Stephanie Strasburg
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stephstrasburg.bsky.social
Stephanie Strasburg
@stephstrasburg.bsky.social
Pittsburgh-based photojournalist for nonprofit newsroom PublicSource, covering people, politics, news, culture & change in America's Rust Belt. Mucks about in the gray areas, professionally staring too long at things.

stephaniestrasburgphoto.com
This year’s Nov 15 winter shelter opening in PGH comes as homelessness is rising amid ongoing efforts to reduce tent encampments, especially in Downtown. Longtime observers of homelessness see positive & negative impacts of the decommissionings: www.publicsource.org/allegheny-co... @publicsource.org
Winter shelter to open amid high unhoused numbers, lower tent count
Allegheny County will reopen a winter homeless shelter on Pittsburgh’s North Side, providing 140 beds, as estimates of unsheltered population rise above 300.
www.publicsource.org
November 14, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Amid rising need & tighter eligibility rules, PA orgs providing medical & supportive services to low-income people w/ HIV are facing budget shortfalls & greater limits on life sustaining drug assistance. Important story via @venuri.bsky.social @publicsource.org www.publicsource.org/hiv-aids-pro...
Cuts in funds for HIV services threaten medication access, outreach
The Pennsylvania Department of Health will cut 25% of funding to the Part B of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program amid rising need and tighter eligibility rules.
www.publicsource.org
November 12, 2025 at 3:03 PM
An @apnews.com photo of a Louvre mystery man set off a photography debate newsrooms should be watching:

"...the best way for users to know if an image like this is authentic is for the A.P. to say, 'We know the photographer who took this — this is a real image.'"
🎁: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/s...
Is This Dapper Man Going to Crack the Louvre Heist Case?
www.nytimes.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:05 PM
As Pennsylvania’s budget impasse passes the 100-day mark, rape crisis centers are struggling to maintain services and worry that continued financial strain could erode critical support for more than 26,000 survivors a year, one-third of whom are children.
www.instagram.com/p/DP4KcQ_kSP...
October 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Stephanie Strasburg
Some fantastic photos from Quinn Glabicki and @stephstrasburg.bsky.social featured here.
Kickflips and clubbing in Oakland; snakes and sparring in southern Pittsburgh. Our photographers visited Oakland and Brookline, Carrick and Overbrook and printed what they saw in zines. Find them around the neighborhoods! buff.ly/4UUxVDQ
October 15, 2025 at 1:26 PM
As a photojournalist for over a decade now (eep), I've been in a lot of homes around the Pittsburgh region. With its Star Trek stained glass windows, built-in enclosures for his therapy snakes, and a workshop for constructing his bug-out vehicle, Vint's may take the cake as the most eclectic. 1/2
October 7, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Stephanie Strasburg
Hot off the presses and ready to hit the streets — two new zines for our Oakland neighbors and our neighbors in Brookline, Carrick and Overbrook. @stephstrasburg.bsky.social even built a reading nook to celebrate!
October 6, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Two Sundays ago in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood... hanging out with the Pitt climbing club, with Mario, at The Corner's Steelers watch party, and the Schenley Plaza carousel. Looking forward to sharing a community project featuring stories on Oakland's four neighborhoods soon! @publicsource.org
October 1, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Today in PGH: Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

The screening, which tells Renaud's story through his final footage in Ukraine, is followed by a Q&A session w/ filmmakers & journalists, who will discuss journalist safety in today's media landscape.

www.backyarddocs.com
Backyard Docs
www.backyarddocs.com
September 26, 2025 at 3:02 PM
“This decision will cost lives, derail progress in global health & strip millions of people of the basic tools they need to plan their families and protect their health.”

The $10 million in destroyed contraception had been purchased for women in low-income countries. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...
$10 Million in Contraceptives Have Been Destroyed on Orders From Trump Officials
www.nytimes.com
September 12, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Stephanie Strasburg
Speech on campus — in the form of research, classroom instruction or student activism — has rarely been more fraught. If Academic Freedom has influenced your life, please tell us how. We may share it with readers next week. www.publicsource.org/academic-fre...
What has Academic Freedom meant to you?
Share your input on academic freedom in higher ed — the freedom to research, publish and discuss relevant issues without censorship.
www.publicsource.org
September 11, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Working from Blawnox, PA today, which made me think of photographing late bluegrass legend Mac Martin here at the Starlite Lounge before his 2015 retirement. I'll never forget the way he talked about his wife and his life, just a pure peace and energy of love about him.
September 5, 2025 at 3:41 PM
"Elliott Erwitt, a Magnum photographer, said that contact sheets should be kept 'as private as conversations with a psychiatrist... A contact sheet lays bare the action of an entire shoot..." whether over a min., an hr, a day.

