Our photojournalists — both staff and freelance — followed the journey of blue crabs from the Gulf shores of Louisiana to Maryland dinner plates, and students trying to navigate hourslong commutes to get to school. With a new presidential administration, we saw the rise in ICE-led detentions in immigrant communities, and told the stories of families torn apart by deportation.
There were so many moments that made us proud to be a part of this community, both here in Baltimore and throughout the state. Here are a few of our favorites.
Adama Bangura, center, and her husband, Kasim Deen, right, wait in line with their 4-year-old son to collect food from Hughes United Methodist Church in August. The pantry in Wheaton is one of several in the area that have made it a public mission to feed their community, regardless of citizenship status. (Valerie Plesch for The Banner)
Jackson Hoang, 19, joined by his father and siblings, holds a laptop to a crowd outside the family's nail salon in Hagerstown so his mother, Mong “Melissa” Tuyen Thi Tran, on video from an ICE detention center in Tacoma, Wash., can see all the people who showed up to support their family. (Rosem Morton for The Banner)
Kilmar Ábrego García, center, and his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, walk into the George H. Fallon Federal Building in downtown Baltimore for a check-in with ICE, where he was taken back into custody. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
Levar Mullen calls out “Fruit man, fruit man!” as he leads the funeral procession down Pennsylvania Avenue for Bilal “BJ” Abdullah, the beloved arabber fatally shot by Baltimore Police. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
Professional skateboarder Spencer Brown skates the arch of the Howard Street Bridge in Baltimore. (Florence Shen/The Banner)
RyNiah Waters before the Crisfield High School senior prom. The Eastern Shore town is disappearing into the Chesapeake Bay. In the last three years, flooding has canceled or delayed Somerset County schools on 12 days, and things could get worse soon. (KT Kanazawich for The Banner)
Ten years after his death, Freddie Gray’s twin sister, Fredricka Gray, places a memorial wreath by a mural dedicated to him in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore. (KT Kanazawich for The Banner)
First responders at a fire at a large building known as “The Castle” on the 3300 block of Keswick Road in Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood. (Wesley Lapointe for The Banner)
Kelly Burkhart grabs Tony Macko by the foot as they train inside the ring at MCW Pro Wrestling Training Center, Maryland’s largest independent wrestling promotion and trainer of aspiring performers. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Brian Ennals, left, and Tariq “Infinity Knives” Ravelomanana say a positive review of their new album helped triple their monthly listeners. (Myles Michelin for The Banner)
A double-exposure as horses, jockeys and patrons gather on the track at Pimlico ahead of the first race of the day during the 150th Preakness. (Kaitlin Newman/The Banner)
Dwayne Watkins flips off a log in the Peace Park while Noah Duncan watches. For 30 years, Collins Streamside has been building this intentional community. It’s a place where children can play in almost anyone’s yard and are taken care of by a village of neighbors. (Wesley Lapointe for The Banner)
Actress Rachel Hilson is a Baltimore native and alumnus of Baltimore School for the Arts. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Derek Smith holds his 4-year-old son Jaxon, who has been his motivation to stay sober. The 42-year-old Cecil County construction worker had become addicted to illegal opioids four years ago while trying to numb the pain from a heartbreaking string of misfortunes: the loss of his home to a fire, his wife to a divorce and his father to a car crash. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Kim Ross, right, and her daughter Arielle Greene leave Towson University after Arielle’s dress rehearsal for the Morton Street Dance Center. For the past decade, Arielle has been watching her mother ascend the ranks of leadership, from Democratic Central Committee member to the first Black female delegate representing her East Side district. (Rosem Morton for The Banner)
Author Mike Tidwell sits on the stump of an oak tree in a neighbor’s backyard in Takoma Park. Tidwell’s book, "The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue," talks about the diminishing oak trees and impacts of climate change on his neighborhood. (Maansi Srivastava for The Banner)
One of the Green Spring Valley Hounds was eager to be blessed on Thanksgiving Day, jumping up on the Rev. Thomas Clement during his prayer before the annual Blessing of the Hounds at St. John’s Church, Western Run. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
Jeanie Ferretti celebrates in the House chamber at the Maryland State House on Sine Die in Annapolis. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Banner)
Taylin Lawrence, 5, after graduating from preschool, says he wants to grow up to be a police officer because "they help people." (Kaitlin Newman/The Banner)
Albie Akras jumps on his mother’s back playfully as she kisses her daughter, Carmen, on the cheek. In 2024, Kennedy Krieger Institute doctors diagnosed Carmen with late infantile onset metachromatic leukodystrophy, or MLD, a recessive genetic condition that destroys the nervous system and affects one of every 40,000 babies in this country. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Igor Antonovich Bozhko in the studio he shares with his son in Odesa, Ukraine. Since 1975, Baltimore has been a Sister City to Odesa, Ukraine’s second-largest city and its largest seaport, as part of a program to pair international communities and promote peace through arts and culture. (Caroline Gutman for The Banner)
