There is something magical about the American West. I grew up playing in the woods and paddling the waters of Wisconsin and made my first journey out West at the impressionable age of fifteen. I will never forget the sense of wonder I felt looking out the car window at the seemingly endless expanse of plains and sky and, eventually, the ranges of the Rocky Mountains rising in the distance.

I consider myself fortunate to have grown up in days free of constant connectivity and mobile devices, days when boredom gave birth to creativity. When I grew bored as a child, my mother often gave me a notebook and pencil and ushered me outside to lay in the grass and write about the shapes I saw in the clouds or to take a walk and write a story about something I saw along the way. I loved these adventures. I still recall the cool blades of grass gently poking the back of my legs as my imagination soared with the cloud-shifting winds. I still yearn for the sound of a gravel path crunching beneath my feet and the inevitable story that takes shape in my brain.

On family vacations, my father always carried a Canon AE-1 SLR camera. I loved the motions and clicks of focusing the lens, turning the aperture ring, releasing the shutter, and advancing the film. As a shy child, I enjoyed looking out through the lens while feeling safely hidden behind the viewfinder. Framing the world through that rectangular window clicked for me. My dad gifted me that Canon when I was a preteen, and I pursued photography earnestly as a hobby for years, processing black-and-white film and developing prints in the basement darkroom he built for me.

The West called to me, and at eighteen, I enrolled in the School of Journalism at the University of Montana in Missoula to pursue a degree in photojournalism. I traveled the state documenting the people and places I saw. I love photographs for their ability to bring a viewer into a scene and elicit emotions, but even if a picture is worth one thousand words, I still had more to tell. I found myself earning extra credits in writing classes and publishing my pieces.

Decades later, my work appears across the American West on numerous exhibits, publications, and other media about our public lands. Through the years, I’ve honed the craft of using my writing and photography to help others learn about, connect with, and care for the diverse landscapes of the region. I look forward to continuing this work with you.