This is a recurring column by Daily Item Creative Director Spenser Hasak, featuring and discussing his favorite photos of the month.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but somehow the snow has melted and there are little glimpses of spring popping up if you know where to look. March flew by, and while I’ll miss the snow, I’m ready to shed some of my winter layers and bask in the warmth of the sun. As I write this, it’s raining and below 40, so to distract myself from that I’ll continue writing about my pics of the month.
1) Basketball is one of my favorite sports to cover for the paper; it’s basically non-stop action and there are some phenomenal teams in our coverage area to photograph. I found myself at the Tsongas Center a few weeks ago photographing the St. Mary’s boys basketball team as they took on my alma mater, Masconomet, in the MIAA Division 2 State Championship game. As a journalist, I’m supposed to remain unbiased; I’m there to photograph the action and emotion, win or lose. But when you’ve been covering a team all season, it’s hard not to get a little invested in them. I didn’t care much for sports when I was in high school, so my favoritism definitely leaned toward St. Mary’s over Masco. The game was intense, each team was trading points, and it was winding down to the final seconds. I was vibrating with anticipation; the Spartans had just gone up by a point with six seconds left on the clock and Masco set to inbound the ball. I raised my camera and saw a flurry of strong defensive moves from St. Mary’s and then the buzzer rang out, leaving me to capture the first moments of joy, with Rowan Merryman taking the spotlight.
2) One of the best things about covering the North Shore is realizing how connected everything is. I was photographing Rowan Merryman and the Spartans’ win on Friday, and I was meeting with his mom, Christy, on Monday for a feature on her life. Christy Merryman runs Lynnerati, which provides prom dresses and Halloween costumes to kids in the community at no cost to them. Lynn, and all of the communities we cover, have some incredible people doing incredible things to help others and it’s such a privilege that I get to use my photography to shine a spotlight on it. I had the idea for this portrait as I was driving to meet Christy, and I was so glad she was up for it when I pitched it to her. The colors and textures surrounding her, I thought, perfectly captured the bright mood of the story.
3) This photo just ran in the paper, but I liked it so much that I had to give it another run. I had the opportunity to photograph the Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Stage One group as they performed their rendition of “A View from the Bridge.” It was an absolutely incredible performance. I was blown away. So much so that I occasionally found myself lowering my cameras just so I could take in the performance. Stage One’s production was recognized by the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival this past weekend, where Myles Fitzgerald was awarded Excellence in Acting for his role as Eddie, Matheus Muniz was awarded Excellence in Acting for his role as Marco, and Nathalia Sandaire and Kadence Sarat received Technical Excellence in Dramaturgy. As soon as the lights hit the stage, revealing the mirrors, I knew I had to have some shots that focused on the actors’ interaction with the mirrors, and knowing Fitzgerald’s award, it was my goal to have a shot of him with the mirrors. That moment came toward the end of the production, with the dramatic lighting silhouetting Fitzgerald and the mirror highlighting the expressions on Eddie’s face as he grappled with the decisions he had made. It was the exact image I was hoping for.
4) I’ve loved covering the Greek flag raising at Peabody City Hall in the past because the students of St. Vasilios Greek School always come dressed in traditional clothing and it makes for a great visual representation of the story. It was a little overwhelming at first. The speaking portion had been moved into the foyer because it was cold outside, but I quickly honed in on Dionysios Diamantopoulos as he wandered around. He stole the show as Mayor Ted Bettencourt read out a proclamation, even trading his small Greek flag for a much larger one to wave around.
5) My final pic of the month is reserved for Anotonio Gutierrez, the co-founder and co-executive director of Lynn Youth Street Outreach Advocacy (LYSOA), which is a non-profit that provides relief to distressed and unprivileged youth in Lynn, Massachusetts, and to combat juvenile delinquency. Covering LYSOA’s annual is always an emotional evening, between hearing testimony from youths who have gone through the program to the people recognized, there’s rarely a dry eye in the room. But then, something happened that I never thought I would document for the Item. Anyone who knows Gutierrez knows he wears a strict uniform of jeans, his advocate vest, and most importantly, his New York Yankees hat. That all changed when he was presented with a Boston Red Sox hat by the McCarriston Family, who had just received the 2026 Above & Beyond Award. After some considerable peer pressure from the McCarristons and crowd, the switch was made, and here is likely the only printed evidence of the brief moment taking place.
