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Michele has been the photo editor of the Portland Press Herald for five years. Previously she was a photographer for the Boston Globe, The Virginian-Pilot, and the Concord Monitor. She began her journalism career as a reporter/photographer for the Daily Eagle, in Claremont, NH. Michele’s first camera was a Kodak Brownie Starflash camera, which she got when she was 9. She used it to take unusual family photos, like one of her youngest sister Megan refusing to move from the neighbor’s driveway. (Megan McDonald is the author of the Judy Moody and Stink series, well-known books for children). Michele still has the camera. It has a roll of undeveloped film in it, which she’ll get around to developing someday. A college dropout (from Bensalem, an experimental college that no longer exists), Michele later won a mid-career Nieman fellowship to Harvard. She was a finalist for a feature photography Pulitzer Prize for her photos of a young woman choosing to die in hospice care. She was a juror for the Pulitzer prizes in photography in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Latest
  • Published
    July 14, 2023

    In photos: The best of Varsity Maine spring sports

    Photo by Brianna Soukup/Press Herald York’s Cary Drake comes in first in the 800-meter run at the Class B State Track Championships at Freeport High School on June 3. Photo by Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Mt. Ararat’s Kennedy Lampert, foreground, gets a hug from teammate Alex Durant after Lampert hit an inside-the-park home run during a […]

  • Published
    July 14, 2023

    In photos: The best of Varsity Maine winter sports

    Photo by Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel Carrabec High School head basketball coach Erik Carey prepares his players for a game at Carrabec High School in Solon on Tuesday, January 17. Photo by Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel Ellsworth diver Kiera Springer completes her dive under the scrutiny of judges during the Class B girls swimming championships at […]

  • Published
    July 14, 2023

    In photos: The best of Varsity Maine fall sports

    Photo by Ben McCanna/Press Herald Scarborough’s Ali Mokriski, left, and Lana Djuranovic celebrate after Djuranovic scored a header off Mokriski’s corner kick to win in double overtime against Brunswick in the Class A girls’ soccer state championship. Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Press Herald Cheverus’s Joe Osei, left, celebrates with teammate Elijah Timlin after Timlin scored […]

  • Published
    June 4, 2023

    In photos: A look inside the lives of Maine’s parent caregivers

    Families with medically fragile children hope that a bill awaiting votes in the Maine House and Senate will pass and allow parent caregivers to receive the same MaineCare compensation that hired caregivers get. Heather Johnson and Andrea Dole are mothers of children who need constant care and, as a result, can’t work themselves. Here’s a look at a small part of their lives.

    Photos by staff photographer Sofia Aldinio

  • Published
    January 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.

  • Published
    December 28, 2022

    2022 Photos Of The Year

    The best photojournalists carefully observe the world. They notice the most authentic details and bring them to us in ways we are unable to forget.
    Photographs by themselves may not be able to change the world or stop a war, but they can pinpoint what we have in common, what’s worth our investment, our hope, our struggle and our fight. They can help us see our surroundings more clearly. They can inspire us to action.
    Here we share some of the best of the year from the photographers of the Portland Press Herald.

  • Published
    December 22, 2022

    In photos: Lovely, dark and deep

    As November and December days led to the solstice, the darkest evening of the year, Press Herald photographers borrowed from Robert Frost’s famous poem, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,’ to find beauty in the dark and deep.

  • Published
    November 1, 2022

    In photos: Lovable characters prowl South Portland neighborhood on Halloween

    For the third year, pirates and princesses, dinosaurs and unicorns, witches and werewolves paraded through a few South Portland streets between Broadway and Highland, across from Mill Village. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, Megan Honeycomb-McDonald and Elliott Pitts wanted kids in their neighborhood to have a Halloween. They chose an outdoor Halloween parade that would give everyone a chance to see each other, while keeping a safe distance. It was informal, and fun and continues in a world that has since opened up. Meet a few of the kids, big and small, from the neighborhood. They stopped by for a photo, in a pop-up studio in my driveway. Photos by Press Herald Photo Editor Michele McDonald

  • Published
    October 19, 2022

    Photos: Maine shows off in the fall

    Our state, looking glorious in the colors of autumn.

  • Published
    June 25, 2022

    In photos: Two families, one farm for three generations

    In Cape Elizabeth, the Maxwells have been farming the land for nine generations. The Rodriguezes have joined them for the last three.