Gift article for my fellow photo nerds: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/a...
The Analog Allure of Photographers’ Contact Sheets
www.nytimes.com
September 2, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Steelmaking deaths like the 2 this month at U.S. Steel’s Clairton plant were once almost routine.

Now, deadly explosions are big news, but construction/transport jobs are bigger killers.

A look at the worker safety landscape, then & now: www.publicsource.org/clairton-cok... @publicsource.org
Fatal explosions are big news, but construction, transportation jobs are now bigger killers
The Clairton Coke Works explosion killed 2 and injured 10. The tragedy highlights progress and lingering risks in U.S. workplace safety.
www.publicsource.org
August 29, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Treble NLS suggested we return to the place where he was handcuffed in the midst of a mental health crisis for portraits for @venuri.bsky.social's story on how involuntary ‘302’ hospitalizations fall more heavily on Black patients. Trusting his vision, I met him at the edge of the Mon Wharf. 🧵
August 28, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Can't get over this photo: Steelworkers in a Greek restaurant in Aliquippa, PA. Jan. 1941.
📸 by Jack Delano, part of the Farm Security Administration collection at the Library of Congress.

(Anyone know how the FSA photographers would light their photos back in the day? Realizing so many are lit...)
August 26, 2025 at 5:19 AM
The number of students without permanent housing is rising. A mobile classroom motors around the Pittsburgh region to bridge learning gaps caused by housing insecurity. Thanks to the Homeless Children’s Education Fund for letting us ride along. www.publicsource.org/winnies-wago... @publicsource.org
Winnie’s Wagon delivers kids’ science experiments to shelters and sidewalks
This mobile classroom crosses Allegheny County to turn sidewalks into schools, helping a growing number of kids with unstable housing to learn and dream.
www.publicsource.org
August 19, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Photos from scene: Rescuers were continuing to search for one missing worker at the Clairton Coke Works hours after mid-morning explosions rocked the Mon Valley plant. The blasts killed one person and injured 10.  www.publicsource.org/us-steel-cla... @publicsource.org @chwolfson.bsky.social
August 11, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Activists pitched tents outside Second Avenue Commons to protest the latest Pittsburgh encampment closure last night. Advocates and outreach workers say the closings mask the true problems as they attempt to support a growing unhoused population.
www.publicsource.org/allegheny-co...
Activists pitch tents outside Downtown shelter, saying repeated encampment closures thwart their outreach
Outreach workers say repeated clearings, like Friday's sweep by Second Avenue Commons, disrupt efforts to help Allegheny County’s unhoused.
www.publicsource.org
August 8, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Stephanie Strasburg
“I’m calling to express my gratitude … ” Messages like these bolster our work to share inspiring stories in a media landscape often dominated by disempowering coverage. buff.ly/H2eTR6a
Redefining our mission to deepen journalism and empathy for the Pittsburgh region
Behind Public Source’s mission and commitment to inform and inspire the Pittsburgh region with deep, independent journalism.
www.publicsource.org
August 6, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Stephanie Strasburg
Local housing justice advocates gathered on July 28 to commemorate the mass displacement of Penn Plaza residents. Photojournalist @stephstrasburg.bsky.social was on the scene to document their calls for affordable housing in Pittsburgh. buff.ly/Tg1ZJJA
July 29, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Study: Many Allegheny County psych hospitalizations do more harm than good. Researchers found a trail of violence, overdose and suicide where stabilization and healing had been the goal. By @venuri.bsky.social / @publicsource.org
www.publicsource.org/mental-healt... #mentalhealth
Study: Many Allegheny County psych hospitalizations do more harm than good
Involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations — when they’re judgment calls by doctors — can lead to the kinds of harm they are intended to prevent, per a study of Allegheny County data.
www.publicsource.org
July 28, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Stephanie Strasburg
Following CMU's restrictions on an iconic free speech monument, students built a new one under the cover of darkness. buff.ly/fCAnvPc
In midnight move, CMU students roll in new fence to protest closure of free speech icon
Under the cover of darkness, CMU students erected a new ‘fence’ to demonstrate free speech after university leadership restricted a mainstay of student expression.
www.publicsource.org
July 21, 2025 at 5:38 PM
As midnight struck last night, about 10 students rolled a wooden fence in the glow of a red stoplight to Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus. They wheeled the fence to the CMU president’s office & rammed the pieces together with the butt of a pickaxe. (1 of 2 for @publicsource.org)
July 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Pittsburgh Police tussle w/ protesters as people leave an energy & AI summit at CMU. Trump’s visit & boasts of surging development come after he has sparred with higher ed institutions over funding, diversity and international students. More at @publicsource.org www.publicsource.org/trump-mccorm...
July 15, 2025 at 11:15 PM