Arresting images from Baltimore Brew
Our most memorable photos from the past decade
Above: Protesters who occupied the Johns Hopkins University Garland Hall administration building last year embrace after addressing the media. (J.M. Giordano)
Children shivering in coats inside their unheated classroom.
The clear-cut landscape of a beloved city park, gouged up as part of a Department of Public Works reservoir project.
The grim faces of steelworkers getting confirmation of a mill shutdown.
At Baltimore Brew, we’ve been telling important stories about the city for a decade, not just with words, but with images.
We really care about photos. Sometimes having just the right art is the key that unlocks the story and makes the facts flow together.
Most of our photos are shot by staff as we cover road collapses, protests, City Council meetings, neighborhood controversies, houses purchased by a mayor entirely in cash or whatever the day brings.
Occasionally they come from the Internet, police body-worn camera video or social media – or courtesy of photo archivists or alert readers. When we’re lucky, they also come from seasoned professionals like Joe Giordano or Jennifer Bishop.
Here are a few that stood out to us. We’re surely forgetting some. Feel free to remind us of images that stayed with you. (Click the images to see in full screen.)
Freddie Gray’s family members at a protest rally outside of the Western Police District HQ following his arrest and severe spinal injury in 2015. (Fern Shen)
As Gray lay in the hospital critically injured, people take to the streets in Sandtown chanting, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” (Fern Shen)
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joins students from F.L. Templeton Preparatory Academy at dedication of Upton Edible Garden. (Fern Shen)
• In Rawlings-Blake’s rise and fall, an object lesson for would-be successors (9/14/15)
In Howard Park, reaction to a loved one’s 2013 killing, a tragic scene that has played out with increasing frequency in Baltimore as the homicide rate has surged. (Chris Ervin)
• Another murderous year erodes Baltimore’s spirit – and its faith in its leaders (1/1/19)
Vacants on the 1300 block of West North Avenue. (Louis Krauss)
Baltimore’s high-end Harbor East shopping district, site of a 2016 fundraiser for mayoral candidate Sheila Dixon that raised big cash from developers. (Mark Reutter)
• Developer Paterakis orchestrates $130,000 in campaign contributions to Sheila Dixon (3/29/16)
Smoke rising from Sparrows Point fell as red dust on local communities. A 1953 photo when the mill was expanding to become the biggest steelmaking center in the world.
The once state-of-the-art L blast furnace idled in 2012. (Mark Reutter)
Steelworkers line up outside the union hall on Dundalk Avenue to learn that they no longer have jobs at Sparrows Point. In the mid-1970s, 25,000 people were employed at “The Point.” (Fern Shen)
A house a mile from the former mill in 2018. (J.M. Giordano)
Some of the many Brew stories about Sparrows Point’s final years.
• Six reasons why the Sparrows Point steel mill collapsed (5/25/12)
• Psst! Wanna buy a used steel mill? (9/25/12)
• Emotions run high after Sparrows Point worker kills himself (1/7/13)
Cars, trees and a light pole (but, fortunately, no people) slid into the CSX railway when the unit block of East 26th Street collapsed on April 30, 2014. (Fern Shen)
• Tab for November’s 26th Street wall collapse: $7.5 million (5/15/19)
• City inadequately responded to complaints about failing 26th Street (8/17/14)
Police Commissioner Michael Harrison and Mayor Jack Young at a recent meeting where residents voiced concern about the departure of the police training academy from a building in northwest Baltimore. (Fern Shen)
Mayor Young poses with big campaign contributor Alex Smith (far right) at the VIP Preview Party for Smith’s new Choptank restaurant. Also shown: 12th District Councilman Robert Stokes. (Baltimore Snap)
• Jack Young to declare his candidacy for mayor Saturday (10/22/19)
• Council President Young denounces the press at community meeting (12/13/17)
City officials defend the choice of politically connected contractor Kevin Johnson as part of a $30 million East Baltimore housing project. Seated: Finance Director Henry Raymond. (Fern Shen)
