My family has always told tales of its pioneer past and those tales have assumed the quality of myth.  These photographs explore the storied land.

Traveling around South Dakota, I try to absorb all that I can of the terrain, weather, and people.  Connecting with individual faces makes the state feel like an old friend.  The countryside itself is another matter.  Away from any persons, land expands to the far reaches of distant history with an immediate beauty and terrifying sublimity.  In the grittiness of a city, one may fear destruction from its confines.  In the open West, it can be the destructive abundance of emptiness, of seeming nothingness, from which one cannot hide.

[Silver-gelatin prints]