Supporters gathered at the BancorpSouth Arena Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 for President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tupelo Mississippi. (Photo by Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today/Report For America)
Over the past five years we’ve had the pleasure of sharing the work of some truly gifted photojournalists. Some are just getting started in the field as interns. Most are few years into the profession, whether as freelancers or staff photographers.
This year, we featured photo essays by ambitious photographers tackling some of the greatest issues of our time: from immigration to the opioid crisis, and from the rise of violent hate crimes to the rise of populist nationalism.
Here are 27 photos from eight of these talented emerging photographers we highlighted this year as part of our ongoing initiative ‘A New Light.’
We look forward to sharing more work like theirs in the new year.
Supporters gathered at the BancorpSouth Arena Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 for President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tupelo Mississippi. (Photo by Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today/Report For America)
Supporters gathered at the BancorpSouth Arena Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 for President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tupelo Mississippi. (Photo by Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today/Report For America)
Supporters gathered at the BancorpSouth Arena Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 for President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tupelo Mississippi. (Photo by Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today/Report For America)
Supporters gathered at the BancorpSouth Arena Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 for President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tupelo Mississippi. (Photo by Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today/Report For America)
Isaac Moroz, 93, in his apartment. Moroz is a WWII vet who fought in the Siege of Leningrad.
(Photo by Alexey Yurenev/ GroundTruth)
A glass of wine was raised as a salute during the centennial celebration of a decorated WWII veteran Semyon Krasilschikov in the Orange Grill Restaurant. Though the collapse of the USSR in 1991 changed Russia significantly and stimulated a series of rapid modernization, Brighton Beach neighborhood savors the past and is living museum of Soviet nostalgia. A life ensconced in traditions, values and the iconology of the old world beliefs, this close-knit insular world of Soviet immigrants lives a cloistered existence in the shadow of New York City. (Photo by Alexey Yurenev/ GroundTruth)
A woman walks a dog along Brighton Beach Ave’s Silka, which means exile in Russian, often street signs feature the Cyrillic alphabet catering to the Russian diaspora. Brighton Beach section of New York is the most densely populated Russian-speaking community in the Western Hemisphere. (Photo by Alexey Yurenev/ GroundTruth)
After nine months of chemotherapy and several surgeries Kaylee was officially declared cancer-free on October 22, 2018. “The date marks the end of one chapter in Kaylee’s life and the beginning of the next one,” explains photographer Maranie R. Staab, “which I have the privilege of being a small part of as I continue to photograph her story.” (Photo by Maranie R. Staab/GroundTruth)
Lunchtime at St. Rose of Lima Elementary School.
(Photo by Maranie R. Staab/GroundTruth)
On October 10, 2018 Kaylee Marshfield had the stent removed from her chest. (Photo by Maranie R. Staab/GroundTruth)
Nikki Strunck visits Brendan’s grave after winter to clean it in preparation for warmer weather, when she can plant flowers. Brendan is buried behind Nikki’s grandparents at a local cemetery in Richmond, Kentucky.
(Photo by Kendall Warner/GroundTruth)
A photo of Brendan and Nikki’s mother projects on the screen while she speaks at Madison Middle School in Richmond, Kentucky. (Photo by Kendall Warner/GroundTruth)
Nikki lays with one of Brendan’s jackets. She keeps it draped over a chair in her living room. She’s holding a cross necklace someone made for Brendan while he was in jail. Nikki has kept Brendan’s jacket there since he died so it is always close to her. The necklace is made out of string from towels and dyed orange and black using M&Ms, the representing the colors of The Cincinnati Bengals, Brendan’s favorite football team. (Photo by Kendall Warner/GroundTruth)
Firefighters remove a male patient from the back seat of a vehicle after he overdosed in the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky. The firefighters administered Narcan before removing the patient from the vehicle. (Photo by Kendall Warner/GroundTruth)
DaShawn Horne walks with a cane as his physical therapist Trevor Bouten holds him up on Thursday, April 26, 2018, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. (Photo by Megan Farmer /GroundTruth/KUOW)
LaDonna Horne stands next to her son, DaShawn Horne, in his hospital room on Thursday, March 15, 2018, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Surgeons removed part of DaShawn’s skull to relieve the pressure and to drain the blood clotting around his brain. The operation left a dent on the left side of his head. (Photo by Megan Farmer /GroundTruth/KUOW)
