First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerAjaunae, 8, returns to her home in Westwood on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, after making dreamcatchers with her sisters at an after-school art program. Two weeks before Christmas, Ajaunae's mom, Page Berry, returned home from work to find an eviction notice taped to her door. Cincinnati has one of the largest per capita populations of renters in America among big cities, with renters accounting for 62% of all households. Like Page, almost half are considered burdened renters because they spend at least 30% of their income on housing.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerPage Berry, 27, drops off her three daughters at school in Northside on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, after working the third shift at the airport. Before the girls leave the car, Berry asks, “What are we going to do today?” They reply in unison, “Be great! And do great things!”
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerPage Berry helps her three daughters Angelina, 7, Ajaunae, 8, and Amariyonna, 9, with their homework in the girls' bedroom in their basement apartment in Westwood on Tuesday, February 4, 2020. About 88,000 Cincinnatians – almost 1 of 3 city residents – are in danger of losing the roofs over their heads every month. And every year, about 4,500 are forced out by eviction.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerAmariyonna measures Ajaunae's height on the doorframe of the bedroom of their Westwood apartment on Wednesday, February 26, 2020. The girls have been making their growth with a blue marker for months.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerPage Berry makes dinner with the help of her daughter Ajaunae, 8, in their Westwood apartment on Tuesday, February 4, 2020. Page works at the airport, moving freight on the tarmac throughout the night. She makes an extra dollar an hour by working the third shift. Page makes $17 an hour, more than she's ever made in her life, but as a single mom and only provider for her daughters, some months, it isn't enough. When she gets off work in the morning, she takes her daughters to school and then comes home for a nap. Page picks up the girls in the afternoon, helps them with homework, and makes dinner. Before she goes back to work, she drops her daughters off at her stepmom's house to sleep. This is her routine Sunday through Thursday.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerA "Bless Our Home" sign decorates the top of the stove in Page Berry's home in Westwood on Tuesday, February 4, 2020. Page takes a lot of pride in decorating her apartment. She wants the basement apartment to feel like home for her daughters.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerAmariyonna, 9, prays before eating dinner with her sisters and mom in their apartment in Westwood on Tuesday, February 4, 2020.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerAmariyonna, 9, brushes her teeth in the bathroom with her sisters on Wednesday, February 26, 2020. “This is not where I want to be,” Page Berry told herself before signing the lease in January 2019. “This is where I got to be.” The apartment building’s security door didn’t lock and the light in the hallway didn’t work. The kitchen sink leaked and the ceiling over the shower was in the early stages of collapse.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerAngelina, 7, puts toothpaste on her toothbrush while her sisters brush their teeth in the bathroom on Wednesday, February 26, 2020.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerAmariyonna, 9, hugs her mom Page Berry before Berry leaves her Westwood apartment to go to work moving freight on a rainy airport tarmac on Wednesday, February 26, 2020. Page is working with Legal Aid to fight her eviction. She has been evicted before, years ago, and never forgot what it was like to be without a home. She now keeps a mental checklist of where she and the girls might go if it happened again. It’s why she usually makes the car payment a top priority. If they have to, they can always sleep in the Camry.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerAngelina, 7, snuggles her cat, Bobo, before bedtime on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 in Westwood. Page Berry's daughters have asked for a pet for years. She could finally get the 4-month-old kitten because the apartment complex didn't charge for pets.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerThe lights outside Page Berry's apartment complex glow on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 in Westwood.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerKindergartner Khloe Chotrow practices her coloring in Mrs. Haas's class at Three Rivers School Elementary in Cleves on Friday, September 4, 2020. For the first week of school, students wore masks to match their new backpacks. They knew to wait at the door for their teacher to check their temperature. They talked to their classmates through plastic partitions that divided the desks.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerJack Mueller uses a homemade ultraviolet light to clean his funeral home between services on Saturday, July 18, 2020, in Mason, Ohio. Early in the pandemic, visitations and services were not permitted. The Mueller Funeral had to adapt. They used chairs and tape to indicate where people can stand in line during a visitation for proper social distancing. Posted signs read, "Masks are required. Refrain from hugging."
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerPortraits of judges are adorned with homemade masks at Warren Commons Pleas Court in Lebanon on Thursday, April 16, 2020.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerA procession of vehicles passes the hearse carrying Bob James in front of Elder High School on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, in West Price Hill. James, 77, died on April 6, 2020. His family could not have a funeral because of the pandemic and arranged for a drive-thru visitation and parade to honor his life. James graduated from Elder in 1960. Craig James, his son, said, "He wanted to be able to pass by Elder on his way home." Hundreds of cars drove to pay their final respects. Dozens of businesses along the route honored James with signs. The James family has been heavily involved at Elder and in their athletic program for decades.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerSavannah Scott, 18, stands in the front of her home in Westwood on Thursday, April 2, 2020. She is a senior at Dater High School and a class officer. Scott has been excited about prom and graduation for years, but the milestone events are now unlikely to happen with the pandemic. She said, "I just miss the whole school environment."
