Texas Tribune photojournalists on the front line: photography in a year of pandemic and unrest

As millions of Texans adapted to COVID-19 by working from home this year — including much of our staff — The Texas Tribune's photojournalists went out to document a world upended by the pandemic.

And this summer, the nation reached a tipping point on the issues of racial injustice and police brutality. Protests and demonstrations erupted across the country. Cities and towns in Texas and beyond saw thousands turn out into the streets.

Our photojournalists were there. Emotions were high, and the situations encountered by demonstrators and police — and reporters and photographers —were volatile and sometimes dangerous. And by then, COVID-19 was spreading rapidly across the country.

What was it like to be at the forefront of these two massive stories? For our annual Texas Tribune Festival, Miguel Gutierrez Jr., head of the Tribune’s photo department, sat down (remotely) with four photographers to discuss their work in this tumultuous year: Eddie Gaspar, a nightside photo editor at the Tribune; freelancer Shelby Tauber, who is based in North Texas; Pu Ying Huang, a freelancer in Houston; and Jordan Vonderhaar, a Central Texas photographer.

Festival ticket holders can watch the discussion on demand starting at 8 a.m. Sunday through Sept. 30, the end of the Festival. For our readers not attending the Festival, here’s a look at some of the work from these photojournalists who helped us tell the stories of 2020, a year like no other.