A graduate of Syracuse University, Amy Sweeney was working various newspaper gigs and as a freelancer for the Associated Press in Boston when former GDT staff photographer Jim Mahoney saw her work and urged her to apply to the Gloucester Daily Times. She began working at the paper on July 11, 1985. In the 1980s, all newsroom staff at the GDT were required to live on Cape Ann, so Sweeney “reluctantly” moved to Gloucester. She quickly fell in love with both Cape Ann and the newspaper. In early 1991, after almost six years at the GDT, with a second child on the way, Sweeney entered into a “job-share” at Gloucester’s sister paper, Beverly Times, with a photographer who was in a similar situation. Following her work in Beverly, Sweeney went on to become the photo editor of the Salem News and later director of photography for the North of Boston Media Group / Eagle Tribune, a position she held until 2018. 

Gloucester, MA 1985. Delores Pearl, right, Fiore Masse, center and Jody Plagden, left, work away during a painting class at Good Harbor Beach”

Gloucester, MA 1985. Children watch a little league baseball game between the Pirates and the Yankees at Stan Boudreau Field.

Gloucester, MA 1985. People enjoy the day on a sailboat.

Gloucester, MA 1985. Cape Pond Ice.

Gloucester, MA 1986. Artist Theresa Bernstein.

Gloucester, MA 1987. Candidate Brian Broad, center, was stunned when a tie vote for the Ward 5 City Council seat was announced at City Council on Nov. 3. Broad eventually won the seat over John Bjorle in a recount

Gloucester, MA 1989. Streetwork.

Gloucester, MA 1990. School children goof around.

Gloucester, MA 1990. Eric Worth near the sewer-outfall rig Zeus, a “Texas Tower” rig that was involved with extension of Gloucester’s sewer outfall pipe offshore around 1990. Before that, the treatment plant dumped directly into harbor, through the notorious “bubbler.”