This year, Connecticut Mirror photojournalists took on ambitious stories, documenting the cultural accomplishments of Connecticut artists and creators, rising political protest movements, government in action and policy issues from climate change to food assistance.
They traveled throughout the state — and, in some cases, the world — to bring readers the most vital images of the year. Here are some of those photographs.
Rapper Dre Got the Blues in a Hartford recording studio. “I believe Connecticut’s creative culture to be one of the best stories never told. I’ve witnessed artists where I’m from defy odds I thought were impossible.”
“Man I used to play in these same pools too,” a Hartford native tells Eriberto DeLeon Jr. as the two sit outside Pope Park pool where DeLeon competed as a kid. DeLeon Jr. spent 30 years behind bars for his role in a burglary that left a Glastonbury man dead. Now he’s navigating a new world.
Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, heatedly objects to Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, after the premature end of a partisan debate during the legislative session in February.
About 150 protesters gathered as Coast Guard Academy cadets and their families arrived on the New London for graduation. The protesters filled nearby McKinley Park to voice their opposition to the academy’s commencement speaker, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
An estimated 2,150 people showed up to the Legislative Office Building in Hartford during an informational session about homeschooling in May.
Emma and Pamela McKeever in May. Families, scientists and health care providers worry that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rhetoric may be creating renewed stigma around the autistic community, with long-ranging consequences.
Latia Maldonado and other members of the SEIU 1199 union comfort Sylvia Grant, who works in a group home, after a press conference announcing a plan to strike if a negotiation over wages wasn’t reached by May 27. A deal was reached on May 23.
House Speaker Matt Ritter, second from right, weighed a procedural challenge that delayed passage of a highway safety bill in May.
Advocates huddle on the House balcony during the legislative session in May.
Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, plays with a rabbit puppet during the final minutes of the legislative session in June.
Karleen Masserio-Giarratana comforts her niece Jewelyette as her late father is mentioned during her adoption ceremony in June. Jewelyette’s case was one that would wind its way through appeals and eventually land before the state Supreme Court, which overturned 2023 case law and established that foster families have the right to be legal intervenors in some cases involving foster children.
Veteran Laurie Semprebon of Willington speaks to passersby during the No Kings protest in Hartford in June.
Rob Blanchard, director of communications for Gov. Ned Lamont, after the unwelcome question of an Andrew Cuomo endorsement came up during a press conference in June.
Alicea Charamut, executive director of Rivers Alliance of Connecticut, responds to the comments of constituents who are angry about the use of diquat in the Connecticut River in July. The vocal criticism of diquat dibromide began earlier this summer when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to renew and expand its studies using the herbicide at several points along the river to combat the invasive weed hydrilla, which has alarmed both officials and environmental advocates with its rapid spread throughout the river’s watershed.
Protesters gathered in front of New Britain City Hall in August to protest ICE’s presence.
Evgenia and her daughters walk along East Shore Park in New Haven in August. Caught in the whirlwinds of war and migration, Evgenia and her family are just a few of the 120,000 Ukrainians who arrived in the U.S. through a program known as Uniting for Ukraine (U4U). Created under the Biden administration, the program has been paused indefinitely by the Trump administration. As the intensity of the war escalates, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Ukrainians to seek refuge in the U.S.
Wilberto Aponte poses with one of his pigeons in New Britain in August. Aponte, who is retired, is the president of the Connecticut Classic Pigeon Club, which has about 60 members, mostly in the New Britain, Hartford and New Haven areas. It’s one of a few pigeon racing clubs across the state.
Crew member Christopher Guiteras carries gear ashore in September in preparation for the season’s 90-day closure. The Long Island Sound lobster industry was decimated in 1999, but the state’s last few commercial lobstermen keep the tradition alive in Stonington.
Moromi cofounder Bob Florence mixes freshly cooked soybeans with roasted wheat in September. Florence and James Wayman, then head chef of Mystic’s Oyster Club, have partnered to create soy sauce on the Connecticut coast.
People line up to pick up food from a mobile food pantry outside Living Word Church in East Hartford in November. An estimated 360,000 Connecticut residents benefit from SNAP, and food pantry directors attempted to meet the need with benefits renewal at risk.
Capitol Police officers communicate their rights to a group of activists from Don’t Destroy Our Future, who staged a sit-in in Gov. Ned Lamont’s office in November to protest his administration’s approval of a gas pipeline expansion project in western Connecticut. Activists called for Lamont to deny permits for new projects expanding natural gas usage in Connecticut.