Chris Collins
In 2015, Isthmus underwent a major redesign that included some new features. One of the most popular has been Snapshot. It’s intended to show — through both on-the-ground reporting and great photos — perspectives of Madison that aren’t necessarily breaking news events, but nevertheless capture something about life in our quirky, complicated city. So what’s it like here? Well, we’ve got devoted euchre players, homeless folks, almond cookies, pen collectors, world-renowned restorers of ancient art and churches, piano bars, third-string high school football players, lock keepers, and partisans and religious folks of many stripes.
Here are the most popular Snapshots from 2015, at least online.
- Photographer Chris Collins — an Isthmus contributor — spends much of his spare time wandering the streets of downtown, documenting life here and chatting up strangers. This summer, news editor Joe Tarr tagged along with him as he encountered Maverick, a homeless man sleeping on the Capitol Square in “No longer a stranger.”
- In a stroll through Vilas Park, Isthmus editor Judith Davidoff noticed a motionless turtle, which she then became a little worried about and obsessed with, in “Life and death in the lagoon.”
- Getting a new ride is cool for anyone. But for Autumn Neugent, who has multiple sclerosis, a new retrofitted van means freedom and independence. Longtime Isthmus contributor Nathan Comp rode along with Neugent shortly after she got her van in “Movin’ right along.”
- Comp also toured a secluded downtown garden meticulously maintained by state Sen. Fred Risser and his wife, Nancy, in “Urban oasis.”
- Isthmus staff writer Allison Geyer checked out one of Madison’s new sensory deprivation chambers and got a little queasy, in “Searching for self in salt water.”
- Bill Lueders watches pen lovers haggle over fountain pens in “For the love of a pen.”
- Geyer observes a little-known tradition at the Wisconsin Union in “The passing of the gavel.”
- Seth Jovaag wrote about how veteran Tom Hasting is back in action, thanks in part to a job at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in “Back on his feet,”
- Geyer ponders the art of a medium in “A Madison haunting.”
- Lueders checks out the secretary of State’s tiny new office in “In the ‘cubby hole’ with Doug La Follette.”
