Cross nation scenes of pleasure and problem : The Image Present : NPR

Today is World Photography Day, a worldwide celebration of the ability of pictures to doc, join and inform tales in ways in which phrases generally cannot.

In honor of this present day, we’re sharing pictures from extra acquainted floor: on a regular basis moments of gathering in communities throughout the United States. In scenes each massive and small, joyful and difficult, odd and extraordinary, individuals come collectively — household and mates, neighbors and strangers — in shared area.

Seen by way of the lens of NPR member station photographers, Here, collectively. is a visible exploration of these moments and the smaller worlds we transfer by way of daily. Together, they replicate the complicated methods we join, coexist and navigate life side-by-side.

Valentina Stone, 14, will get prepared for a college dance with the assistance of her mom, a correctional officer, at their residence within the cellular residence group subsequent to the now-closed Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., on May 30, 2025.

Beth LaBerge/KQED

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Beth LaBerge/KQED

Uncertain Future — Dublin, Calif.

Valentina Stone, 14, sits in her bed room as her mother, a correctional officer, helps her prepare for a college dance within the cellular residence group subsequent to the not too long ago closed Federal Correctional Institution. When the prison shut down, families were told they had to leave, but most can’t sell their homes or get back what they invested. This is a large loss within the Bay Area, the place the price of dwelling is already so excessive. I used to be drawn to this quiet act of care between mom and daughter, which felt particularly significant given the uncertainty of their future. — Beth LeBerge, KQED

Members of Calling All Brothers welcome the scholars of Dr. Martin Luther King School of Social Justice and Breakthrough Magnet School to their first day of faculty in Hartford on Aug. 17, 2024.

Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public

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Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public

First Day of School — Hartford, Conn.

Calling All Brothers has made the primary day of faculty an annual celebration in Hartford. They roll out the crimson carpet, clap, cheer and attain out for prime fives. On their first day, these students run through a line of successful local men of color who are all there to say, “we support you.” A excessive 5 is not going to repair the issues youngsters face in city training programs.But for this one second, I might see the shared hope hanging within the air, within the boy’s smile that college was going to be good this 12 months, and within the males cheering that, someday, the boy can be standing subsequent to them. — Tyler Russell, Connecticut Public

Riders make their approach throughout the world earlier than the Cowboys of Color rodeo Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, on the State Fair of Texas in Dallas.

Yfat Yossifor/KERA

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Yfat Yossifor/KERA

This is Rodeo — Dallas, Texas

This photograph was taken as riders enter the world with flags on the opening moments of a Cowboys of Color rodeo efficiency. The tradition of rodeo is truly Texan! It isn’t just a sport or performance but a way of life. The skilled subject of rodeo has been white-dominated, regardless that historians estimate that, within the late 1800s, as many as 25% of cowboys had been Black and 12% had been Mexican. The metropolis of Dallas is a minority-majority, and this efficiency put the limelight on these cowboys and introduced that historical past to life. To me, the occasion displays the variety of Dallas and the way its rural historical past is mingled with fashionable life. Documenting this occasion means to have fun all features of previous and current that make Texas distinctive. — Yfat Yossifor, KERA

Annie Landenberger (backside proper) dances with Erik Jacobs in the course of the election evening sq. dance in Townshend, Vt., on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, within the Townshend Town Hall.

Raquel C. Zaldívar/New England News Collaborative

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Raquel C. Zaldívar/New England News Collaborative

Election Dance — Townshend, Vt.

I’ve photographed the final couple of election nights at polling locations or candidate watch events, so once I heard about an election night square dance in Townshend, Vermont, I knew I wished to cowl it. One of the city’s residents determined to arrange the occasion to fight stress he and others felt main into the 2024 election. I arrived for the potluck dinner and dance at Townshend Town Hall, the place the voting was additionally taking place. Community members introduced dishes for the potluck and shortly after dinner the dancing started. I’ll be trustworthy, that was my first sq. dance! The power was excessive and joyful, and other people had been genuinely having enjoyable. It was good to {photograph} individuals coming collectively as a group on an election evening. — Raquel Zaldivar, NENC

Jocelyn, an immigrant from Venezuela, cuddles along with her 1-year-old son within the early hours of Feb. 5, 2025, in Aurora, Colo.

