2025 was a wild ride for me personally, as well as the rest of the world it seems. It was also the year I achieved my dream of becoming a staff photojournalist.
I had the privilege of photographing a plethora of events and people that I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to if not for my job. What I consider my greatest accomplishment is that I got to give a voice to so many in my community.
Out of everything I covered, the ICE protests stand out to me the most. There were definitely grueling moments. But even the days where I came home feeling drained, the honor I felt documenting such historic events overpowered everything else.
When you tell people you’re with a newspaper, I find they’re often so excited to tell you about their experiences. When I showed up at the wrong place for an assignment, I happened to meet Andrew, a man who told me his experience watching how different convenient stores handled homelessness in downtown Portland. At a Maxine Dexter rally, I met Krestina, an Egyptian migrant who told me about her journey navigating workers’ comp in this country. Yulia Brockdorf works as a psychotherapist on the frontlines in Ukraine and showed me pieces of missiles she brought home from the battlefields.
I am so grateful that my camera allows me a window into worlds I would never otherwise get to enter. Above are some of my favorite photos I took with it this year.