• Young stages an influence-peddling purity test – and Baltimore passes! (4/17/19)
• Young gets thousands of dollars of tax credits by misstating his principal residence (12/16/19)
A nearly $150 million project to bury drinking water tanks at Druid Hill Park is cited by state officials for sending chlorine into the Jones Falls. (Mark Reutter)
Residents decry the loss of nearly 200 mature trees at a denuded Hanlon Park for another DPW water tank project. (Mark Reutter)
• Amid high turbidity levels, MDE calls for more tests (10/4/18)
• The Druid Lake construction mess: It didn’t have to be this way (10/4/18)
An al fresco practice session in springtime Druid Hill Park before the tank construction. (Fern Shen)
• The music three Baltimore teens make with violins and a cello (5/12/15)
State troopers at the site of a planned youth jail in Baltimore hours before government crews tore down protesters’ symbolic “schoolhouse.” (Louis Krauss)
• Occupy Baltimore – and media – booted from public sidewalk near youth jail site (1/17/12)
Drug City Pharmacy in Dundalk, the biggest recipient of pain pills in the state of Maryland when the opioid epidemic was taking off. (J.M. Giordano)
“Dundalk born and bred” Michael Maynor says methadone has kept him off hard drugs for the past eight years. (J.M. Giordano)
• A drugstore in Dundalk learned a hard lesson on opioids (8/5/19)
Lawrence Alexander’s mother, Teresa Singleton, and sister, Faith Alexander, hold his ashes where his body was found on a cold morning just feet from City Hall. (J.M. Giordano)
“I’m overwhelmed,” Faith Alexander said, at the spot where her brother, Lawrence Alexander, died in December 2016. (Joe Giordano)
• Loved but lost, Lawrence Alexander is returned to his family (7/11/18)
Evening rush hour traffic on Calvert Street streams past a man sleeping on the sidewalk. (Fern Shen)
Larry Peterson, a veteran, watches as city workers raze the encampment along Baltimore’s Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard where he lived for four years. (Ben Halvorsen)
• Holiday Wish part 1: That Baltimore’s leaders tell the truth about the homeless crisis (12/15/17)
• Holiday Wish part 2: That Baltimore’s leaders actually lead (12/15/17)
One of the classroom photos that Baltimore teachers posted on social media in early 2018 after they returned from the winter break.
• Who “owns” Baltimore’s beat-up, poorly heated and air conditioned schools? (9/7/18)
The “Little Miss Hon” pageant at Honfest 2010. (Fern Shen)
A reader cancels her subscription after Baltimore Magazine’s all-white bridal insert hits a nerve. (Fern Shen)
• Brides and grooms galore in Baltimore Magazine, none of them black (6/22/15)
At Camp St. Vincent, a program in Baltimore for families experiencing homelessness, a child works on math problems with a friend. (Louis Krauss)
Campers take the plunge at the Patterson Park pool. (Louis Krauss)
• At a camp for homeless children: a pool, a park, friends and math (7/19/17)
A trenchcoat-clad Jim Smith, Mayor Pugh’s chief of strategic alliances, happens to stop by to chat with Liquor Board Chairman Albert J. Matricciani Jr. before a key vote on the Crossbar license. (Fern Shen)
• Fourth time’s the charm for Crossbar (2/10/17)
Mayor Stephanie Rawling-Blake (far right) officiated at the Las Vegas wedding of lobbyists Lisa Harris Jones and Sean Malone during the RECon convention in Las Vegas. Here she poses with Jones (center) and state Sen. Catherine Pugh. (Brew file photo, 2013)
• Mayor officiates at lobbyists’ wedding in Las Vegas (6/12/13)
At the 2016 Las Vegas RECon, Catherine Pugh, then-Democratic Party nominee for mayor, joins former Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith and Caves Valley developer Arsh Mirmiran. (BBJ’s Melody Simmons, with permission)
• Party on! Snapshot of last night’s Maryland Party in Las Vegas (5/24/16)
Seconds after telling reporters he supports a $600 million Port Covington tax incentive, Councilman Carl Stokes clasps hands with the developer’s attorney, Jon Laria, outside of City Hall. (Fern Shen)
• Fiery rhetoric fizzles as Port Covington advances (9/13/16)
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake blows out the candles at a farewell party she threw for herself during her final days as Baltimore’s mayor.
