Derek grew up in New York, while spending part of his summers in Maine, where he developed an appreciation for its wild landscape and natural beauty. Moving from a metropolitan area to the wide-open spaces of Maine felt like an escape to an earlier time when life was simpler, he says. The air seemed pure and the dark night skies were both quiet and alive.
After graduating from the University of New England in Biddeford, Derek started his photojournalism career at a newspaper in White Plains, NY. In 2004, he moved to Scarborough and joined the staff at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. He lives with his wife and three children in Scarborough.
His favorite assignments are photographing the outdoors of Maine, especially along the coast, and covering local sporting events.
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PublishedJune 14, 2023
In photos: See the action from some of Wednesday’s high school playoff games
Check out some of our favorite images from Wednesday’s high school baseball and softball playoff games.
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PublishedJune 12, 2023
In photos: Spring is in the air
For gardeners, it’s tilling the ground anew. For beachgoers, it’s the first bracing dip of the year. For anglers, it’s the first bite from a striper along Maine’s warming coast. And for the Press Herald’s photographers, it’s a little of everything as they capture spring across southern Maine.
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PublishedMay 27, 2023
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.
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PublishedMay 15, 2023
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. -
PublishedMarch 20, 2023
In photos: The Baxter Seagulls basketball team takes to the court
The Seagulls represent the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing/Governor Baxter School for the Deaf. For the first time in years, the organization fielded a middle school basketball team.
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PublishedMarch 8, 2023
In photos: See the action from Wednesday’s high school postseason games
Check out some of our favorite images from Wednesday’s high school hockey semifinal games.
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PublishedMarch 7, 2023
In photos: See the action from Tuesday’s high school postseason games
Check out some of our favorite images from Tuesday’s high school basketball tournaments.
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PublishedJanuary 29, 2023
In photos: After some dustings, snow finally makes clean sweep over Maine
Winter made itself known slowly this year, with only a few light snows by the time the season officially began. By then, some of us were already muttering that Maine winters as we once knew them were over.
That all changed in recent days, with storm after storm blanketing everything in white, and Press Herald photographers were there to chronicle the season’s first big performance. -
PublishedDecember 28, 2022
2022 Photos Of The Year: Seeking new lives in Maine
Hundreds of asylum seekers continued to arrive in Maine in 2022, overwhelming cities and towns’ ability to house them and provide basic needs. While asylum seekers fleeing violence in their own countries are allowed to remain in the U.S. while making their case to immigration courts, federal law requires a months-long wait for work permits. Throughout the year, Press Herald photographers documented their new lives in Maine.
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PublishedDecember 14, 2022
In photos: Best of November
As the year neared its end, November brought unusually warm days, but also the first snow – even if most of it was man-made at ski areas. Like every year, there were veterans to honor and winners and losers in high school sports championships. We got to see the United States play, and even score a few, in the World Cup. On Election Day voters went to the polls in a high-stakes race for governor. These events, plus more moments of beauty and intimacy captured by Portland Press Herald photographers, are in this photo gallery.
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