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerDonna Kinney blows bubbles on her balcony with her neighbor Adam, 4, on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 in O’Bryonville. Kinney is a cancer survivor who lives alone. She’s determined to stay in touch with the outside world, even if she can’t leave her apartment during the pandemic. “Being on that balcony every night gives me a feeling of freedom and more normalcy,” said Kinney, “but I never really appreciated that balcony till now.”
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerChef Josh Helms grates Pecorino cheese over the whole wheat tonnarelli with rapini pesto at The Baker's Table in Newport, Kentucky, on Wednesday, January 8, 2019.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerA foul ball lands between the empty eats during the sixth inning of the day game between The Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates con Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerCardboard cutouts of fans line the seats down the first-base line in the night baseball game between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates, Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Reds won 9-4.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerCincinnati Reds pinch hitter Tyler Stephenson celebrates with his teammates after hitting a two-run home run to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 during the day game on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerNoha Eyada prays with her children Yahia, 19, and Yusuf, 8, at their home in Mason after watching the call to prayer from the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati in West Chester on Friday, March 20, 2020. The mosque is closed due to the pandemic.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerCongregation members of the Lindenwald Baptist Church wave their hands outside their car windows as they sing along with the musicians at the drive-in church service in the parking lot behind Lindenwald Baptist Church on Sunday, March 22, 2020 in Fairfield.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerThousands of protesters prepare to march on Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, June 7, 2020. This is the tenth day of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerPresident Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, answer a question simultaneously during the first Presidential debate at the Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday, September 29, 2020.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerRick Smith, a precinct official, fixes his Uncle Sam hat outside the Warren County Board of Elections in Lebanon, Ohio on Tuesday, April 28, 2020.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerPatrons at The Blind Pig watch the results of election at the bar between sheets of plastic in downtown Cincinnati on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerThousands of protesters march north on Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine on Sunday, June 7, 2020. It was the tenth day of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a police officer's knee. After George Floyd's death in late May, protests and civil unrest unfolded across the country.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerWillie Coman kneels with his son, Willie Jr., 4, on Sunday, May 31, 2020, during the protests in Cincinnati in response to George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. He said, "The police are killing us, and we have babies." Willie was proud to bring his son to see the large crowds protesting against police brutality. "He is the next generation. When I say 'Hands up,' my son immediately replies, 'Don't shoot.' That's what he knows." Willie and his family left before the tear gas dispersed the crowd.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerCincinnati Police officers walk in formation on McMicken Street in Over-the-Rhine after the 8 p.m. curfew on Monday, June 1, 2020. This was the fourth night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. When it was past the 8 p.m. curfew, protesters ran to avoid getting arrested, but many were caught and detained. They sat on the sidewalk with their hands zip-tied behind their backs, waiting to be processed and transported.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerSancheaux leads a chant on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati on Monday, June 1, 2020. This is the fourth night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerProtesters walk on Main Street past an armored police vehicle outside the Hamilton County Courthouse in downtown Cincinnati on Monday, June 1, 2020. This is the fourth night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerThousands gather to protest racial injustices and police brutality on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, June 7, 2020. This is the tenth day of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerA protester gestures to an armored police vehicle after Hamilton County Sheriff Deputies use tear gas on a large crowd of protesters outside the Hamilton County Courthouse in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, May 31, 2020. This is the third night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerHamilton County Sheriff Deputies respond to protesters with tear gas outside the Hamilton County Courthouse in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, May 31, 2020. This is the third night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerA protester throws tear gas away from the crowd gathered outside the Hamilton County Courthouse in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, May 31, 2020. This is the third night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerCincinnati Police Officers arrest protesters on McMicken Street in Over-the-Rhine after the 8 p.m. curfew on Monday, June 1, 2020. This is the fourth night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerProtesters kneel in Clymer Alley with their hands up as police officers surround them after the 9 p.m. curfew in Over-the-Rhine on Sunday, May 31, 2020. This is the third night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. More than 100 people were arrested in violation of the curfew. Metro buses transported the protesters to the Hamilton County Justice Center. Many protesters complained that they were held overnight outside without food, water, or access to bathrooms.
First Place, George S. Smallsreed Jr. Photographer of the Year - Large Market - Meg Vogel / The Cincinnati EnquirerProtesters embrace before being arrested on Green Street in Over-the-Rhine on Sunday, May 31, 2020. This is the third night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