Kevin J. Beaty/Colorado Public Radio

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Kevin J. Beaty/Colorado Public Radio

Jocelyn and Her Son — Aurora, Colo.

This picture was taken within the early morning hours earlier than federal immigration officers, working to satisfy President Trump’s promised immigration crackdown after taking workplace, got here to Jocelyn’s residence constructing, who requested that we withhold her final identify, fearing deportation. She’d barely slept and spent the evening waiting for police by way of her window. She’d trained her young son, pictured here, to run into a closet if they came knocking. In the morning, they did. Images of immigration raids normally deal with the drama of handcuffs and armed officers — very true this 12 months, as federal brokers have introduced digital camera crews with them to publicize their broader deportation marketing campaign. It’s one purpose why I want this kind of picture: It facilities the expertise of individuals on the middle of this enforcement. It’s a second of quiet humanity in a time in any other case outlined by bombastic rhetoric. — Kevin Beaty, Colorado Public Radio

Unable to have guests, Aleah and her boyfriend press their palms collectively, separated by the display screen of an open window, as Aleah stays at Recovery Works Northwest’s detox middle.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

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Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

In It Together — Portland, Ore.

Aleah is on her fifth day of fentanyl withdrawal at a facility 250 miles from her residence in Eastern Oregon. Though she shouldn’t be allowed guests, she was capable of see her boyfriend briefly. They pressed their hands together through the screen of an open window and gazed into one another’s eyes. He had already accomplished therapy and was dwelling in a sober home close by. This light and fleeting second of connection was stuffed with love, the issue of overcoming dependancy, and the hope for a brand new life collectively, in sobriety. (NPR is figuring out Aleah by her first identify solely as a result of she was a affected person in a detox facility on the time this photograph was taken.) — Kristyna Wentz-Graff, OPB

Juneteenth parade individuals wave to attendees alongside Chicon Street on Thursday, June 19, 2025, in Austin.

Michael Minasi/KUT News

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Michael Minasi/KUT News

Juneteenth in Texas — Austin, Texas

This photograph exhibits a woman waving from the highest of a lowrider in the course of the annual Juneteenth Parade on the east aspect of Austin, Texas. Thousands of people came out in the Texas heat to celebrate the end of slavery in Texas. Children chase sweet thrown from floats, residents grill on sidewalks and share meals with neighbors. Events like these are awash with stimulation — cheering, music, motion — however from the hill I used to be taking images on, I noticed these lowriders coming a mile away. When the little lady popped out of the roof to wave at spectators, I knew it might make a strong second. — Michael Minasi, KUT

Gabriella Cardenas, 15, wears her quinceañera gown as she and her father, Boris Cardenas, who’s carrying her gown, her brother, Jason Cardenas, 17, and her mom, Patricia Cardenas, transfer to a brand new spot alongside the Tidal Basin for a photograph on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Washington, D.C.

Tyrone Turner/WAMU

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Tyrone Turner/WAMU

Quinceañera Photo Shoot — Washington, D.C.

Gabriella Cardenas, 15, wears her quinceañera dress as she and her father, Boris Cardenas, who’s holding her gown, her brother, Jason Cardenas, 17, and her mom, Patricia Cardenas, transfer to a brand new spot for a photograph alongside the Tidal Basin. This second of household togetherness actually touched me — the way in which the daddy is carrying his daughter’s stunning gown, and the way in which they had been celebrating this milestone on this younger lady’s life with an early morning photograph shoot among the many cherry blossoms. — Tyrone Turner, WAMU

Inmates at Cybulski Community Reintegration Center in Enfield, Conn., obtain books and take heed to audio system as a part of an occasion placed on by Freedom Reads on May 1, 2025.

Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public

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Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public

Freedom Reads — Enfield, Conn.

