At The Assembly, we are lucky to work with a number of photographers around the state. Their eye for detail and ability to capture just the right moment is unmatched–and really makes our stories come to life.
Here are some of our favorite images from this year.
This photo, by contributing photographer Kate Medley, captured Amy Howard at her home in Pink Hill, North Carolina. Howard’s husband, Phil, is serving time in a federal prison camp for his role in smuggling tobacco from North Carolina to Mohawk territories in Canada. When the main subject of a story isn’t available for photos, you have to find other ways of showing their life, which Medley did so well.
Read: Tobacco’s Second Wind
We write a lot about people in power, and it’s not always easy to capture the essence of that person or the point of the story in a photo. This photo of state Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, by contributing photographer Cornell Watson, did just that.
Read: The Majority v. Anita Earls
The extent of the damage in Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene was truly hard to fathom. Even as we watched accounts pour in on social media and in other news outlets, it was hard to grasp. Photographer Jesse Barber went to great lengths to document it, and this photo of Mark Helms surveying a wrecked bridge near the entrance to his neighborhood in Lake Lure really captured just how massive the destruction was, and how big the task of rebuilding will be.
Read: Chimney Rock As We Know It is Gone. Long Live Chimney Rock.
Madeline Gray went into the deep to photograph a pair of Wilmington restauranteurs who have made an art of spearing and preparing the invasive lion fish. The fish are both far uglier and more intriguing than one might expect.
Read: Lionfish: Invasive and Delicious
You know, sometimes a photo just delivers so much information. This photo of Laurie Buckhout, taken by Matt Ramey for our profile of the U.S. House primary in the first district, manages to feel both like a staged portrait and candid at the same time.
Read: Trump, Trumpier, Trumpiest
Travis Dove’s photography from this year’s meeting General Conference of The United Methodist Church in Charlotte captured so much of the triumph and heartache for delegates hoping to forge a path forward after a longtime schism over gay marriage and ordination.
Read: Uniting the United Methodist Church
Cornell Watson’s photos for our May story on Kenny Glanville and the changing face of baseball in the United States really apprehend the idea of his lifetime commitment to the sport. The lighting, the motion, the feels–it’s all there!
Read: The Timeless Boyhood of a Baseball Lifer
Lee Roberts was still interim chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill when an encampment protesting the war in Gaza led to a face-off between activists and campus police. Angelica Edwards’ image of Roberts flanked by police as they rehung the U.S. flag in Polk Place captured a pivotal moment for the future chancellor.
Read: What Lee Roberts’ Interim Months Tell Us About How He’ll Lead UNC-Chapel Hill
Back in March, we published a feature on people who moved to Western North Carolina to flee the effects of climate change. That story focused on how the growing risk of wildfires has upended the idea of a “climate haven,” but just a few months later that part of the state was walloped with a very different kind of climate-fueled threat: Hurricane Helene. Mike Belleme’s photo of Mandy and Ben Hanna, who relocated here from California, really captured the frontier vibe.
Read: No Safe Haven
Contributing photographer Julia Wall spent all of Election Day with Anderson Clayton, the 26-year-old leader of the North Carolina Democratic Party who was carrying the weight of a lot of expectations this year. Following her from sunup til the end of the night, the photos really documented the highs and lows at the end of a long election cycle.
Read: Out of the Blue
Kate Medley’s images of Mark Scruggs, a former resident at the Durham Rescue Mission, deeply personalized our broader investigation into complaints from residents about working conditions and treatment at the sprawling residential nonprofit.
Read: ‘We Come Here Broken and Desperate’
Bryan Regan gave us an inside look at Bliss Boogie, a festival in Chatham County that is trying to bring more sex positivity to the South. The writing gave you a taste of it’s “mix of fresh air, consciousness-raising, and pleasure-seeking,” but the photography really drove it home.
Read: In Search of a Sex-Positive South
You can feel the images Allison Joyce shot for our story on the ongoing search for a Yancey County musician lost in the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene. There’s the cold isolation of a so-far fruitless effort to find his body as fall drags into winter, but also the warmth of the family and friends, new and old, who are committed to bringing him home.
Read: Still Searching