editorial | anya elise

Colorado is my first love. This state is not just the setting for my life story (thus far), it is a central character. It is the backdrop and a main tenet. I feel like I know Colorado like I would know a beloved relative, someone who shares my heritage and my blood. But I cannot even begin to claim to know this land like those who have spent their lives actively working it.

Two weeks ago I ventured into the eastern part of Colorado for a story with the Denver Post local section. My destination: A century-plus year old farm in Strasburg. An arm of the state had recognized this property as one of its Colorado Centennial Farms, not a small feat when the parameters of such an accomplishment are considered.

↣ The farm must be owned by the same family continuously for at least 100 years.

↣ The farm must still be a full-fledged working farm.

↣ The farm must be at least 160 acres in size.

There are nearly 500 farms that have been granted this title since the program began in 1986. Only six in Adams County, which is where I headed in mid-September to meet Ray “Stubby” Schmidt.

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August 2, 2015 by Anya Elise

face masks and crab claws || photojournalism

I slowly switched my cameras from one shoulder to the next and tried not to drop them as I donned a gown. Then I swirled my hair into a net and pulled cloth booties over my shoes. Finally, I secured a mask around my face, looping elastic around each ear. I was about to enter a sterile room where lab technicians prepared excess donor breast milk to benefit infants in need all over the world. (Click that link there to read the full article.) I was on assignment for the local section of the Denver Post. I would cover two more stories by day’s end. Not an uncommon day in the life of a newspaper photographer.

It’s been quite a while since I have shared a selection of recent photos that I’ve made while touring around the Denver metro area. As such, it seemed I was rather overdue on pulling together an edit from the past few months of editorial coverage. So here you are at long last. (OK, I just checked, and except for the 2014 Year in Review post I shared in December, I haven’t put together one of these edits in nearly a full year. Yikes!)

Sha Ronda Wilson, a lab technician, processes donor milk at Mothers’ Milk Bank on July 15, 2015, in Arvada, Colorado. Mothers’ Milk Bank, a nonprofit that collects and distributes excess donor milk, moved to Arvada in June. It has been in operation for 31 years and is aiming to provide 1 million ounces of donor milk by 2017.

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January 19, 2015 by Anya Elise

in review || 2014 YourHub photos

We are nearly twenty days into the shiny new year of 2015. And here for you I present (finally), a little review of the photos I shot for YourHub in 2014. Better late than never. It’s a Monday, so let’s be glass-half-full kind of people and say, at least we haven’t greeted the month of February already! (Is anyone shocked by my tardiness on this cause though? It’s not like we haven’t seen this before.)

I was talking with a colleague last week about YourHub, and my position as a photographer who spends her days working on the hyper-local level of journalism. It isn’t always glamorous in the way I think some people envision this line of work must be, and the stories don’t always get the flashy attention treatment that we see pop up on all our varied social outlets day after day. But in all honesty, that is what I love about my job. There is tremendous authenticity with the people I meet. They are eager to share their stories, to play a part, to make a difference, to live in these communities they cherish. And I cherish the small role I get to play in their lives.

To see a broader edit of photos both I and my partner, Seth McConnell, shot in 2014, visit our full “best of” gallery. Thanks, all.

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August 20, 2014 by Anya Elise

wedding dresses and the county fair || yourhub photojournalism

Summer in Colorado takes us outside quite a bit. You can’t ignore 300(-plus!) days of sunshine and not fully embrace it in the super-sunny summer. Also, summer is the season for county fairs. And as YourHub is the community/county department at the Denver Post, we can’t very well not go visit with some county-fair-bound animals and their handlers.

Because cows trying to be escape artists. And little baby goats getting their first baths. What more can you want in the summer?

It’s been a little (OK, long) while since I’ve pulled together a good sampling of what I’ve been shooting on the editorial side, so this crew of photos is pulled from the past month or so of assignments.

August is already threatening to wind down, school is kicking back into gear, we’re dreaming more and more of our autumn days and the cooler temperatures that accompany them. But it’s been a good season. Perhaps too much work and not enough play in our summer, but we’re heading to San Francisco — for a whole blessed week of vacation — next week. And that will be pretty darn divine.

High fives to the lot of you! –a.e.

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July 28, 2014 by Anya Elise

Muriel and Jesse || photojournalism

Muriel and Jesse Wright, 93 and 94 respectively at the time I shot this photo, pose for a portrait in their home in Littleton on February 12, 2014. Not long before taking this photo, the Wrights had been recognized by the Worldwide Marriage Encounter organization as being the longest-married couple living in Colorado. They were married on Aug. 2, 1940.

Their grandson, Jeff, nominated them for the “longest-married couple” award, and helped arrange a time for myself and Joe Vaccarelli, one of the YourHub reporters, to come interview and photograph them and learn about their lives together. They were lovely. When they first started dating, Jesse had one of Muriel’s friends run recon, and make sure she was interested in him. When she agreed to go on a date, he picked her up in his brother’s borrowed car and off they went to a basketball game. Said Muriel about the longevity of their relationship, “I don’t think there’s any secret…. We get along pretty good. We have our ups and downs, nothing is perfect, but we’ve never really had any problems that we couldn’t sit down and talk about.”

Nine days before their 74th anniversary — that is, this past Thursday, July 24 — Jesse passed away peacefully in his sleep.

This portrait isn’t the best photo ever to be made, but as I read an email from Jeff, who notified Joe (who forwarded the message on to me) of his grandfather’s passing, it reminded me of the great privilege we have as journalists. We are invited into the homes and lives of so many people. We are entrusted with their stories to share with the wider community. They give us their faith to be true to that story.

Sometimes I can take it for granted that each of the photos I make mean something to someone. Maybe they aren’t the grand stories of international import that flood our senses, but they are meaningful to the people involved. And I think the same can be said of all the small interactions each of us encounters every single day. From making a really fantastic cappuccino for a customer, to painting a mural on the side of a building, to singing an operatic tune that always makes my heart alight, to writing a fine essay or organizing library books on a shelf so a child can find just the right tale to inspire their adventures. Each of these gestures are vital to another person, they impact someone else. They can make all the difference.

It was an honor to meet the Wrights. It’s an honor to do what I do. I hope you each feel the same about the service you bring to your own communities.

Rest in peace, Jesse.