LaDonna Horne, center, holds a candle during a healing and justice vigil for her son, DaShawn Horne, on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, outside of the hospital at Harborview Park Seattle. (Photo by Megan Farmer /GroundTruth/KUOW)
Sonya, now 13, stood on her street in Carbondale, which was a coal mining town in in Southeastern Ohio. The mines have all been closed years ago. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey/ GroundTruth)
Lorrie gets Sonya ready for the local beauty pageant. Although she doesn’t have a lot of money to spend, she buys dresses at thrift stores and makes sure her grandchildren can participate in the activities they want to do. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey/ GroundTruth)
Sonya, right, yells at her mother Amber after Amber told her mother to change her youngest son Seth’s clothes after he peed himself. “You’re his mother,” Sonya screamed. “Start acting like it!” (Photo by Maddie McGarvey/ GroundTruth)
Deontè Gardner plays with his sister Jade Gardner, 6, in the basement of his dad’s house in Chicago, Ill. During college, Deontè lived four hours away as a result, the time he spends in Chicago with family is treasured. (Photo by Josephine Norris/GroundTruth)
Trenton Carson of Detroit grins as he warms up with his fellow members of Trap Door Improv at Central Michigan University. “One thing we all got in common: we like to laugh,” says Carson. As a member of CMU’s Trapdoor Improv group, Carson does just that. It’s his self described “relief and release from school” as he embraces his “goofiness” as he says and bring laughter to audiences. (Photo by Josephine Norris/GroundTruth)
Trenton Carson relaxes in his apartment as light filters in through the blinds. Carson doesn’t let micro aggressions bother him because he says, “People who aren’t black don’t see what we go through… because people don’t want to.” He goes on to say. “We’re all uncomfortable in this world… only thing that’s different it where we come from.” (Photo by Josephine Norris/GroundTruth)
Deported U.S. Navy veteran Steven B. Pierre, 51, poses for a portrait in a hotel room in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, June 29, 2018.
Pierre served in the U.S. Navy from 1990 to 1991 and received a medical discharge after falling down a submarine ladder stationed at a Naval dry dock in Connecticut. He tore up ligaments and tendons on his left knee and is currently service connected. He receives pain killers for his knee injury, and because of his knee injury, he also suffers from secondary injuries to his right knee and lower back to compensate.
“I never thought that I was an immigrant,” said Pierre. “I always thought that I was an American because I was raised the American way.”
He has four children in the United States that grew up without him physically there the majority of their lives. (Photo by Joel Angel Juárez/GroundTruth)
Deported U.S. Army veteran Jose Francisco Lopez Moreno, 73, overlooks the fence separating him from the United States as he sits along a hill in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, Monday, July 23, 2018.
Lopez Moreno was drafted to the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War in 1967. He deployed to Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 serving in combat even though he did not speak a word of English. Latino veterans in his unit would translate for him during his time in the service. He was assigned to work in transportation and at night he would be on guard duty at a helicopter base in Vietnam where he also performed rescue missions when helicopters were shot down.
Twenty six years after his military discharge, Lopez Moreno was arrested in a hotel room in Wichita Falls, Texas. He was caught purchasing cocaine from a police officer and was charged with intent to purchase and distribute narcotics in 1995. He was sentenced to nine years in prison and served eight years behind bars with a one year reduction for good conduct. In 2003, he was deported to Mexico because the crime he was sentenced for is considered an aggravated felony a deportable offense for a green card holder. (Photo by Joel Angel Juárez/GroundTruth)
Supporters of deported U.S. Army veteran Hector Barajas-Varela consisting of deported mothers and other U.S. military veterans gather in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, before he is sworn in as a U.S. citizen later that day in San Diego, Calif., Friday, April 13, 2018.
Barajas-Varela, not present in this photograph, spent a total of 14 years living in Mexico after two separate deportations in 2004 and 2010. (Photo by Joel Angel Juárez/GroundTruth)
Deported mother Yolanda Varona, from left, Norma Chavez-Peterson, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties, Hector Barajas-Varela, deported U.S. Army veteran Hector Barajas-Varela, and San Diego County Board of Supervisors candidate Nathan Fletcher, right, react after receiving a letter from immigration officials granting Barajas-Varela a naturalization ceremony in Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, March 29, 2018.
Lawyers for Barajas-Varela said the government informed them Thursday their client should attend a naturalization ceremony on April 13 in San Diego. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed the decision. (Photo by Joel Angel Juárez/GroundTruth)
