2021 Photos Of the Year: A Pandemic Story

The wide availability of vaccines was supposed to get COVID-19 under control in 2021. Instead, the pandemic has worsened. With high levels of transmission and the arrival of the omicron variant, the winter months look bleak. But Mainers are resilient and resourceful. Children are in school, live entertainment has returned, and restaurants and other businesses survived – and in some cases thrived. Wearing masks has become commonplace, as has caring for our neighbors. Take a look back at the pandemic in Maine in 2021 through the eyes of Portland Press Herald photographers.

In photos: Maine summer in full swing

It begins unofficially after Memorial Day, with flowers in full bloom in June and ever-lengthening hours of sunshine. July brings the heat, warmer ocean water in the southern part of the state – and the tourists. It begins to slip through our fingers in August, all too soon. Summer in Maine.

In photos: Highlights of the spring season’s high school sports

The sound of a ball smacking a glove or a bat, feet pounding up dust, fans cheering on a warm evening, it’s all ours again as life returns to normal. Peruse these Portland Press Herald photographs of high school sports this spring season.

In photos: Graduating seniors celebrate a major milestone

The pandemic made this a challenging year for Maine students, but many seniors were able to celebrate their high school graduation with in-person ceremonies. Portland Superintendent Xavier Botana, at Deering High School’s graduation on June 2, noted the senior class missed out on many of the most cherished rituals of their junior and senior years, saying, “We’re very proud of you, Class of 2021, for how you’ve handled this hardest of years.” Portland Press Herald photographers captured the joy of the moment at several local graduations.

In photos: Maine teens who got vaccines

Press Herald photographers caught up to Portland-area high school students getting their COVID-19 vaccinations this spring. Here’s what they had to say.

In photos: Scenes of April give way to flowers of May

Our photographers capture the dreary and the glorious of April before it finally yields to the sunshine of true spring.

In photos: Let there be light

Daylight saving time started again on Sunday, leading to dreams of those long summer nights in Maine, when the sun doesn’t set until after 8 p.m. There’s a bipartisan bill in Congress now, called the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, sponsored by politicians as different as U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., that would make DST permanent. If it passes, we would not switch our clocks back in the fall. Meanwhile, Press Herald photographers took advantage of our lengthening days to look for beautiful light.

In photos: A winter wonderland just outside your door

It’s February, it’s cold, we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic (as if you could forget) and that spells cabin fever. So here are some photos to remind you of the many ways that Maine is a perfect place to be living through this. It’s a winter wonderland just outside your door.

In photos: Mittens and Mainers, what’s not to love?

Warm woolen mittens are one of our favorite things, and they got special attention when Sen. Bernie Sanders wore them, sitting in a folding chair looking grumpy, at President Biden’s inauguration. Sanders’ mien and mittens, in the photo by photographer Brendan Smialowski, went viral, making the Twitter universe, and many others, happy for many cold winter days. The mittens were famously given to Sanders by Vermonter Jen Ellis, a former Mainer. Ellis learned to sew at Mahoney Middle School in South Portland, taught by home economics teacher Jeannette Collett. Here are a few Mainers with their mittens, including Collett, who is wearing her very own pair of Jen Ellis mittens.

Press Herald’s 2020 Photos of the Year

We will never forget 2020, a year of tumult and heartbreaking loss. The coronavirus pandemic shook the world, the Black Lives Matter movement focused our attention on systemic racism, and the U.S. president was impeached. Schools and businesses closed. People lost their livelihoods and their lives. Millions of people protested, and a record number of Americans voted. And as the year came to a merciful close, hope emerged.

These narratives played out across the country and in the streets and homes of Maine. Our photojournalists told them in the images they made.

This year, instead of choosing the ‘best’ photos of the year, we’re telling the story of the year in pictures. Wearing masks and staying socially distanced, the photojournalists of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram recorded this historic year with grace, poetry and courage.