Anna Ponomarev and her mother Elena pose for a portrait at Ceasar's Bay where Elena walks routinely on November 6, 2019. Elena enjoys this bay, "I was born near the Black Sea it reminds me of home down here," she said. Elena will spend that hour of walking clearing her head, enjoying the weather or people watching as a break from the day-to-day.
In the summer of 2002 her son Nikolai fell from a 10th-floor balcony at a friend’s apartment.He fractured his skull and died instantly. He was 20 years old. “My heart was broken,” Ms. Ponomarev said. “I lost that feeling that everything is going to be O.K.” Life at home became unbearable. Ms. Ponomarev and her husband developed depression and anxiety. She took about three months off work, and he felt an overwhelming sense of survivor’s guilt — he blamed himself for Nikolai’s death. “He was so depressed,” Ms. Ponomarev said. “He couldn’t eat.”
Dilainy Inoa-Reynoso, 20, is working to overcome the various challenges she faces as a young adult aging out of foster care while pursuing higher education. Inoa-Reynoso has always wanted to become a pediatric oncologist, but bringing her dream to fruition has not been easy for a number of reasons. Ms. Inoa-Reynoso immigrated to the United States in 2004 from the Dominican Republic to join her father in New York. However, the relationship soured between the two when Ms. Inoa-Reynoso was 16, which resulted in her placement in foster care. She developed a close relationship with her foster mother, Rosa Santana, who motivated her to do better in school.
Royah Nunez, 27, poses for a portrait. Nunez is homeless, works six days a week as a dog trainer, leaving at the crack of dawn to visit clients around the tristate area. She loves her job and is not merely dreaming of starting her own dog-training business, but actively planning for it. She's cultivating clients and educating herself. After a long history of physical violence in her home. Her father a violent man, Nunez and sister were frequent recipients of his attacks. Late last year, her father saw her holding hands with her girlfriend over the surveillance cameras that he had installed all over their property. He attacked her with a knife, aiming for her face, but she caught the blade with her hand injuring her and kicked her out of their home.
Karla Stroble of Louisville watches as racehorses take the field at the 143rd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6, 2017, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Evelyn Rodriguez, poses for a portrait near a memorial for her murdered daughter, Kayla Cuevas on February 16, 2018 in Brentwood, NY. Rodriguez is suing Brentwood High School for $110 million for not doing more for her daughter's safety.
Lyn Ruess takes a moment for herself during trial preparation for an upcoming murder and arson case in a workroom she set up near her office in the Public Defenders office in Farmington. Ruess has been a public defender for over 20 years, first in the city then in the rural county of St. Francois, Missouri. Due to Ruess's high level of experience for a public defender she deals with mostly Murders, Felony A,B cases as well as Sexual Assault cases. The most time consuming cases for a public defender include Murders 106.6 hours, Felony A/B 47.6 hours, and Sex Felony 63.8 hours according to The American Bar Association (ABA). Ruess is currently carrying 106 case with two murder cases.
William Francis Pepper poses for a portrait in his home office on March 25, 2018 in Harlem, NY. Pepper believes that there was a conspiracy in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis as James Earl Ray lacked the skill and bankroll to pull it off. Mr. Pepper is supported in his theory by Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. King. She was 5 when he was killed.
Eleanor Williams, 52, poses for a portrait in her Connecticut home. Williams's 3-month-old daughter, April, was kidnapped when a 18-year-old Williams stopped at a bus stop at the old Trailways station and a stranger offered to change her baby for her. Williams has been tortured by this mistake she made as a teenager for all these years. The DC police are now taking another look at the cold case, but there's little evidence and little chance of ever finding April.
“I got all kinds, and all colors. I got charcoal, green, rust, I got colors I can’t even name. Anytime I put on a suit the shoes match.” Thomas Brown, 62, of Vinegrove, said outside State Street Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Ky. Brown regularly drives over an hour from Vinegrove to worship at State Street Baptist Church.
Leandra Feliz, the mother of slain teenager Lesandro ‘Junior’ Guzman Feliz poses for a portrait just blocks from where her son was stabbed to death.