I came to realize my neighbors were nothing but empty houses. Homes over an extended grassy lot piled high with a diverse collection of belongings — from furniture and books to anniversary gifts. It has been over three years since I found these homes, and only recently, in my quarantined state, has my curiosity grown. Encapsulated in a single photo, a wooden plaque with white, hand-painted letters reading “HAPPY ANNIVERSARY” remains a nagging mystery. Dated 1980, the center of the plaque held two horseshoes, each painted with a couple’s name. Beside it, inside a plastic sleeve, a card dedicated to them with a pressed — now unrecognizable — flower and a four-leaf clover. …

Maine’s fragmented coast offers a plethora of islands, towns, and attractions. Still, one parcel of land stands out with its surprising background: Bailey Island harbors centuries of fascinating history with its own name going through numerous iterations. The island’s original Algonquian name, issued by the Abenaki tribe, was Newaggin. William Black, a first-generation free black man, was the first settler to assume squatters’ rights to Newaggin in 1758; this ownership is officially acknowledged in Harpswell’s Act of Incorporation in January 1758 as “Will’s Island.” William Black, formerly known as Black Will Jr., was multiracial: his father, Black Will, had an affair with a white woman and had a child with her. When his father’s owner, Nicholas Shapleigh of York, passed away, his widow manumitted Black Will. This freedom, shortly after William’s birth in 1699, made his son a freeman. Going off information gathered by Bette Bailey Behanna on Richard Wescott’s, A History of Harpswell, Maine, William Black, similar to his father, married a white woman and had children. Unlike his father, William’s marriage resulted in his incarceration due to a Massachusetts law barring interracial marriages — Maine was a part of Massachusetts until 1820. After his release, he moved to Newaggin with his family — that is, until Reverend Timothy Bailey bought the island for an undisclosed sum. This transaction likely occurred with a deed (dated 1771) in which William Black bought land in Little Sebascodegan Island — also known as Beals Cove Point — from Joseph Orr for one hundred seventy-two pounds, sixteen shillings; around $31,000 by today’s standards. William purchased additional acreage for thirty-five pounds, nine shillings, and four pence, equating to $6,500 today. The two deeds show that William was no pauper. …

“It was the first inanimate object I had a moment with,” said Wayne “W.K.” Binger as he leaned over Lucy, his 201–2 Singer sewing machine. Lucy rests atop a wooden sewing table in front of a Lucy Ricardo mural–an association, Wayne explained, that came after he spontaneously named her. As a man, he mentioned, he thought he could clean and buff the machine as he could his Mercedes-Benz, but his “man” approach resulted in the erasure of the intricate gold decals that contoured the cast iron plate. With dramatic fashion, he recalled his disbelief by exclaiming “Oh baby!”, …

A photograph is intriguing, not from how a subject is composed or portrayed, but because of a photographer’s ability to impose emotion in a fleeting moment. Photography is emotionally driven work and reflects the photographer’s subconscious; it is not exclusively an act of capturing images to document moments.

With the technological boom of the 21st century, public accessibility to cameras — such as mobile devices — has ensured the rise of personal photography and created an oversaturation of the quantity of photos we digest daily. The quality of these photos is extremely varied and holds a vastly different weight in the viewers’ visual stimulation. Social services such as Instagram, a photo-sharing platform for mobile phones, contribute to our daily interaction with photos. According to Instagram’s official site, there are over one billion active users using the service. The images shared on Instagram are frequently modified to appeal to its algorithm which increases the poster’s impressions or viewership — represented as “likes”. …

I am deeply disturbed by the events that unfolded on the 5th of August, and the progression of the protests in Hong Kong since the break-in at the LegCo building. As an American, I admit the bias towards the push for a democratic and independent Hong Kong, but I am upset at the growing string of violent behavior. The police’s excessive use of force has been inexcusable but matching that violence with more violence achieves nothing.

Protestors should not insult those who choose to work instead of protest, not all people have that luxury, nor should they have blocked roads, the MTR, and other modes of transportation. The behavior has endangered and upset the lives of many Hong Kongers, effectively alienating themselves, and sacrificing any possibility to achieve their goals of universal suffrage. This was in part aided by the lack of a centralized voice and vision that has split the protestors into various camps, each fit with their own ideologies and protesting methods. …

“Along with the rise of Xi Jinping, and the desire of Hong Kongers for democracy, the Central Government has already started bringing authoritarian governance to Hong Kong,” a Standing Committee Member of Demosistō, the pro-democracy party, told me. He is referring to the political changes in Hong Kong’s governance due to the impending merger with China in the next couple of decades. Like many, he is concerned that a way of life and cultural identity is under threat by the looming superpower touching Hong Kong’s northern border.

Twenty-one years have passed since Hong Kong became a part of China — an event recently celebrated by the territory for its two-decade anniversary in 2017. Hong Kong since then has spent years constructing its identity in a post-colonial era. In under 30 years, Hong Kong will go through another identity crisis as it veers into a second dramatic cultural shift. …