VICE Staffers Share Photos That Defined 2020 for Them

The end of the year is usually the perfect time to take a trip down memory lane. You take a look at your highlights of the year, your lowest lows, and all the other moments interspersed through the months that made it memorable. Literally every other person compiles year-end lists of the best music, movies, books, trips they took this year, be it on social media, or just the notes app on their phone, or, if they’re anything like me, scrawled on the last page of the planner they thought would help get their life in order this year, but failed.

While all these are great, they need words, just so many words. And considering the unprecedented spectacle of a year that 2020 has been, we really don’t have any more words left. But what we do have are pictures—of the failed attempts at making our own sourdough, of the Zoom call that brought friends and family from across the world together, or even the face mask that we carefully coordinated with our OOTD. 

So, we asked around VICE for a picture that for them, defines the year that was. Or wasn’t.

“I fell down the rabbit hole that is BTS in May this year. What started as ‘I want to know their names’ has now become ‘I want to collect everything!’.

In these trying times, I really found comfort and happiness in listening to BTS' music, watching their shows, and basically consuming all there is to consume.”

 “My locked down life this year was made bearable because of two beacons of light in cat form. Pictured here is the one more into interpretive performance art.”

“This year, when I lost access to the gym due to social distancing measures in Singapore, I finally incorporated jogging into my exercise routine. My evening jogs to the park have given me some of the best sunset views of the year.”

 “At least Leela up here looks cute doing what I've figuratively done all of this year — hiding alone in small, dark places, too fat to wriggle out comfortably, too arrogant to call for help. Le sigh.”

“Now when I look back at the year, I realise I found myself eating a lot of comfort food, which of course includes all kinds of desserts. Along with that, I was able to get back to my love for stories. I could catch up on a lot of stories in the form of books and content off OTT platforms. That happened to be a good thing that came out of the year.”

 “The two alcohols that got me through 2020. Enough said.” 

“I packed up my life, and my cats, and moved cities in the middle of the goddamn pandemic!”

“Managing both, my 3.5-year-old and newborn during the pandemic has been a major challenge. Add to that the cooking and working from home, the latter of which just doesn’t work for me. When I lift my head during important calls, I’m greeted by sights like the one on the left in the photo above.”

“This is a photo of me from August, when a cyclone had just touched Mumbai and wreaked havoc in other parts of Maharashtra. I walked through an old neighbourhood just before I left the city for good, only to find wrecked kaali-peelis and uprooted trees everywhere. Standing in the middle of this near-apocalyptic destruction is pretty much what 2020 feels like. Bring it on, 2021 (LOL JK, please don't).”

 “This year turned amazing for me the day I adopted a street cat, who I’ve named Oreo. WFH sucked a little less because of him. He's been with me through calls, meetings, reports, my anxious and happy times. This image is us sun-bathing & preparing for the next Monday call :D.”

 “I didn’t choose the 10 am quarantini life. The 10 am quarantini life chose me.”

Compiled by Snigdha Bansal. Follow Snigdha on Twitter.