In the last year, the Banner’s photo staff and freelancers made thousands of images marking the countless hours that people spent opening their lives to us.

We were there for big state and citywide moments: the last days of longstanding spaces of worship, the elation of political victory, a solar eclipse and the collapse of the Key Bridge.

Our photojournalists showed the effects of the ongoing overdose epidemic on our neighbors, took us through another exciting Preakness, found the awe of the natural world and followed the Ravens and Orioles through wins and defeats.

But we also witnessed personal moments of heartbreak and hope, the joy of love and the many ways we collectively grieve.

As we look back on 2024, there are many moments we’re grateful to have shared with our communities in Baltimore and beyond — below are just a few we kept coming back to.

Midshipmen celebrate their May graduation from the Naval Academy in Annapolis by throwing their hats.

In June, Donna Bruce waved praise flags through newly renamed Devon Wellington’s Way, after her son who died of an overdose.

More than 150 people swam in the Inner Harbor in June.

Lincoln University point guard Reggie Hudson celebrates after the team’s win against Claflin University in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball semifinals in March.

Rocksann Smith was a captain for the Baltimore City College Knights varsity baseball team. It took Smith, an 18-year-old senior, years to feel comfortable in the sport.

Baltimore artist Joyce J. Scott at her retrospective exhibition, “Walk a Mile in My Dreams,” at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March.

Natty Boh glows again over Baltimore more than two years after the Brewers Hill sign stopped functioning.

The wreckage of the Key Bridge collapse, seen behind the Domino Sugar factory in April.

Dozens of current and former colleagues, friends and family, as well as the students, joined a celebration to honor Lothian Elementary School custodian Louis Watkins for his 51 years of service.

Baltimore’s annual Día de los Muertos parade and festival at Patterson Park.

Dancers perform at the Frederick Hispanic Heritage Festival in October.

Celeste Amato and Steve Stricklin, who met and fell in love while working for city government, outside of Baltimore’s City Hall after getting married there in November.

Minnie Styles celebrated her 102nd birthday alongside four other centenarians at FutureCare Lochearn.

Father Martin Demek prepares for the second-to-last Sunday Mass at the Corpus Christi Church in Baltimore in November.

In October, several dozen people lined the Prettyboy Reservoir Dam as the aurora borealis lit up the sky.

Orioles infielder Tyler Nevin signs a baseball for a young fan after the O’s won a Grapefruit League game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in February.

Robert Hardy, star of the play “Marty and the Hands That Could,” at Arena Players Incorporated, the theater where he took his first steps into acting before moving to Los Angeles.

Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers walks off the field after the team lost its home opener against the Las Vegas Raiders in September.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River after a cargo ship leaving the Port of Baltimore struck a key support holding up the bridge in March, killing six people.

Baker Larry Desantis was one of the last drivers to make it across the Francis Scott Key Bridge before it collapsed behind him.

The Perdue Agribusiness plant is a highly visible part of the landscape in Salisbury. Community members are grappling with the discovery of PFAS “forever chemicals” in the groundwater surrounding Perdue’s soybean processing plant.

John Heizer played the Sunday service at the historic Zion Church of the City of Baltimore for the last time, taking his seat at the pipe organ on the upper level of the sanctuary, a perch he occupied for 50 years.

In December, tall stacks of lumber acted as fuel for a wind-driven fire unlike any the Baltimore fire chief had ever seen in the city’s Woodberry neighborhood. The large fire was centered at Camp Small, where the city recycles felled trees into lumber products, near where southbound Interstate 83 exits onto West Cold Spring Lane.

Johns Hopkins University students and protestors held a “die-in” on the steps of Gilman Hall in May. Pro-Palestinian protesters camped out for nearly two weeks, demanding the school cut ties with the Department of Defense, which awards billions to a Hopkins research lab.

Matt Levin, a pro-Israel demonstrator, shouts at pro-Palestine demonstrators outside the George Howard government building in Ellicott City in February. The Howard County Council voted no to a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, 3-1, with one member absent.

Ramona Setherley brings flowers to the rowhome where her son, Bruce, was discovered dead from an overdose in Baltimore.