Inmates at Cybulski Community Reintegration Center in Enfield maintain copies of Dead Weightby Randall Horton, who’s studying passages to them. Horton is a poet, author and, in his words, “the only tenured professor in the U.S. with seven felony convictions.” Horton spoke with a pure rhythm, a lyricality that’s within the essays he reads and in his feedback between. 100 males in tan uniforms held on his phrases. At the second of this photograph, the entire room was listening to 1 man discuss his life, whereas every mirrored on their very own. There are gaps in my images that day from once I stopped to pay attention, too. — Tyler Russell, Connecticut Public

Dozens of followers cheer as a miniature dachshund races fellow canines on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, throughout a wiener canine race after the thirtieth annual Purina Pet Parade in St. Louis’ Soulard neighborhood.

Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio

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Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio

Darting Dachshunds — St. Louis, Mo.

St. Louis’ Soulard neighborhood bursts with power annually as 1000’s collect for one of the city’s most beloved Mardis Gras traditions: the Wiener Dog Derby. The decades-old race sends dachshunds dashing — generally straight for the end line, different occasions in each route however. Context is essential in photojournalism, so I made certain to doc each the racers, their adoring followers and the town’s iconic fleur-de-lis within the body so as to add a way of place. — Brian Munoz, St. Louis Public Radio

Robert McGraph, 79, of Chicopee, Mass., dances with Dawn Orsini throughout one in every of this summer time’s Pratt Street Salsa Socials on June 27, 2025 in Hartford, Conn.

Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public

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Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public

Shoulder to Shoulder — Hartford, Conn.

Pratt Street, in Hartford, is a 200-year-old brick-paved block within the coronary heart of downtown. For five Fridays this summer, it was the location for “Salsa Socials,” where salsa fans danced shoulder to shoulder as music bounced between the buildings that line the road. The occasion is a vibrant celebration of Hartford’s multicultural inhabitants. On the evening I made this image, dancers Dawn Orsini and Robert McGraph joined the movement. “It makes you feel alive,” mentioned 79-year-old McGraph about dancing salsa. Orsini, who had solely not too long ago picked up salsa, mentioned, “No one really judges you here.” Moving to the music, she mentioned, was about “how you feel.” — Mark Mirko, Connecticut Public

Students and fogeys from Washington, D.C.’s Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School, East End Campus, write letters outdoors of the workplace of Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. They handed these letters to the workers with a purpose to persuade the member to vote “no.”

Tyrone Turner/WAMU

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Tyrone Turner/WAMU

Recess on the Capitol — Washington, D.C.

Hundreds of fogeys and college students from the D.C. faculty system converged within the Hart Senate Office Building to plead their case for a “no” vote on a unbroken decision that will minimize D.C.’s finances by greater than $1 billion. The students and parents went to senators’ offices to try to talk to members and leave their message in hand-written letters. Though the funding was finally minimize, the second of collective civic engagement by these mother and father and their youngsters was so highly effective to witness. I considered what classes would possibly stick with the youngsters and the way which may immediate group management of their futures. — Tyrone Turner, WAMU

College college students Agatha Angeles (left) and Nancy Yeung (proper) eat at Korea House on a free meal day, when anybody who visits the restaurant can dine for gratis, on Wednesday, July 3, 2025. On the primary Wednesday of each month, Korea House presents a free meal to serve their group.

Patricia Lim/KUT News

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Patricia Lim/KUT News

A Meal of Opportunity — Austin, Texas

Korea House, a Korean restaurant in Austin, Texas, serves free meals on the first Wednesday of the month. College college students Agatha Angeles and Nancy Yeung eat on the restaurant on a latest free meal day after ready in line for it to open. Co-owner Pok-Cha Kim has been serving the larger Austin space since 1988. In 2016, she took a break, and through that point, “she was called for God’s work,” mentioned Vivian Newton, her longtime buddy and co-owner. Since September 2023, the restaurant has given out round 15,000 free meals. — Patricia Lim, KUT

Participants trip customized bicycles within the “freak bike petting zoo” in the course of the twenty eighth annual Dead Baby Downhill bike race and social gathering on the Hazard Factory in Seattle, Wash., on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024.

Megan Farmer/KUOW Public Radio

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Megan Farmer/KUOW Public Radio

Dead Baby Downhill — Seattle, Wash.

