Post-Gazette photojournalists pick their photos of the year for 2021
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photojournalists worked hard to create a record of our collective humanity in a year where we continued to stay apart. Here is a look at the region in 2021 through the lenses of our award-winning staff.
Matt Freed
Steelers players wait in the tunnel to be introduced before taking on the Raiders, Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021, at Heinz Field. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett hoists the ACC Championship trophy after defeating Wake Forrest, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, at Bank of America Stadium. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt leaps out of the tunnel as he’s introduced before taking on the Lions, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021, at Heinz Field. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Steelers running back Najee Harris leaps over Seahawks cornerback D.J. Reed in the fourth quarter, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021, at Heinz Field. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hugs wide receiver Diontae Johnson after he pulled in a pass for a touchdown against the Broncos in the first quarter, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021, at Heinz Field. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Bill Cowher checks out the chin on his bust during the 2020 Centennial Pro Football Hall of Fame Class induction Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Troy Polamalu inspects his bust during the 2020 Centennial Pro Football Hall of Fame Class induction Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings is mobbed after walking it off against the Marlins in the 12th inning Saturday, June 5, 2021, at PNC Park. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Pirates left fielder Anthony Alford falls to the ground after getting hit in the right arm from a fast ball from Yankees pitcher Corey Kluber Saturday, March 13, 2021, at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
A young fan tries to catch a ball during batting practice before the Pirates take on the Yankees Wednesday, March 10, 2021, at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Nate Guidry
Guitarist Eric Johnson plays the guitar outside his apartment in North Charleroi on Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021.
Vocalist/artist Elizabeth “Betty” Asche Douglas poses for a portrait at her home Friday, June 25, 2021, in Rochester. Mrs. Douglas was inducted into the Beaver Valley Musicians’ Hall of Fame in 2003.
Tenor saxophonist Calvin Stemley said music changed his life. “All of sudden I was focused and making good grades,” said Mr. Stemley of Wilkins. Mr. Stemley is a retired band director at Westinghouse High School.
Tenor saxophonist Don Aliquo Sr., practices at his home Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021, in Lower Burrell. Mr. Aliquo performed in bands backing up everyone from Bob Newhart and Mel Torme, to Tony Bennett and Lena Horne.
J. Warren Watson, 98, a retired Common Pleas Judge, poses for a portrait with his electric wind instrument at his home Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, in the Hill District. Judge Watson grew up in Homewood and graduated in 1940 from Westinghouse High School.
Ethel Parham, center, is assisted by her great-great nephews, the Rev. Michael Parker II, left, and Justin Fisher, both of Baltimore, following the burial services for her husband Henry Parham Monday July 12, 2021, at Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville. Mr. Parham, a veteran of the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only all-Black unit to land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, died of bladder cancer. He was 99.
Muralist Kyle Holbrook, of Wilkinsburg, restores an older mural as well as paints a new one calling for the violence to stop Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in Homewood. The original mural was painted in 2007, by Mr. Holbrook, Maghail Sahara and Ernest Bey and the message remains the same, Stop Gun Violence and Peace over Pittsburgh. The mural is sponsored by Moving Lives of Kids (MLK) Community Mural Project.
Jazz/cabaret singer Phat Man Dee poses for a portrait Thursday, July 22, 2021, at her home on the South Side. Man Dee is currently working on a new recording that features local powerhouse jazz musicians Reggie Watkins, Dr. James Johnson and Roger Humphries.
