— Photo by Steve Ocomor
Jahniah Kim, left, is presented with a $500 check by Paul Stewart who, with his wife, Mary Liz Stewart, founded the Underground Railroad Education Center in Albany. Kim was the top of three winners — Nikolai Roschko and Laura Kordowski were the others — in a photography contest memorializing the early career photography work of the Stewarts’ son, Daniel Michael Stewart, who died in a 2020 traffic accident in Oregon. Daniel, a graduate of Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School, was an adventure motorcyclist who completed a cross-country trip before his death; he had provided photography services to the center, which explores the story of the Underground Railroad and ties it to contemporary issues. “My photography started with my family documenting my family and community,” said Kim, who notes she wants to communicate the “empathy, the humanness of the West Hill community” where she lives and grew up.