Favorite Fifteen of 2024

St. Joe, ND

2025 is here and naturally a lot of us are reflecting on the previous year. I made a lot of pictures in 2024, and like most honest photographers, the majority are bad, or at best, mediocre. But I did make quite a few I do really like, and these fifteen are perhaps my favorite for the year. The photos presented here will go in roughly chronological order (except for the image above). Here’s hoping 2025 will be even more productive!

My friend and co-author Joel Jensen at Russell Springs, Kansas. We were doing research for a follow-up article about railroads in Kansas to the one published early this year in the National Railway Historical Society’s magazine The Bulletin. At This was the location of the depot at Russell Springs that served the Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma Railroad, which only existed from 1911 to 1918. Part of the foundation can be seen at the right.

Clayton getting a backyard hair cut in Lindsborg, Kansas.

Carol taking in the view of the Flint Hills from the old townsite of Teterville, KS (near Cassoday). I ran into Carol and her daughter at a roadside information kiosk east of Cassoday, they were looking for some interesting places to take photos at sunset, so I guided them to a few locations I had scouted on a previous day. Carol was nice enough to let me take her photo.

Herman Kulla, the oldest resident of my hometown of Kensal, ND. Herman is now 100 years of age but you wouldn’t guess it based on how active he remains. Herman is a marine veteran of World War II and ran a bar in Kensal for over 40 years. I was able to photograph him during the annual Memorial Day ceremony the American Legion puts on in Kensal.

Collin Mertz cleaning out a grain bin on his family farm near Hurdsfield, ND. This was an outtake from an article I photographed for the Wall Street Journal about the widening political gap between young men and young women. This was a nice assignment to get as I only had to travel 18 miles from home rather than what’s usually over 100.

Vern fishing north of Tuttle, ND. On a whim I drove out to this lake on the off chance I might find someone to photograph. Usually it doesn’t work out but on this day it did as Vern was there fishing. He was really happy to have a conversation and didn’t even mind if I took his photo. It turns out Vern is a bit of a local legend in the area, most everyone knows him, and he spends a lot of time working with young people either teaching them about fishing or teaching his trade, welding.

Bronc riding at the Ranch Rodeo at the Oliver County Fair in Center, ND. This was an outtake from an article I photographed for Bloomberg Businessweek about a plan to store carbon underground in western North Dakota. The article was written by Adam Willis and gives a nuanced look at what is actually a pretty complex subject. One of the companies involved, Summit Carbon Solutions, is a sponsor of the Oliver County Fair, which is why I was there to photograph it.

Bethel Lutheran Church near Heimdal, ND. You could say this picture was inspired by Todd Hido’s work, maybe stolen from Todd Hido would be a better description! This was one of those insane summer storms that pass through the plains that create intense, otherworldly colors and amazing clouds. No this image is not straight out of camera, but what it looked like in reality was very close to how I processed the image.

Sherry Furcht, who had to close her pharmacy in Bismarck, ND, in 2022, due in part to pressure from pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. I photographed Sherry as part of an article in the New York Times about how PBMs are driving independent pharmacies out of business and creating “pharmacy deserts.”

Emma and the town cat, Lost Springs, Wyoming. This photo was made on part of a two week trip through the Great Plains (Great Plains Rambling….get it?). Lost Springs is a pretty neat town. Unfortunately the bar had closed since the last time I was there but a little antique store is still going. By chance it was open because the owner of the store and Emma’s family are related. In fact the entire citizenry of the town was present in the store, all three of them. With myself and Emma’s family we actually outnumbered the people of Lost Springs! I tried to convince the three citizens of town to gather for a picture but could only wrangle 2/3 of them. That picture wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped for but immediately after the group dispersed this cat wandered in and Emma lingered behind to pet the cat, resulting in this picture. Some of the best photojournalists advise the best photos are before and after an event, it pays to come early and stay late. This was completely true in this instance, if I had just taken the group photo and then gave up I would’ve missed this scene.

Angelo, Martinsdale, MT. As part of this Great Plains trip I spent a night at a very rustic and vintage wood hotel in Martinsdale. Angelo, his friend Jaiden (who runs Veca Vision Media in Bozeman if you need video production work in that area), and Angelo’s dad were staying there for the opening of antelope season the next morning. I spoke with them for several hours out on Main Street, we only had to move for a car once after the bar across the street closed for the night.

A somewhat bored spectator to the Union Pacific Big Boy steam engine stop in Hays, Kansas. Her shirt does sort of sum up what a lot of us photographers do.

A moonrise near Kief, ND. I had actually stopped to photograph a scene looking to the left and when I turned around this is what I saw. It far surpasses what I had originally photographed.

The “leaning house” near Denhoff, ND. I had previously photographed this house in much more pleasant weather and made a mental note to return when there was snow on the ground. This was even better, snow on the ground and falling from the sky. Even though ND is thought of as having very few trees there were actually quite a few planted as part of the shelter belt movement following the “dirty thirties” to cut down on soil erosion. It’s actually quite uncommon to find a house like this surrounded by empty plains as most farmsteads had trees planted all around them, so between the emptiness and the leaning this house is pretty special (not to mention the derelict windmill).

Thanks for following along!