CNN’s sister network HLN (Headline News) did a feature on me. Such a fun and humbling experience! Check out the video and my blog post here…
http://www.hlntv.com/slideshow/2013/03/20/boomtown-oil-williston-north-dakota-pictures
If someone would have told me two years ago that I’d be making a living photographing oil wells, I would have said they were crazy. But here I am tearing across the plains in western North Dakota on a treasure hunt. Except my treasure is not gold, its capturing the perfect image of Bakken oil.
The Bakken is a rock formation that contains billions of barrels of oil. Modern technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have catapulted my home state of North Dakota into the headlines as the second-largest producer of oil in the United States. Everyone in the Bakken has a story to tell, I’m just lucky enough to tell mine through pictures. I’ve been a freelance oil field photographer for about a year and a half.
Watch: Life after becoming a Boomtown
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2013/03/21/aj-american-journey-north-dakota-boomtown.hln
Life growing up on a farm by Williston, North Dakota, was simple to say the least. Every spring, my sisters and I would look forward to walking to our grandma’s house when the prairie flowers were in full bloom. It is hands down one of my favorite memories as a child. With the onset of the oil boom in western North Dakota, I’m not so sure that I would have the same pristine memory of this yearly ritual. That same route that I walked as a child would bring pipeline construction, trucks hauling everything from oil to water to gravel, a salt water disposal well and a hand full of production wells. Not exactly a path you would send three little girls on.
Over 30 years later, I can hear the constant hum of the trucks on the highway as I sit at my dad’s overlooking the prairie. Lighted oil derricks and natural gas flares now dot the landscape alongside cattle and abandoned buildings. The row of evergreen trees that I pulled weeds from every summer is now bordering a man camp. A view of our farm can be seen as I walk out of a truck stop carrying my freshly baked Cinnabon roll.
Yep, my sleepy little hometown of Williston will never be the same. Commonly referred to as the epicenter of the oil boom, Williston has been given the new title of the fastest-growing city in the country by the Census Bureau. A scan of the license plates in the Wal-Mart parking lot will quickly tell you that Williston is filled with people from all across this great country.
With tears in his eyes, a man from Florida said to me, “You have no idea how good it feels to make money again.”
Moments like this help you to realize that it isn’t about oil at all. It’s about redemption, not just for the people coming here to make a living, but for the state of North Dakota itself. Trust me, America, we’ve heard all the jokes.
“Is that really a state?” “They say its not hell but you can see it from there.”
We all laugh because, up until now, our state has been our little secret. This oil boom has not only redeemed North Dakota but it has given thousands of people from all over the country a purpose in life. A reason to have hope and the ability to dream again.
Someone once told me that you can see how I feel about the Bakken through my images. Well then, my work is done. Because even though the transition hasn’t always been a smooth one, I truly have been blessed. This niche that I’ve carved out with my camera has brought me from a position of having difficulty paying my mortgage to one of economic freedom.
So it turns out that redemption is not just for the man from Florida with the dirty coveralls and the crooked smile, or for the state that has always been the punch line of jokes about rural America. It also means redemption for the girl with the camera just doing what she loves in the place that she loves.
