Aryana Noroozi

This year’s Black Voice News (BVN) and IE Voice Year in Photos provides a window into an array of vibrant moments that unfolded across the Inland Empire in 2024. 

Photographer Aryana Noroozi, a valued corps member of Report for America and CatchLight Local NewsFellow who joined our team in 2022, formed partnerships with community members to capture their stories featured in Black Voice News and the IE Voice. In partnership with CatchLight, Aryana used visuals to document and celebrate the resilience of the communities in the Inland Empire.

In this third edition of the annual BVN and IE Voice Year in Photos report, BVN continues to build a  visual archive, and showcase a unique range of community members experiencing, celebrating, uplifting and fighting for equity and justice on issues that show up in and impact the Inland Empire. 

As 2025 begins, Black Voice News and IE Voice express appreciation for your ongoing support and feedback. Together, BVN looks forward to growing the visual archive and providing meaningful snapshots of the Inland Empire community.

A Bloomington resident wears a traditional Mexican dress as she rides her horse at the David Jayne Equestrian Arena where residents finished a march protesting the development of the Bloomington Business Park Specific Plan on September 18, 2022. Warehouse developments have continued to vastly expand across the Inland Empire region and in Bloomington where the community’s unique lifestyle of Mexican ranch culture faces an ongoing threat from these developments as they encroach on the undeveloped plots of land. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News / CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Carolina Verduzco (right) and her daughters Saori Castillo, 10, (left) and Sophia Castillo, 15, (center) pose for a portrait at the David Jayne Equestrian Arena after a march in protest of the Bloomington Business Park on September 18, 2022. Verduzco says that she is not against the logistics industry but rather the reckless way that it came into her community and is an outlier in her beliefs about sitting down with developers to discuss meeting the needs of the community. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News / CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Beverly and John Knippel sit by the pool at their Bloomington home with their dogs on February 8, 2023. “Virtually everybody involved in this [selling their homes] was planning on being there until they died. So a lot of us had to make a pretty heavy decision. And then we had to face everybody else who would then come up in all these [community] meetings, saying that we were traitors,” John said. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News / CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Members of the rapidly growing construction workers union, Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) show their support for the Bloomington Business Park Specific Plan at the San Bernardino County Planning Commission meeting on September 22, 2022.  At the end of the meeting, the Planning Commision voted to move the project ahead to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, which unanimously approved the project in November 2022. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News / CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Dominique poses for a portrait outside of the encampment where she lives and is receiving treatment from the Healthcare in Action Street Medicine team in San Bernardino on May 1, 2024. Dominique is seven months pregnant. Before receiving care from Healthcare in Action, Dominique recalled having to wait hours for a blood test at a clinic earlier in the week. Part of the success of Healthcare in Action is providing services by meeting people where they are. This includes providing onsite lab work and tests, which are typically out of reach for unhoused communities due to lack of access to transportation to clinics, wait times and internet access to receive results. (Aryana Noroozi for CatchLight Local / Black Voice News)

Published here.

Maria Lopez and Daisun Cohn-Williams pose for a portrait in Culver City on June 14, 2024. As both mixed-race individuals, the couple bonds over their shared experiences as well as differences in their upbringings. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News/CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Redbone poses for a portrait beside his dog in his encampment in Riverside on July 11, 2024. He has lived on the streets for the past 13 years and says the heat increases every year, forcing him to adapt. As heat waves swathe Southern California, the Inland Empire’s homeless population faces increasing health risks. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News/ CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Ron Clayton uses his inhaler in the motel where he lives in San Bernardino on June 17, 2024. Ron suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (CPOD), injured joints, heart problems and dental needs. His history with experiencing homelessness creates many barriers for him in accessing healthcare as he grapples with multiple health challenges that have been exacerbated from over fifteen years of living on the streets. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News / CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Dr. Shamus Sheridan gives Briana Rice a chiropractic adjustment in his office at Sheridan Chiropractic Inc. in Riverside County on March 22, 2024. In December 2021, Rice, 38, was on her way home from work when she was rear-ended by a semi-truck. She suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI), a spinal injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News/ Catchlight Local)

Published here. 

Lisa Matus poses for a portrait with Bump, her late son Richard’s favorite childhood stuffed animal in her home on June 30, 2023. Richard Matus Jr., 29, was one of seven people whose deaths were listed as accidental drug overdoses by the Riverside County Coroner’s Office among the 19 people who died in custody in 2022. A single father, he talked to his daughter everyday and was defending himself in his case. His family says he would never knowingly take drugs. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News / CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Nena removes dog fur from Adam’s clothing before they enter the Larson Justice Center for his court hearing on January 23, 2024. Adam has been arrested three times as of Spring 2021— which he claims were illegal — leaving him traumatized. He says his ongoing interaction with the criminal justice system has greatly affected his mental health. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News / CatchLight Local)

Published here.

A staff member chats with lunch-goers before the meal is served at the senior nutrition lunch program held by the Family Service Association (FSA) every weekday at the Moreno Valley Senior Center on October 6, 2024. FSA serves meals to approximately 90 seniors here each day which contributes to an average of 450 meals served daily across Riverside County through the weekly lunch program, along with approximately 850 meals served each day across San Bernardino County through the program. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News/ CatchLight Local)

Published here. 

Attendees pose for a photo at the state of the Black IE event at the Moreno Valley Conference Center on October 5, 2024 in Moreno Valley. The second annual event, held by the California Legislative Black Caucus in partnership with the California Black Freedom Fund, focuses on educating and uplifting the Black community through sharing presentations about data, advocacy, resources, roadblocks, and voter education. (Aryana for Black Voice News/CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Dancers perform at the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) during its 120th year anniversary, in San Bernardino on July 14, 2024. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News/ CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Crystal Foster, 52, and her son Tyler Foster, 28, pose for a portrait in their home in Corona on October 16, 2024. When Crystal was 25 years old she gave birth to Tyler in a traumatic pregnancy. Tyler, who has cerebral palsy and developmental delay, did not come home from the hospital until he was a year old. For eight years, Tyler was very ill and required a ventilator among other machines. During that time, Crystal says she was on autopilot and lived in a state of panic. One of the hardest things for Crystal was accepting that there was no alternative to the situation, but has found comfort to see how the small things make Tyler so happy, so he is happy every single day. She says the best part of caretaking is that seeing how Tyler can be happy and okay everyday then she can be too. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News/ CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Sisters Delnita Brown, 55, (right) and Le’Era Boyd, 44, (left) share a moment outside of their home in Riverside on October 9, 2024. Brown has been caretaking for various family members and outside clients for over 28 years. For the past 19 years she has been the caretaker of her Boyd. After becoming pregnant, Boyd moved in with Brown 19 years ago. After giving birth, Boyd suffered neurological and other complications from her existing disability. Shortly after, Brown officially became Boyd’s caretaker, helping her raise her son who is now 19 and attending college. Brown says she encourages her sister and supports her to be independent and a mother to her son. “I look at her and I know where she came from,” Brown said, adding that one of the most rewarding parts of caretaking is seeing her sister’s success. (Aryana Noroozi for Black Voice News/ CatchLight Local)

Published here.

Black Voice News photojournalist Aryana Noroozi was born in San Diego, California and graduated with a master’s degree from The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Her love for visual storytelling led her to document immigrant and deportee communities and those struggling with addiction. She was a 2020 Pulitzer Center Crisis Reporting Fellow and a GroundTruth Project Migration Fellow. She is currently a CatchLight/Report for America corps member employed by Black Voice News. You can learn more about her at aryananoroozi.com. You can email her at aryana@blackvoicenews.com.