This picture was taken on the twenty eighth annual Dead Baby Downhill, an annual bicycle race and avenue social gathering in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood that is generally known as “the greatest party known to humankind.” The occasion features a “freak bike petting zoo,” the place individuals try and trip customized bikes — some miniature, some 10-feet tall, some that you simply peddle backwards to go forwards. Hundreds additionally gathered round a human-powered amusement park trip, a tall bike-jousting competitors and a mini-velodrome. What struck me about this occasion was the true unbridled pleasure of the individuals, from varied subcultures and communities, surrounded by laughter, beer and punk music. — Megan Farmer, Oregon Public Broadcasting

Todd and Amy Sanford, of Kalamazoo, Mich., kiss after the Western Michigan Broncos rating one other purpose, in the end defeating the Boston University Terriers and clinching the staff’s first-ever NCAA males’s ice hockey championship on Saturday, April 12, 2025, on the Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis.

Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio

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Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio

Frozen Firsts — St. Louis, Mo.

St. Louis is a sports activities city. The ardour for our groups runs huge and our historical past runs deep. We’ve additionally had our share of underdog tales — scrappy groups from the heartland reaching the unthinkable. So, when there’s a chance to expertise such a sight, St. Louisans flock to the second. That’s what happened when the Western Michigan Broncos won their first-ever Frozen Four against the Boston University Terriers. The historic win was a reminder of how our metropolis embraces the drama of competitors, regardless of whose colours followers put on. — Brian Munoz, St. Louis Public Radio

Rhonda, Kaylee, Khloe and Nathan Duff embrace each other at a vigil held in Leander, Texas, on Saturday, July 12, 2025. Both Kaylee and Khloe misplaced mates to the flooding that occurred of their city every week earlier than — one was an area highschool band part chief, and one other was visiting from out of city.

Lorianne Willett/KUT News

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Lorianne Willett/KUT News

Grief in Leander — Leander, Texas

After a flood in Central Texas, members of the Leander group got here collectively to honor the victims. The influence on residents was disastrous, with dozens shedding their properties and a few even shedding their family members. The Duff household, proven right here, misplaced two mates, but they came together like so many to support one another during this time of need. I had but to expertise the unity that I noticed in that second, nor the vulnerability shared with me. I do not take both without any consideration. — Lorianne Willet, KUT

Kasia Moon (left) removes gel nail polish from her colleague’s toe nails at her salon in Bend, Ore., on Nov. 15, 2024.

Kathryn Styer Martínez/Oregon Public Broadcasting

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Kathryn Styer Martínez/Oregon Public Broadcasting

Finding Safety and Belonging within the Queer Community — Bend, Ore.

Kasia Moon strives to make her salon a protected area for individuals throughout gender, sexuality and racial identities — someplace she’d really feel snug present. Moon is Afro-Latina and queer. In Bend, Ore., there is not a devoted LGBTQIA+ group middle. Establishments the place queer individuals can go and really feel protected are shared by phrase of mouth or social media. Moon, a former social worker, said her one-room salon serves as a place where queer and trans people can do just that. “I’ve even done someone’s dead name on one side (of their nails) in black crossed out with red and their new name on the other side,” she mentioned. — Kathryn Styer Martínez, Oregon Public Radio

Volunteers information paper lanterns away from the shore as lots of mark the eightieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, at Green Lake Park in Seattle, Wash. The occasion, known as “From Hiroshima to Hope,” has taken place yearly, on Aug. 6, on the shores of Seattle’s Green Lake since 1984.

Megan Farmer/KUOW

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Megan Farmer/KUOW

Hiroshima To Hope — Seattle, Wash.

Hundreds gathered on the shore of Seattle’s Green Lake for the annual “From Hiroshima to Hope” occasion earlier this month to honor the roughly 200,000 victims of the United States’ bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The glowing memorial of lit paper lanterns with Japanese calligraphy and phrases of peace, love and justice, represented the 1000’s of lives misplaced, hope for a extra peaceable future, and a visible reminder of a painful historical past. I seen a quiet and calm power within the air, as plenty of group members gathered in a comparatively small area. I used to be struck by a deep sense of coexistence — of magnificence and ache, calm and trepidation, reminiscence and hope — felt collectively and shared by many. — Megan Farmer, KUOW