Gary Kessler – Ryan Conlon is a resident of Mt. Airy who co-owns Honeysuckle Removal with his wife, Karly.
Creative Third Pictures – Founders connect and learn from experts at Nitro! Bootcamp 2023.
Natalie Grilli – Art and mentoring are part of the Guidlng Light after-school program in the West End neighborhood.
Steve Aust – Every Thursday, the Center opens its doors for Pub Night, with live music and ample Guinness on tap. On this particular evening, a traditional Irish session, a fluctuating group of 8 to 14 string and woodwind players, performs traditional music.
Joe Simon – The Harris Avenue tunnel could be a neighborhood connector in the Norwood plan.
Steve Aust – Woody Dorsey, Everybody’s Records owner and a 30-year store veteran, first lured into music by watching a televised Johnny Cash performance, poses with an album of the Man in Black’s work.
Joe Simon – Heavy traffic congestion and periodic flooding in Mt. Lookout Square are among the issues that concern Mt. Lookout Community Council member Brian Spitler.
Fourthwall Youth Studios – Greater Cincinnati nonprofit organization, Cincinnati Black Theatre Company, is addressing gun violence on a community level with its “Shoot With a Camera” project featured in Soapbox’s Amplifying Youth Voices series.
Joe Simon – Helen Smith moved her upholstery shop from Northside to Lockland.
Natalie Grilli – A pop-up word game in Washington Park to build vocabulary.
Wes Battoclette – Jen Levin’s light sculpture, Phronesis, creates a focal point on the library’s exterior plaza.
Joe Simon – Metro’s infrastructure fund has helped pay for improvements on Miami Avenue in Madeira.
Fourthwall Youth Studios – Adventure Crew youth at Greenacres Equine Center, part of Soapbox’s Amplifying Youth Voices series.
Jessica Bozsan – Guests and panelists mix and mingle at the July 18th Covington Creates event at Scribble Park in Covington.
Joe Simon – Mariemont’s Village Square is the town center.
Fourthwall Youth Studios – Adventure Crew youth during the annual Paddlefest event on the Ohio River as part of Soapbox’s Amplifying Youth Voices series.
Jason Bechtel – Star Flatten’em is the team’s public relations director and a jammer.
Jim Vennemeyer – The Polka Warriors enjoy a night of playing together at Arnold’s Bar and Grill downtown.
Provided – James Fisher, founder of Lost Hospitality.
Ty Wright for ArtsVote Ohio – Renowned street artist Shepard Fairey installs his get-out-the-vote artwork.
Joe Simon – Frisch’s Mainliner restaurant was a Fairfax landmark.
Melvin Grier – Photojournalist Melvin Grier stopped on his way to another shoot when he saw this scene. Two farmers bedeviled by a broken-down tractor had hitched the machine to a pair of horses to get it moving. “It was too perfect,” Grier says.
Joe Simon – Greenhills firefighter Joe Knight. Greenhills is moving from all-volunteer to paid firefighters.
Joe Simon – Simon Kenton High, Independence, Ky., 1937
Provided – Mt. Echo picnic shelter
Soapbox retrospective from last year’s archives. 43 remarkable photos published throughout our 16th year of local reporting.
Much has been written about “news fatigue” in the last few years. As a digital news publication covering underreported and underrepresented local people, places and things, we encourage you to flip through this photo archive to view the world “as we saw it” in 2024. While Soapbox doesn’t recommend consciously avoiding or tuning out the news all together, try curating the news to keep informed with vital journalism that is moving communities forward. Look beyond politics, sports, scandal, crime and weather, and you’ll find remarkable stories often going untold.
Photo selections are from 2024 regular Soapbox photographers Joe Simon, Natalie Grilli and Gary Kessler, plus the team from Fourthwall Youth Studios, along with other talented local and national photographers with great eyes who captured significant moments in real time from around the region.
Use the slider above to view the favorite 18 mastheads and the slider below to flip through 25 feature images.
If you are not a regular subscriber and enjoyed this story, sign up to receive a free eNewsletter in your inbox each week. Soapbox restarts a regular publishing schedule beginning January 14, 2025.
Patrice Watson joined Soapbox in 2016 as publisher and added the managing editor role in 2021. Her offline career includes Cincinnati Magazine publisher, 700WLW-AM account manager, consulting for small businesses, nonprofits and radio/TV stations, and GSM at country radio B105-FM. When not producing Soapbox, find her spending time with family and friends, practicing yoga and TM, walking, listening to music, gardening, cooking, reading, traveling, and working on improving her golf game.
While MCF reflects on role in the community’s revitalization, they continue to meet the complex challenges that await all communities in the 21st century.
