2023 Photos of the Year: Homeless in Portland

Homelessness in Portland grew to new dimensions in 2023. Even as a new city shelter opened in Riverton, homeless encampments emerged throughout the city – in parks, on trails and even on a state-owned parking lot. Local agencies struggled with how to respond, and the issue was central in Portland’s mayoral election. Throughout the year, Press Herald photographers documented people living outside, learning their names and their stories and offering readers an unblinking look at one of society’s most complex challenges.

2023 Photos of the Year

Beauty comes in many forms. A diver suspended in midair. A flock of pigeons rising in the snow. The stillness of a lobster boat and a man and dog on a paddleboard in calm ocean waters at sunset. Portland Press Herald photographers uncover unexpected beauty every day. They show us the profound beauty of connection. The tenderness of a loving husband and his wife, who is in hospice, celebrating their anniversary. The resilience of families who have traveled from a world away trying to make a new home in a strange land together. The collective grief of a community experiencing enormous loss after an act of previously unimaginable violence. It is a great privilege to photograph the people and stories of Maine. Here is some of our best work from 2023.

2023 Photos of the Year: Maine in mourning

On the night of Oct. 25, minutes after Lewiston police began fielding calls about multiple shootings in the city, the newspapers of the Maine Trust for Local News mobilized as one newsroom to learn everything we could about what would turn out to be the deadliest shooting in Maine history. On that night, 18 people were killed and 13 injured and a manhunt was launched to find the shooter. Photographers from the Sun Journal, the Kennebec Journal and the Portland Press Herald fanned out across the area to document it all – the fear, the shock, the anger, the manhunt, the extraordinary outpouring of shared grief and pain. This is some of their best work from those dark days.

In photos: Monument Square Christmas tree is all aglow

Portland’s Christmas tree arrived Nov. 15 after making the journey over the Veterans Memorial Bridge from its home in South Portland. The city chose the 50-foot blue spruce grown at 35 Lubec St. to stand in Monument Square during the holidays.

Photos by Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

In photos: Looking back as summer draws to a close

Some people call it ‘local summer,’ the period after many summer tourists have gone but before foliage tourists arrive. The sun sets earlier and school has started, but the days are still warm – and often glorious. Portland Press Herald photographers capture its essence in this photo gallery.

In photos: A gloomy start, then glory in our photo gallery of summer 2023

June was gloomy and gray, with almost daily rain. July was warmer, with wet weekends and high humidity – not the perfect New England weather we dream about all year. But the sun showed its lovely face as August arrived, and the glorious days of summer began again.

In photos: See the action from Wednesday’s high school state championship and playoff games

Check out some of our favorite images from high school tennis state championship and lacrosse playoff games.

In photos: View some of the best images from ‘Long Way Home’

In ‘Long Way Home,’ Press Herald reporters and photographers told the story of the large influx of asylum seekers arriving in Maine in recent years, fleeing their homelands and embarking on dangerous journeys to make a new life in Maine.

In photos: Seeing blue

Blue skies were smiling and bluebirds were singing for Irving Berlin, but blue is actually nature’s rarest color. Blue flowers are less than 10% of the world’s 300,000 flowering plant species. Even some of the few animals and plants that look blue don’t actually contain the color. Blue jays and Morpho butterflies, for example, have developed unique features that distort the reflection of light to appear blue.
Humanity has been obsessed with blue for thousands of years, from ancient Egypt when blue, the color of the heavens, was used in temples, ceramics and statues and to decorate the tombs of the pharaohs. In Medieval Europe, ultramarine blue was highly sought after among artists but was as precious as gold. Johanns Vermeer, who painted ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ loved the color so much that he pushed his family into debt to purchase the paint color. Art historians believe Michelangelo left his painting ‘The Entombment’ unfinished because he couldn’t afford to buy more ultramarine blue.
In 2009, Mas Subramanian and his then-graduate student Andrew Smith discovered a new blue pigment, YlnMn Blue, by accident, the first blue pigment discovered in more than 200 years. He had published hundreds of scientific articles and applied for dozens of patents, but it was his accidental discovery of a new vivid blue that excited the popular imagination and resulted in everything from a new Crayola crayon to a music festival in Atlanta.

In photos: Muslims gather to celebrate the end of Ramadan

Story and photos by Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer