Bruce’s top picks
The “Gazette’s” staff photographer, Bruce Ackerman, shares some powerful photos from 2025.
People become emotional as they hold candles during a prayer and candlelight vigil for 18-year-old Shannon Rushing at the Miracle Deliverance Center on NW Old Blitchton Road in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. Rushing, a senior at Forest High School, was killed Monday, Oct. 27, after being struck by a car while walking to her bus stop on the dark roadway, a block away from the church. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2025.
From in-depth reporting on the care of inmates at the Marion County Jail to a raging fire that wiped out Tizwhiz Feed and Hay in Reddick to children happily being adopted, emotions were high in 2025 in Marion County.
And capturing those emotions — and the history of our community — is the job of “Gazette” staff photographer Bruce Ackerman.
Ackerman got an early start in his career when a relative gave him a toy camera when he was around 2 years old. He soon pleaded for a “real” camera, which he received at about the age of 3 ½. And he’s been shooting photos ever since.
He got his professional start while a student at the University of Richmond in Virginia, honing his chops shooting for the UPI and AP wire services as well as newspapers in the area. He was a staff photographer for the “Ocala Star-Banner” for about 30 years, until he came to the “Gazette” in 2019.
Ackerman has earned numerous awards over the years, including from the Florida Press Association, Florida Society of News Editors, Florida Press Club and National Press Photographers Association.
“I’m very passionate about my work, and I’m also very competitive,” he said.
“It’s a real honor for me to have my recent work displayed in this week’s edition,” he added. “The year 2025 was a great one for photos!”
“Bruce Ackerman’s photographs do more than capture moments, they record the living history of Marion County. In a media landscape increasingly dominated by freelancers and regional coverage stretched thin, Bruce remains, to my knowledge, the only full-time news photojournalist devoted exclusively to Marion County. That distinction matters,” said “Ocala Gazette” publisher Jennifer Hunt Murty.
“The true weight of Bruce’s work often lies beyond what the viewer first sees. A photograph may feel self-explanatory today — a fire scene, a protest, a grieving family — but history is unforgiving to images without context. Bruce approaches every photograph, no matter how small the assignment may seem in the moment, with the discipline of a historian. He writes detailed cutlines identifying names, dates, places and circumstances and embeds the data in the photo file. That meticulous work may feel tedious now, but it is essential. Fifty years from now, when someone opens an archive searching to understand who we were and how we lived, those words will give the image meaning,” Murty added.
“That belief in preservation is why the ‘Ocala Gazette’ met with Florida’s state archivist recently and made the decision to start the process of donating our photographs to the State Archives of Florida, placing them in the public domain,” Murty noted. “We believe our journalism belongs to Marion County and that Bruce’s work should be protected, accessible and understood long after today’s news cycle fades. These photographs are not just images; they are a gift to future generations. Thanks to Bruce’s commitment, they won’t have to guess at what they are seeing: they will know.”
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