Richmond 2011: Images of a time and place

It was a year of indelible images in Richmond, and we were privileged to be behind the camera lens to capture a few of them.
Winnowing down the thousands of images we gathered in Richmond’s streets, parks, boardrooms, shores, restaurant halls and other spots was no easy task, and the results are no doubt imperfect. Undaunted, we present to you a handful of the images that hit us hardest, with some candid reflections from the photographers who captured them.

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Richmond 2011: The year in review

rhonda harris richmond

2011 was quite a year, to borrow a favorite phrase from longtime resident Sims Thompson, in “our fair city.” I know that’s vague, but it’s tough to turn a pithy phrase that sums up a year in a vibrant, bustling and changing city. We had tragedy and triumph, tumult and harmony. Alliances and rivalries. Echoes of the past and glimmers from the future.

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Christmas party and free gifts Sunday in the name of Charlie Reid

charlie reid north richmond

Dozens of volunteers – many descendents of Charlie Reid, a North Richmond icon – plan to serve more than 1,000 children and parents with food and gifts at Sunday’s Charles Reid Christmas Party, an annual event supported by The Charles Reid Foundation. The event is scheduled for noon-4 p.m. Sunday in the Richmond PAL Community Center at 2200 Macdonald Ave.

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Marquis Hamilton: Recollections of a life lost

marquis hamilton, slain north richmond man

Marquis Hamilton was a 20-year-old father of two. On Nov. 25, he became the fifth young adult homicide victim in the tiny neighborhood of North Richmond this year. Before that, a RichmondConfidential.org reporter got to know him a bit, and wants you to know him too.

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North Richmond mourns Marquis Hamilton

marquis hamilton funeral at new hope in north richmond

Mourners and clergy remembered Hamilton, 20, as a fun-loving prankster who snatched the bed covers off his seven brothers and five sisters and borrowed friends’ bicycles without their knowledge – only to return them with a laugh.

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North Richmond man slain, city police on alert

rancho market and deli, where marquis hamilton killed

Marquis Hamilton was smiling when he coaxed a store cashier into giving him a cigarette before wandering back to the street corner a few ticks past 8 p.m. on Friday night. Moments later, after an exchange of rapid gunfire at the corner of Market Avenue and Fifth Street, Hamilton was back.

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The ‘prince’ of North Richmond’s projects

Lavonta macho crummie in north richmond

In his songs and videos, he is “Macho,” the North Richmond everyman who sneers at his harrowing surroundings through jaundiced eyes. But despite the overt bravado and taunts toward rivals, the real Crummie is hopeful, witty, and funny, like an overgrown kid calloused by a life suffused in tragedy.

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