Emily Matthews
Mackenzie Komar, 6, of Latrobe, gives her calf Nora a kiss as she practices walking her on Tuesday, August 24, 2021, at the Westmoreland Fair. This was Komar’s first year showing cattle with her family. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
Brooklyn Donovan, 8, who plays for the Pens Elite 10U girls team, waves and holds up a sign in support of the female Mars goaltender before the start of Mars’ game against South Fayette on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, at UPMC Lemieux Complex in Cranberry. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette) HSGIRL1108
Avonworth celebrates after winning 2-1 against North Catholic in the 2A championship on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021, at Highmark Stadium on the South Side. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
Penn-Trafford celebrates after defeating Fox Chapel 1-0 in the 2A championship on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021, at Washington and Jefferson’s Cameron Stadium in Washington. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
Mayoral candidates Tony Moreno, left, and Rep. Ed Gainey wait for the Pittsburgh mayoral debate to resume after a 15 minute break on Monday, Oct. 11, 2021, at Thunderbird Café and Music Hall in Lawrenceville. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
The Rolling Stones perform during their No Filter Tour on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, at Heinz Field on the North Shore. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
Frankie Harris, of the Hill District and a boutique merchandiser and special event decorator with Ujamaa Collective, listens to speakers during a rally after the announcement of the Derek Chauvin verdict on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at Freedom Corner in the Hill District. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
Firefighters respond to a fire in a duplex in the 200 block of Ater Way in Lawrenceville on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
Highlands’ DJ Loveland falls to the ground as he tries to get the ball away from Mars on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, at Mars Area High School. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
Steel Valley’s Nijhay Burt reacts after intercepting a ball from Serra Catholic on Friday, Oct. 29, 2021, at William V. Campbell Athletic Field in Munhall. Steel Valley won 28-7. (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
Steve Mellon
A visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021, prompted Chuck Burroughs, right, to contemplate the courage displayed by passengers and crew as they battled terrorists for control of the hijacked plane on 9/11. “And you wonder, if you were on that plane, would you do the same thing?,” he asked. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
“I come here every day,” says Linda Ficorilli, 80, as she chats with Sandy Falcione, who’s worked at Donatelli’s Food Center in Bloomfield for 28 years. “I miss it already.” Donatelli’s opened in 1932, when the neighborhood was filled with recent Italian immigrants. Its future is uncertain. Russell Donatelli is the third generation to operate the market, and there is no fourth generation to continue the tradition. He’s looking for someone to take over the business. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Cayton Sink makes her way along the Flight 93 Memorial’s Wall of Names on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. “They were very heroic to take the plane down when they did,” she said of the flight’s passengers and crew. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Kirk Garber pauses at the Flight 93 Memorial overlook in Somerset County on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. A distant tree line marks the impact point of Flight 93. “I had to see it,” Garber said. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Lifeguard student Tyler Stack, left, stabilizes Charon Tucker’s neck during training to remove from the pool a swimmer with a possible spinal injury from the pool. The two were participating in Citiparks’ Lifeguard Certification Training at the city’s historic Oliver Bath House on Pittsburgh’s South Side on Thursday, June 11, 2021. Stack, 19, is from Beechview; Tucker, 22, is from the Hill District. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Mist surrounds an F-22 Raptor roaring into a turn at the Shop ’n Save Westmoreland County Airshow at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe on Saturday, May 29, 2021. Temperatures dipped into the low 50s for the event. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
James Kidd in his Braddock home on Friday, May 28, 2021. The Braddock Carnegie Library is dedicating its Neighborhood Print Shop to Kidd. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Firefighters pour water onto a burning building at 11th and E. Carson Streets on the South Side on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021. Fire officials say no one was injured in the fire, which started shortly before 3 p.m. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Passengers exit a Port Authority bus on Liberty Avenue across from the Wood Street Station at rush hour on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. Transportation was a topic nationally on this day — the Senate Commerce Committee approved former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg as President Biden’s secretary of transportation. The approval sends the nomination to the full Senate for a final vote. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
The U.S. Steel mill known as Edgar Thomson Works rises above Talbot Avenue in Braddock on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. The historic mill produced its first heat of steel in 1875. (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Pam Panchak
Josh Nutter, 6, from Plum, looks away while getting his Covid-19 vaccination at a clinic set up at the Plum Community Center Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021 in Plum. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
Grace, a six-year-old Golden Shepherd – half Golden Retriever, half German Shepherd – retrieves a stick thrown by Harry Garrett from Forest Hills in Frick Park Friday, Nov. 12, 2021 in Pittsburgh. Garrett was taking care of Grace for his daughter for the afternoon. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
Nyjah Cephas, a co-leader of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Young Naturalist program, gets up close to the Allegheny GoatScape goats that returned for their fourth year of helping to manage the growth of invasive plants around the Clayton Hill area of Frick Park Monday, July 26, 2021 in Point Breeze. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
Dr. Rickquel Tripp, organizer with White Coats Against Racism, joins UPMC physicians and employees marking the one-year anniversary of the killing of George Floyd on the lawn in front of UPMC Presbyterian Tuesday, May 25, 2021 in Pittsburgh. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
Dontae Lewis competes on the 110 meter hurdles at the Baldwin Boys Track & Field Invitational Friday, May 7, 2021 in Baldwin. He won the competition along with the 300 meter hurdles. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
