Ghosts on the Winter Plains

Dur­ing the win­ter months Mon­tana and North Dako­ta see, tem­per­a­tures that drop to sub-zero for months, the win­ter snows arrive, and every­thing found here is cov­ered in ice and frosts. There is a blend of beau­ty and eeri­ness pho­tograph­ing these places when all you can hear is the breeze blow­ing and the clink­ing sound of the vehi­cles cool­ing down after we arrive at our destination.

In amongst these seem­ing­ly emp­ty land­scapes are icons of a past era, a time that proved too much for its farm­ing inhab­i­tants with win­ters too harsh and sum­mers so hot they turned the soils into dust. It is not uncom­mon to dri­ve the roads and see a church spire appear on a per­fect­ly flat hori­zon, the only remain­ing sign of a once thriv­ing farm­ing set­tle­ment. This land­scape is lit­tered with dete­ri­o­rat­ing school­hous­es, grain ele­va­tors and many clas­sic Amer­i­can cars which are all found sur­round­ed by vast farm fields, and dur­ing the cold win­ter months, there is a sense of bleak­ness that makes pho­tographs of these places even more beautiful.

Along with the aban­doned town­ships and home­steads, are the land­scapes in which they sit. Dur­ing the win­ter they are spell­bind­ing. The sun is low in the skies giv­ing way to beau­ti­ful warm light, and if cloud arrives, the ​‘big skies’ are like no oth­er, a rare oppor­tu­ni­ty to wit­ness the sky meet­ing the land and that amaz­ing the­atre of light. The wood­lands and trees that occu­py the riv­er edges or sur­round the larg­er aban­doned set­tle­ments, become stud­ies in their own right, draped in rime ice crys­tals that glis­ten in the sun, or become faint sil­hou­ettes in the win­ter mists. 

This brand new work­shop will be an expe­ri­ence like no oth­er, trav­el­ling to places that are utter­ly fas­ci­nat­ing, and made all the more intrigu­ing by the win­ter con­di­tions. We will be explor­ing the snow-cov­ered grav­el roads in 4 x 4 vehi­cles to get to the hid­den ghost towns sus­pend­ed in time. This is a tour that will trans­form the way you see Amer­i­ca and forge mem­o­ries that will last a life­time, and present you with pho­to­graph­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties nev­er expe­ri­enced before.