Nodak

Time magazine sent me up to North Dakota, to photograph rural churches facing extinction. It was my first time over the border.


I saw a moose.



Read the Time story here.

True Crime

It's Friday night, and I'm standing in a field, up to my knees in snow. It's getting dark. The wind's whipping past, somewhere around 20 below. I'm thinking about the ghost of Buddy Holly.

My phone rings: Can I shoot a murder story Monday morning?


Twin brothers, both cops. One needs money, to support his twin daughters. He goes off to Iraq to guard trucks as a private contractor, and gets kidnapped by the insurgency at a roadside checkpoint.



The US government doesn't help, since he's not a soldier. And it's illegal to pay the ransom: that would be supporting terrorism.

So the family pools their money, and hires a Minneapolis gun shop owner to fly to Iraq and do something about it.


- for minnesota monthly

American Pie

50 years ago tonight, Buddy Holly's plane crashed into a frozen Iowa cornfield, killing everyone on board.

He had just finished playing at the Surf Ballroom, in nearby Clear Lake, for The Winter Dance Party. The Big Bopper and Richie Valens also died.



Texas Monthly sent me down there to photograph the site.



Buddy Holly's death, in 1959, is the biggest thing that has ever happened around there.



They're still talking about it.

the fine line between bragging and complaining...

After shooting the crash site, I sent a photo of myself, hard at work, to the editors down in Texas. (click the photo to read about it)