Alyssa Barca, a senior at Baldwin High School (BHS) reacts after getting a Polar Pop – an ice cold water balloon popped over her head – from BHS physical education teacher and Special Olympics Club co-sponsor Tim Laughlin Friday, Mar. 5, 2021 in Baldwin. Barca was one of almost 70 students who participated in the Polar Pop (which replaced the polar plunge this year due to COVID-era precautions) to raise about $8,000 – the most funds raised of all the schools in Pennsylvania – for the Special Olympics of PA. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
A woman and her dog nap between rain showers at Schenley Park Tuesday, May 4, 2021 in Pittsburgh. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
Students hang about on the Cathedral of Learning lawn on the University of Pittsburgh campus under spring blooming trees Tuesday, Mar. 23, 2021 in Pittsburgh. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
After a morning of remote school work on Feb. 17, Finn Tiernan, 11, takes a practice shot on a backyard ice rink in Castle Shannon. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
North Side neighbors Diana Nelson-Jones and Barbara Talerico cheer after Joe Biden is sworn in as President of the United States during an informal gathering to observe the inauguration ceremonies at the corner of Reseca Place and Eloise Street Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021 in Pittsburgh. (Pam Panchak/Post-Gazette)
Andrew Rush
Fog settles above the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex early in the morning on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021, in Potter Township, Beaver County. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
A tractor working on clearing leaves crosses the recently opened Ridge Ave. bridge on the North Side over train tracks on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Daniel Palmiere, an Allegheny County employee who lives in McKeesport, leads a group of Allegheny County employees protesting against the county vaccine mandate outside the Allegheny County Courthouse on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, Downtown. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Flooding along Noblestown Rd. and Highland Ave S. from the remnants of Hurricane Ida on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, in Oakdale. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
The final moments of a partial solar eclipse photographed over the US Steel Building in Downtown Pittsburgh on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Steam from the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant is reflected in the Ohio River as Miss Kate, an Industry Terminal & Salvage towboat, heads up river towards Pittsburgh on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Industry. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Fog envelopes Downtown Pittsburgh and the surrounding valleys on Monday, April 19, 2021, Downtown. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Shelly Sommers, left, hugs Heather Johnson, of UPMC, after receiving her vaccine during a clinic hosted by UPMC and the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday, April 1, 2021, in Uptown. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Gavriel Levy, of Oakland, prays during the daily morning prayer service at Shaare Torah on Friday, March 19, 2021, in Squirrel Hill. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
An aerial view of the neighborhood of Lawrenceville, with a row of houses on 46th St. in the foreground on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Alexandra Wimley
Talyah Jeter, a graduate of the Barack Obama Academy of International Studies, waits for the commencement ceremony to begin, Sunday, June 13, 2021, at the Petersen Events Center in Oakland. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Mayor-elect Ed Gainey speaks surrounded by supporters at his election night event at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, Downtown, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Before a ceremony in Schenley Park on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, to commemorate three years since the deadly attack at Tree of Life synagogue, Paramedic Justin Sypolt, of Westwood, one of the first emergency responders to enter after the shooting, embraces Dan Leger of Squirrel Hill, who was among those wounded. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Elizabeth Tatomir, of Mercer, confronts an anti-abortion protester during a rally and march organized by Women’s March Pittsburgh as part of a national day of action to protest restrictions on reproductive rights, Saturday, October 2, 2021, Downtown Pittsburgh. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Crew members of the Navy’s USS Somerset wait for the beginning of the luminaria ceremony to honor the passengers and crew members of Flight 93, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021, at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown. Forty candle lanterns were placed below the names of the victims on the Wall of Names at the memorial by family, guests, and National Park Service staff. The USS Somerset is named after Somerset County as a tribute to the passengers who died on Flight 93. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Brooke Decker, left, of Marshall, an infectious diseases and critical care physician, argues with Dana Gibson, right, of McCandless, about Ms. Gibson’s opposition to a mask mandate for students, while Everlee Craddock, of Baden, looks on, before the North Allegheny School District school board regarding the district’s mask policy, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021, at at North Allegheny Senior High School in McCandless. Two days before this a federal judge reinstated a mask mandate after a group of parents filed an injunction to require masks. Previously, the school board voted to overturn the superintendent’s decision to require masks, making them optional for everyone. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Vice President Kamala Harris laughs after speaking to Stella Quatrini, lower right, during an event to speak about the child tax credit at Brookline Memorial Recreation Center in Brookline, Monday, June 21, 2021. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Hannah Casto, 17, a Brashear High School graduate who will be attending Robert Morris University in the fall, stands through the sunroof of her car to watch the program during the “Promise Senior Signing Day” drive-in event to honor graduating seniors and celebrate their post-graduation plans hosted by the Pittsburgh Promise, Saturday, May 22, 2021, on the North Shore. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Linda Zeigler, a nurse with St. Clair Health, administers the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Anita Murphy, 12, of Brookline, at a clinic organized by St. Clair Health and the Carnegie Boys and Girls Club to vaccinate youth ages 12 and older, Saturday, May 15, 2021, in Carnegie. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
Ritsu Shimizu, center, of Allegheny West, reacts in excitement as she prepares to receive her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from Juanita Early, left, of Cranberry, a nurse with Allegheny Health Network, at a clinic run by Allegheny Health Network at PNC Park, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021, on the North Shore. “It’s a good day. It’s a really good day,” Ms. Shimizu said after receiving the shot. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)
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