An excavator pulls smoldering debris from a metal recycling facility in Dundalk in January. A three-alarm fire caused a partial building collapse and led to road closures in the area. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
Keyva Bluitt holds his godson, Essan, 1, at Jake’s Skatepark in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. (Florence Shen/The Banner)
Members of the Love Vietnamese Seniors Club dress up for a Halloween-themed karaoke event at the Holiday Park Senior Center in Silver Spring. (Valerie Plesch for The Banner)
Martina Lynch was 18 during the unrest in 2015. She now splits her time between Baltimore and Atlanta, pursuing a career as a recording artist. (Justin T. Gellerson for The Banner)
Richard Brooks with his grandchildren at the Towanda Recreation Center pool. The new pool opened in June, outside a recently renovated recreation center. (Kaitlin Newman/The Banner)
Clarksburg High School’s Rahel Ambaye and Julia Cruz practice ahead of a flag football matchup against Seneca Valley High School. (Leah Millis for The Banner)
Michael Strassner and Jay Duplass co-wrote the romantic comedy "The Baltimorons." The partnership began years before, when Duplass stumbled upon Strassner’s Instagram account and followed the up-and-coming improv actor. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The Banner)
Members of the West Virginia National Guard patrol the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (Valerie Plesch for The Banner)
Retired Bethlehem steelworker Dewey Parks has been struggling to get a response from the Social Security Administration concerning owed benefits following DOGE cuts. (J.M. Giordano for The Banner)
Officer Rashad Hamond was fresh on the force 10 years ago when Freddie Gray was killed, launching weeks of protest throughout Baltimore. A decade later, Hamond, now 38 years old and a sergeant, still carries those lessons. But the trust he is helping restore between Baltimore Police and the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve remains frayed. (Kaitlin Newman/The Banner)
Bill Brooks, center top, chief executive officer at Penn North Recovery, does community outreach checks after a mass overdose event the day before. Mark, center front, said he didn’t need Narcan today, and was grateful he wasn’t involved in the previous day's overdoses. (KT Kanazawich for The Banner)
It takes Brooke Bourne, a senior at Western High School, more than 90 minutes to get home from school each day on public transit, a distance that takes just 17 minutes by car. (Kaitlin Newman/The Banner)
The Claiborne family enjoys ice cream together during their second visit to The Cow in Reisterstown. (Florence Shen/The Banner)
Brenda Ramirez serves lunch to Marco Cardenas, a regular at El Golfo Restaurant in Silver Spring. Businesses such as El Golfo are bearing the brunt of a softening economy, and immigration crackdowns are frightening away customers. (Valerie Roche for The Banner)
Without family to support her financially, Nelly Orellana, 70, said she’s barely getting by on $900 a month in Social Security and $130 in SNAP. (Anna Connors for The Banner)
Crane barges are seen at the Francis Scott Key Bridge site at sunrise as test piles are installed into the Patapsco River bed to test the strength and stability for the new bridge's foundation. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
Demonstrators hold signs during a weekly protest in opposition to President Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk and the DOGE federal workforce cuts on the Gorman Road I-95 overpass in Laurel. (Wesley Lapointe for The Banner)
From left, Azarielle Jordan, Dylan Dyson and Madisyn Montgomery from the Cardinal Shehan School practice their dances for a ceremony to mark Sister Delphine Okoro's final vow, a lifelong commitment to chastity, poverty and obedience, and official inclusion into the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Arbutus. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Horses and jockeys run the Gallorette Stakes on Preakness day at the Pimlico Race Course. (KT Kanazawich for The Banner)
Parishioners of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church line up to greet outgoing Father Ray Chase ahead of Mass. This past summer, St. Vincent de Paul, the city’s oldest Catholic parish church in continuous use, merged with St. Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church in Little Italy to form a single parish. (Eric Thompson for The Banner)
Antonio Pennix holds his sons Avion and Avi after his commencement ceremony at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Pennix was one of more than 50 graduates from the Excel Center, a free adult high school for Maryland students. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Cal Ripken Jr. waves to fans as he rides a convertible around Oriole Park at Camden Yards to celebrate the 30th anniversary of breaking the all-time record for consecutive appearances with 2,131 games. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Banner)
Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson tags out Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at second base before throwing to first for a double play. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Banner)
