Words and Light

It’s strange, reviewing my photos of the 2008 presidential campaigns. For example, two years and three months ago, I didn’t know who Sarah Palin was.

Alaska governor Sarah Palin greets a crowd of 20,000 supporters at a rally at the Missouri State Capitol Building on Nov. 3, 2008 -- the day before the election.

“Had you ever heard of this Sarah Palin, before he picked her?” I asked my roommate after John McCain announced his running mate in late August. (Having not heard her name before, I pronounced it “paw-lin” until my roommate corrected me.)

Weird, huh?

Looking back at my photos of the presidential campaigns of 2008 has made me realize just how much has changed since then. I didn’t start naming my files and embedding caption information effectively until the fall. Also, it goes without saying that the political landscape and the characters who populate it are now jarringly different.

For example — remember John Edwards before his affair made tabloid headlines?

Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., campaigns at the Carpenters Union building in St. Louis on Jan. 19, 2008. In his speech, Edwards called opponents Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama "celebrity candidates."

Or how about John McCain’s campaign, pre-Palin?

As Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., waits to give his speech, Cindy McCain describes how her husband welcomed a young Bangladeshi girl she brought home to Arizona for adoption. Cindy McCain called John "a good father" before John took the stage in the JetDirect hangar of the Spirit of St. Louis Airport on Feb. 1, 2008.

Because Missouri was a swing state, four presidential candidates — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney and McCain — made appearances in St. Louis in the weekend prior to Super Tuesday. Those hectic three days, as well as Edwards’s and Clinton’s rallies in January and Obama’s and Palin’s in the days before the election, helped make 2008 a tremendously exciting year for me as a student photojournalist.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney fields questions from the press during a campaign event at Dave & Buster's in Maryland Heights, Mo., on Feb. 3, 2008.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., concludes her speech to more than 5,000 supporters on Jan. 19, 2008, in the McCluer North High School gym in Florissant, Mo. Clinton had just won the Nevada primary and was beginning her campaign in Missouri and the other Super Tuesday states.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses a crowd of 20,000 supporters in the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis on Feb. 2, 2008.

What an incredibly energizing year.

Happy Election Day, everybody. If you haven’t already, be sure to vote — and good luck to all my fellow journalists who’ll be downing Red Bull, crunching numbers, waiting at election parties and burning the midnight oil tonight!

Alaska governor Sarah Palin makes her way down the steps of the Missouri State Capitol Building for a rally on Nov. 3, 2008 -- the day before the election. Missouri attracted all four members of the Democratic and Republican presidential tickets in the last week before the Nov. 4 election.