Favorite Female Community Photographer

Just three years ago, photographer Nora Dayton (she/her) picked up her camera to capture a local community gathering for the first time. Since then, she has become a leading voice behind the lens, documenting Houston’s most significant social and political movements.

Her recent work includes capturing Pride Houston 365’s 2025 parade and festival in downtown, the No Kings Rally and March at Houston City Hall, and the congressional redistricting hearing at the University of Houston. This powerful body of work has earned Dayton the title of this year’s Gayest & Greatest Favorite Female Community Photographer.

“It’s humbling to be seen, and it’s an honor to feel that I’m touching people’s lives in some way,” says Dayton on winning the award. “Even if it’s in just some small way, it means that people are seeing and appreciating my work and that it’s left a positive impression on them. That’s what I really want—to put something out there that makes people feel good.”

Dayton, who works in software development, moved to Houston’s Montrose neighborhood from New Jersey in 2019 after her wife landed a job at the University of Houston’s medical school. “The Montrose area was an environment where it felt like there wasn’t judgment,” she says. “My experience in the area was just a greater diversity of people, and I think that helped me figure myself out.”

After social-distancing restrictions had eased in 2022, she decided to attend an in-person event hosted by the social organization Trans & Gender Queer Houston (TGQH). “I had virtual support groups,” she says, “but that was my first time getting out into the community and meeting other people.”

Dayton soon became friends with TGQH founder Meghan Fairbanks and began photographing the organization’s events. “I got a lot of positive feedback from that very quickly,” she remembers. “The second time I took photos at a TGQH event, I got some good photos, and one of them is still the banner on the group’s Facebook. It kind of just went from there.”

In addition to TGQH, some of the groups Dayton is passionate about and has photographed are the human-rights organizations Equality Texas, 50501 Houston, and Triple A Alliance. She was also the lead photographer during Pride Houston 365’s 2025 season, capturing its major events such as the grand-marshal reception, Rock the Runway, and the Pride festival and parade.

At a time when Texas’s LGBTQ community—and particularly trans Texans—face relentless political and social attacks, Dayton’s images depict queer joy and resistance. She says this work is therapeutic for her. “When things are really down or feeling bad, I think to myself, ‘I want to put something beautiful into the world.’”

She says another important part of her work has been her ability to help people connect with each other. “There was a school teacher who shared that they were starting the school year in a conservative district, so they were hesitant to share much about themselves. After the teacher’s co-workers saw some photos online that Dayton had taken of the teacher at events, their colleagues reached out and said they wanted to get involved in similar causes.

“That’s been some of the most meaningful stuff—seeing people I took photos of use those photos as their profile pictures on social media,” Dayton says. “That feels good to me, because I gave someone a photo where they felt good about how they saw themselves.”

For more information, visit noradayton.com.