Photo of the Month: May 2003

Every month we choose for recognition three photos from among those contributed to the report by member newspapers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. From these we select a Photo of the Month and two honorable mentions.

Previous winners
 2003
April
March
February
January
2002
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May

Jim Evans
The Morning Sentinel, Waterville, Maine

Deborah and Christopher Holinger are reunited with their children for the first time since Christmas in this May 15 shot from Portland. The couple was depolyed on military duty in Iraq. Holding his grandson, Jacob, is Howard Holinger, who helped care for the youngsters in their parents' absence. Catherine is embraced by her mother.

(Photographer's comments)

Honorable Mentions

Daryl Carlson
The Citizen, Laconia, N.H.
A red-winged black bird braces on cattail stalks while feeding along the shores of Lake Opechee in Laconia on May 11.

Jim Evans
Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine
Colby College seniors Peter Nowak and Laura Shufelt kiss during the annual party at Johnson Pond on the school's campus on May 9. Many seniors take the traditional plunge into the pond on the last day of classes.

Evans:


"The Holinger family reunion was a follow-up story to the grandparents taking care of their grandchildren story, which was in turn generated by a story we first did at Maranacook Community High School in Readfield, where the grandmother works.
" At the school, a large display of photographs of Iraq war servicemen and women was posted of former students and a few relatives of school staff, including the grandmother's son and daughter-in-law. We did a story on the display and I found the grandmother to see about shooting a story of her and her husband taking care of their grandchildren.
" That story worked out so well that the grandparents agreed to contact us for the homecoming. The reporter and I pretty much blended into the background at the Portland airport, but at that emotional crux it was easy to take a short step or two forward for the picture and not disturb this family's important reunion.
"I've always thought this more in-depth approach to a story allowed better and more respectful access to a delicate scene than the hit-and-run to the next big event style. I am sure I wouldn't have known about or been invited to this reunion without the professionalism by the writer Danielle Gamiz and myself when we did our first story. Readers got an important look at one family's sacrifice because of it."