Rawlings-Blake poses with guests at the Bar Vasquez party, including her chief of staff Kaliope Parthemos and Councilman Brandon M. Scott. (Glenwood Jackson Studios)
• Rawlings-Blake spent $54,000 on farewell party (2/1/17)
IRS agent photographs Mayor Pugh’s newly renovated house in Ashburton during a 2019 FBI raid. (Fern Shen)
In her final press conference, Mayor Pugh shows reporters the bibs, onesies and other items she intended for sale as part of her Healthy Holly business. (Fern Shen)
Catherine Pugh on the way out of federal court after pleading guilty to charges that could bring her a five-year sentence. (J.M. Giordano)
Before the “Healthy Holly” book scandal exploded, Mayor Catherine Pugh is front and center at a group photo of the University of Maryland Medical System board. (umms.org)
Mayor Pugh is joined by J.P. Grant (in suit) and Kevin Johnson (plaid shirt) at the Teen Biz Challenge in 2018. (Facebook)
The apartment building on North Hilton Street where Allen Burris purchased a city-owned unit at a bargain price. (Fern Shen)
Some of The Brew’s coverage of Baltimore’s former mayor, Catherine Pugh, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges in November. Still up in the air: will others who may be culpable in the scandal be held accountable?
• Mayor Pugh’s mover got city-owned condo at bargain price (3/26/19)
• Are you guilty? The plea was “yes,” but Catherine Pugh’s gestures said “no” (11/21/19)
• Pugh’s bagman operated with impunity in Baltimore’s political culture (11/23/19)
• J.P. Grant reaped over $500,000 in commissions while Pugh was mayor (12/18/19)
Benjamin Franklin High School students march against a power plant planned less than a mile from their school. (Fern Shen)
• Pollution-weary students stage a march to protest incinerator (12/19/13)
Police depart the Maryland Department of the Environment building after arresting seven people protesting the Curtis Bay incinerator project. (Fern Shen)
• Incinerator protesters arrested at MDE headquarters (12/15/15)
At a fundraiser in North Baltimore, presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg addresses an enthusiastic crowd. (Ed Gunts)
• Mayor Pete charms and alarms at a Baltimore fundraiser (12//13/19)
Baltimore Police Officer Arthur E. Williams caught on a cellphone video beating, Dashawn McGrier. is indicted for assault. He resigned from the force and was sentenced to five months of supervised probation.
• Baltimore officer, lauded at police academy, caught beating man in viral video (8/12/18)
Emotions run high at a University of Maryland Baltimore County “listening session” after two women sue the school, saying it mishandled their sexual assault cases. (Fern Shen)
• Shellenberger sent police to rape victim’s home to threaten her, lawsuit alleges (12/14/18)
Zaid Degol fled war-torn Eritrea in hopes of a better life for her three boys in Baltimore. (Jennifer Bishop)
• For Eritrean refugee in Baltimore, “great fear of Donald Trump!” (2/17/17)
Don’t mess with “Filbert,” who rules the roost at the Filbert Street Community Garden, home of the Baltimore Compost Collective. (Fern Shen)
• Jobs for Baltimore’s youth and a second life for its trashed food (9/10/18)
Leandro Lagera and Stephanie Hsu, members of the Chinatown Collective, in the 400 block of Baltimore’s Park Avenue. (J.M. Giordano)
• Can redevelopment rescue Baltimore’s bedraggled Chinatown? (3/7/19)
One of a dozen student bands marches through Penn North on its way to the one-time epicenter of black Baltimore nightlife. (Mark Reutter)
• My heart has always been with Pennsylvania Avenue (6/9/19)
At a protest over the planned demolition of the former Read’s Drug Store on Howard Street, the site of a 1950s sit-down that helped end segregated eating facilities in the city. (Mark Reutter)
• Mayor gives up on a Superblock plan that never made sense (6/27/13)
Shredded tire on the Subaru Forrester Heather Cook was driving when she was arrested for drunk driving in 2010. (Caroline County court document)
• Episcopal bishop identified as driver in fatal bike crash (12/28/14)
• A spiritual leader’s fall from grace (1/27/15)
One of the yellow-crowned night herons that can be seen right now from Wyman Park Drive. (George Williams, with permission)
• Watching Baltimore’s yellow-crowned night herons with the man who knows them best (4/24/17)
Backstage at the 2018 Night of 1,000 Elvises as “The King” bends over to tie his shoe. (Jennifer Bishop)
• Elvis and friends take on a tough task: cheering up Baltimore (12/6/18)
The Brew’s Mark Reutter in 2014, on the job at a Stephanie Rawlings-Blake press availability. (Fern Shen)