Monsivais grew up in the Little Village neighborhood on the Southwest Side. “We took the Sun-Times, Tribune, Daily News, whoever made us the best deal,” he said. “I grew up looking at photos of the Reagan assassination and the Columbia disaster. Photojournalism was a recorder of history, and I wanted to be part of it.”

Monsivais was raw at the start. So raw and inexperienced, in fact, that he left his equipment at his first assignment. It took him almost three years to feel confident.

But he brought with him a basic knowledge of computers that helped the Sun-Times switch into a new technological age.

“The Nineties will be remembered for the implementation of digital imagery,” he said. “We learned by trial and error.”

The Sun-Times bought its first digital cameras and scanners in the early 1990s, primarily to meet the deadline pressure of Chicago Bulls playoff games and for the Democratic National Convention in 1996.

“I thought my first digital camera was wonderful, a new toy, but in retrospect it was junky,” he said. “The color balance was bad, the timing was off, and the batteries didn’t last.

“But we all knew it was the future.”