Gavin Lake, 11, with the New Baltimore Christian Warriors, takes a break from marching as thousands of protesters hit Baltimore’s streets for May Day rallies and marches. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Aaron Fitzgerald wades through the flooded parking lot of Westernport Elementary School to retrieve belongings from his mother's waterlogged car after a catastrophic storm hit the area. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
Barber Christopher Fowlkes takes a nap between clients at Phaze 2 Barbershop in Baltimore's Penn North neighborhood. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Members of the Jane Austen Society dance at a ball held during the 250th birthday celebration for Austen at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in October. (Heather Diehl for The Banner)
A pedestrian, wearing a respirator, stands in the street while the fire blazes at a commercial building in Remington. (Wesley Lapointe for The Banner)
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley addresses a crowd of protesters outside the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn. (Wesley Lapointe for The Banner)
Carrying signs, exhorting drivers to honk, and enduring the rain, hundreds gathered outside the University of Maryland law school to protest one of the authors of Project 2025, a conservative plan to remake the federal government. (Kaitlin Newman/The Banner)
The Maryland Park Service is developing Freedman’s State Historical Park to tell the story of Enoch George Howard, his family and the Black community he nurtured. “The Howard family in one generation experienced the full arc of the African American experience,” said Maryland State Park Service Superintendent Angela Crenshaw, at the gravestones for Enoch George and Harriet Howard. (Michael A. McCoy for The Banner)
Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton forces Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams to intentionally ground the ball during a pass attempt. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Banner)
Tamea Cobb poses for a portrait at the 50th annual Baltimore Pride Parade in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. (Florence Shen/The Banner)
Baltimore City Police Commissioner Richard Worley hands a bat to a teammate before playing in an over-40 league at the Harford Sports Complex in Bel Air. (Wesley Lapointe for The Banner)
From left, Dana Evans, Clarence Coleman, Leonard White, and Darrell F. hang out in front of a vacant property next to a car wash in the Penn North neighborhood, where Matthew Williams died of an overdose in October. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Baltimore-based hardcore band Jivebomb performs at the Disturbin' the Peace festival at Baltimore Soundstage in February. (KT Kanazawich for The Banner)
Brittany Jakubowski, a teacher at Catonsville Middle School, holds the curtain back for Marley Quintanilla, Nathalie Ramos and Camila Perez before they head on stage for a fashion show. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
N., a massage therapist, said she ended a massage and ran out of the room after inappropriate behavior by Justin Tucker in 2016 at Locust Point’s Studio 921, which is now closed. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
Rin Tho, center, helps load crab trucks at the Pomes Seafood warehouse in New Orleans, destined for processing in Alabama. Louisiana supplies more blue crabs nationally than any other state. (Kathleen Flynn for The Banner)
Baltimore Orioles outfielder Jordyn Adams photographed during the 2025 Orioles Media Day. (Jared Soares for The Banner)
Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday photographed during the 2025 Orioles Media Day. (Jared Soares for The Banner)
Molly Goodfellow and her son, Henry, at their home in Baltimore. After her husband's sudden death, Molly has received numerous unsolicited inquiries from Realtors about selling her house. (Ariel Zambelich/The Banner)
Alex, a 27-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, lost her promise of sponsorship with the Trump administration's new immigration policy. (Moriah Ratner for The Banner)
Orion Larca hugs a small version of a highway marker dedicated to his grandmother, Wendi Winters, during a ceremony to dedicate Rowe Boulevard to the legacy of five members of the Capital Gazette newsroom who were killed in 2018. (Kaitlin Newman/The Banner)
Former Maryland Terrapins head coach Gary Williams, right, hands the MVP game ball to Maryland Terrapins forward Pharrel Payne after an NCAA basketball game against the Coppin State Eagles. (Terrance Williams for The Banner)
Robin Goodwin sports her custom-made Orioles helmet while meeting a chicken at the Orioles Block Party. Goodwin and her friend Maureen Hall have been attending Orioles games for years. (Eric Thompson for The Banner)
Turnstile performs a free benefit concert at Wyman Park Dell in Baltimore in May. (KT Kanazawich for The Banner)
Monique Polley and her daughter, Aniyah, 4. Baltimore Police arrested Polley in April after a man purporting to be her brother alleged that she attacked him and his loved ones. In Maryland, people can be arrested, thrown in jail and forced to defend themselves against criminal charges without input from police or prosecutors through a law that allows a District Court commissioner to bring charges instead.
(Wesley Lapointe for The Banner)
Jason Hagan, 8, swings in the snow at Federal Hill Park. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
The Looks Much Better Now mural beams bright following a snowstorm in February. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
Ariel Zambelich is the Visuals Director for the Baltimore Banner. She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, The Intercept, NPR Visuals, and WIRED.
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