Monterey County is filled with such interesting people. The Monterey County Weekly highlighted the diverse and interesting stories of those people this year.
Here are the top portraits of 2024 from Weekly staff photographer Daniel Dreifuss.
“Media Literacy Week serves as an opportunity to promote essential skills, ensuring students are prepared to be informed, responsible and engaged digital citizens,” Monterey County Superintendent of Schools Deneen Guss says. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Ghostland festival organizers (left to right) Stephan Sams, Ashleigh Thrasher, Aarom Claudio and Amanda Ausonil. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni is recruiting for 12 attorney vacancies in her office. “This is sort of like taking a sledgehammer instead of a surgical, strategic approach,” she said. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Attorney Jeannette Witten serves as Managing Partner of Hudson Martin PC. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Kora Sambrano holds a photo of her granddaughter Priscilla Hernandez. In 2011, 2-year-old Priscilla was murdered and the man convicted has been granted parole after serving 13 years in prison. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Samuel Anaya-Alvarez learned how to swim as an adult and is now a very committed and masterful swimmer, who spends many hours in the Monterey Bay, and is now training to cross the English Channel. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Solstice in Big Sur. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Anthony Mondragon, who grew up in Monterey and lives in Seaside, is the great-grandson of the last native speaker of the Mutsun language. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Local actor Max Troia was cast in the Birdemic series, dubbed by critics as “one of the worst films of all time,” but he identifies with the message about climate change. Daniel Dreifuss▲
“Fun” is a word Chef Goran Basarov uses often to describe both the dining vibe and the work atmosphere he likes to create. Yet he remains serious when it comes to quality. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Carmel High School senior Amy Allen (pictured in shadow) suffered emotionally and academically after a sextape was released against her will her sophomore year. “It’s been long enough that I am not so weighed down by it anymore,” she says. DANIEL DREIFUSS▲
"What she said helped...with just freeing my mind,” a ninth-grader at Palma School in Salinas wrote after a lesson from longtime poet and educator Patrice Vecchione. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Wendi Kirby introduced her new album Wings on March 16. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Monterey County’s poet laureate Rachelle Escamilla. DANIEL DREIFUSS▲
Steve Packer has been CEO of CHOMP for 25 years, seeing many changes in healthcare over the years. DANIEL DREIFUSS▲
Miguel A. Hernandez, who began kindergarten in Fresno as a monolingual Spanish speaker, never dreamed he would write a book in English. He also dreaded public speaking as a child. He’s since represented some 5,000 clients in criminal court. DANIEL DREIFUSS▲
Julie Harvey in the studio of her Carmel Valley home, with one of her detailed and whimsical paintings of animals. She studied fine art in England and Canada, all the while working toward becoming an animator. After her animation career, she and her husband Maurice Harvey, also an artist, moved to Carmel Valley to focus on fine art again. Daniel Dreifuss▲
Dr. David Craig Wright has small laboratory in a former yoga studio in downtown Pacific Grove, where the infectious disease specialist is making cutting-edge discoveries. Daniel Dreifuss▲