Mariela Hernandez’s husband, Alejandro, was the foreman of the construction crew filling potholes on the Key Bridge on March 26. She remembers the last kiss from her him as he left for his job that day.

Stephanie Gerhold, right, who teaches multilingual learners at Woodlawn Middle School, was chosen as Baltimore County’s Teacher of the Year out of 171 nominees.

Canton resident Marie Aponte set up a hammock in Patterson Park to view the eclipse in April.

In June, distance swimmer Katie Pumphrey completed a historic swim of more than 24 miles from Sandy Point State Park near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Harborplace Amphitheater at the Inner Harbor.

A family plays with sparklers atop Federal Hill Park before fireworks begin over the Inner Harbor in July.

JoAnn Dowery thanks a longtime mail customer in the Ten Hills neighborhood during the final mail route of her over 30-year career with the U.S. Postal Service.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott celebrates with his family after winning the Democratic primary for mayor in May.

Angela Alsobrooks, joined onstage by her daughter, Alex, makes history as Maryland’s first Black senator in November.

Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy gets a kiss from his 2-year-old daughter, Giamanna, before the Ravens host the Buffalo Bills at M&T Bank Stadium.

A Ruby-crowned kinglet chases an insect during a birding trip to Hart-Miller Island with the Maryland Environmental Service.

Ravens running back Justice Hill celebrates with tight end Mark Andrews after catching a touchdown pass in a game against the Bills.

Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta walks a rescue dog down the runway during the 10th annual Pawject Runway, an adoption event, fundraiser and pet fashion show hosted by Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.

Aave Blue performs in the VIP car during B&O Railroad Museum’s Ridin’ the Rails: Pride Train and Party in June.

Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson races the ball to second base in a game against the San Francisco Giants at Camden Yards.

Former Gov. Larry Hogan walks offstage after losing a race for Senate against Angela Alsobrooks.

Ravens linebacker Yvandy Rigby slides through a water drill during the team’s training camp in Owings Mills.

A Ravens cheerleader soars through the air during a sideline routine in a preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons at M&T Bank Stadium.

Orioles pitcher Cade Povich bounces a ball against the wall during spring training in February.

The dark, rainy weather didn’t deter the crowds who flocked to the All Things Go Music Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in September.

John Brown III, a College Park legend who also chaired the Maryland Stadium Authority, died at 77. Brown could often be found sitting in the corner of the bar, especially during happy hour, drinking a glass of wine. His favorite seat was right below a street sign hung on the wall: John Brown Road.

Eric Lovelace, 6, blows up a balloon to honor Breaunna Cormley, 12, who was shot and killed in July. More than 50 community members held a vigil to honor Cormley’s life — and prevent anything like this tragedy from happening again.

KIPP Harmony Academy teacher Avonshae Rounds uses a practice called culturally responsive teaching to engage her kindergarteners. Maryland officials say that teaching method isn't being used enough across the state.

Roxanne Pattillo outside St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Baltimore. St. Gregory is among nearly a dozen predominantly Black churches set to close under an Archdiocese of Baltimore reorganization plan.

Guests sing with the choir during the final regular Mass at St. Ann’s Church in November. St. Ann’s is one of several predominantly Black Catholic parishes in Baltimore that is closing and being folded into others.

Seize the Grey, ridden by jockey Jaime Torres, wins the 149th Preakness Stakes in May.

Tiffany G. was a sixth grader attending Greater Grace Christian Academy in the late 1990s when she was first abused. She got a tattoo of Greater Grace Church in flames, a visual symbol of the metaphor “burn it all down.”

From left, Donny Yau, his daughters Mara Jade and Jaina, Benny Yau and Eric Lam practice music at USJGMA in Columbia. The art of lion dancing bonded three generations of Chinese American families.

Union members with the International Longshoremen’s Association and Local 333 went on strike outside the Dundalk Marine Terminal in October to fight the automation of port work and low wages.

Polluting industries have punctuated the Curtis Bay area for over a century. Coal dust is just one of the many pollutants in the air. Angie Shaneyfelt and her two daughters have developed asthma over the years living in Curtis Bay.

Royal Jackson, 4, watches people gathered outside Hope Village, a community of tiny houses in East Baltimore for unhoused families, during the opening ceremony.