For this edition, we asked staff and contributors to submit photos featuring community, from cuddling cats to the place where they found a sense of belonging.
Kyra Reilley, Multimedia Editor
Marchers in the 2025 Labor Day Parade went up 5th Avenue and past Central Park, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders holding a “Power in Unity” banner with the crowd. Workers, union members and New Yorkers alike held up signs as they represented their unions on their t-shirts.
Selin Kemiktarak, Deputy News Editor
Istanbul, Turkey is known for its stray animals. This photo depicts a family of cats on Bağdat Avenue, resting under the winter sun.
Kiran Komanduri, Sports Editor
Nothing says community to me more than friendship bracelets. From the Eras Tour — where it all started — to a Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles, I’ve collected dozens of bracelets from people all around the world. Sitting in a hotel room in Philadelphia before our first Taylor Swift concert, my sisters and I spent hours making bracelets to trade. Some from that first batch made it all the way to London and California, carried who-knows-where by their recipients after the show.
Meera Gupta, Video Editor
A mixed media photograph created by overlaying a physical ribbon onto an image, representing the “invisible thread” theory that people are somehow connected in many ways. The photograph is of construction workers on my father’s job site, a symbol of their labor and work connecting them together.
Alisia Houghtaling, Editor-at-Large
A Central Park afternoon on July 18, 2025. A family friend had flown in to visit me and I took this as we walked through the park after leaving the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It also happened to be my childhood best friend’s birthday, and I gave her a call while we were walking.
Krish Dev, Digital Director
When taking photos for WSN’s spring 2024 Under The Arch magazine issue, “The Dinner Party, Redefined,” I sought to capture commensality: the sense of community that blooms when people come together around a shared table.
Neil Tawney, Photo Editor
During my first few months at NYU, I found community in the strangers I walked past on my daily Washington Square Park strolls.
Natalie Deoragh, Deputy News Editor
Joined by our family and church, I snapped a picture of my parents holding my baby brother after his christening in 2013.
Lauren Ng, Managing Editor
As a young macaque in Ichikawa steals hearts around the world, I’m reminded of the snow macaques that reside elsewhere in Japan. During the winter of 2019, I visited Jigokudani Monkey Park in Nagano, where a community of macaques — including this parent-child duo — cling to one another while tourists flock to snap striking photos, like this one.
Alex Woodworth, Multimedia Editor
The 4th of July parade in Cheboygan, Michigan, featured a large group marching against Trump and his proposed cuts to social services. This group was met with almost universal cheers from the crowd, a surprising moment in a county that had voted for Trump by a 2-1 ratio in 2024.
Contact the Multimedia desk at [email protected].
Neil Tawney • Feb 23, 2026 at 4:14 pm
WOW! Great pics everyone!!