Side on Labor Day Weekend, Saturday afternoon, Sept. 3, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Officers face soldier field for a procession during the annual candlelight vigil for fallen Chicago Police Officers at the Gold Star Families Memorial & Park, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
Chicago Sky’s Candace Parker #3 and Kahleah Copper #2 celebrate after Copper scored during the 3rd quarter as the Sky take on the Connecticut Sun for Game 5 of the 2022 WNBA semifinals at Wintrust Arena, Thursday evening, Sept. 8, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields gets tackled after running with the ball for a 12-yard gain during the second quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Soldier Field, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields celebrates after the Bears beat the San Francisco 49ers, 19 - 10, at Soldier Field, Sunday afternoon, Sept. 11, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Community advocate Mary Gonzales stands out front of St Paul’s Catholic Church in Little Village, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
The Chicago skyline seen from Montrose Harbor, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Jocelyn Rios cries and collapses as she and other family members approach a memorial for her 15-month-old son, Hermes Rios-Cardona, one day after the child was struck and killed by a pick-up truck in a hit-and-run on Pulaski Road near Wilson Avenue in Albany Park on the Northwest Side, Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 4, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Victoria Walker lays on her new bed in her new bedroom, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Father Andy Matijevic shakes hands with Charlie during a pet blessing and celebration of the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi outside Holy Name Cathedral on the North Side, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
The famous “Abraham Lincoln: The Man” statue in Lincoln Park was vandalized on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. (Brian Rich/Sun-Times)
A woman walks with her dog a top ice mounds on the lakefront as fog blankets the area near Montrose Beach, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Bronislawa Stekala prays to halt the removal of the replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta outside St. Adalbert Catholic Church, which houses the statue, in the Pilsen neighborhood, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
A Chicago Police SWAT officer walks by a family carrying a shield, sledgehammer and rifle as police and SWAT respond to a disturbance at an apartment near Winthrop and Glenlake in the Edgewater neighborhood, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker greets U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth at Manny’s Deli on Election Day, Tuesday morning, Nov. 8, 2022. (Brian Rich/Sun-Times)
Democrat incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at an election night rally at the Marriott Marquis Chicago after beating Republican candidate Darren Bailey in the Illinois gubernatorial election, Tuesday night, Nov. 8, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
Alan Friedman walks through the vandalized headstones at the Am Echod Jewish Cemetery in Waukegan, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)
As light snow falls across Chicago, a herd of white-tailed deer graze in Rosehill Cemetery at 5800 N. Ravenswood Ave. on the North Side, Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 16, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)
A group of people ice skate on the McCormick Tribune Plaza ice rink as the official Christmas Tree sits in the background, at Millennium Park, Friday evening, Nov. 18, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
Fans at Playbook Sports Bar at 6913 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Niles react to Poland being awarded a free kick during the Mexico vs. Poland World Cup game, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. (Brian Rich/Sun-Times)
Chicago police work the scene of a multi vehicle crash, resulting in 2 fatalities and nearly a dozen people hospitalized in the 8700 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, Wednesday evening, Nov. 23, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)
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