The start of January will mark my first six months at Montana Free Press as the visual fellow. Before coming to MTFP, I worked at daily newspapers and much of my job was keeping up with the day-to-day grind — running here, there and everywhere for quick photos.
At MTFP I still run here, there and everywhere, but without daily publication pressure, I have the gift of time. Throughout my six months here, most of my favorite images have come from longer-term stories I’ve worked on with reporters, including some reporting trips around the state. Together we can sink into a story, the people and the connection. That time allowed me to be more thoughtful in the images I created, ensuring that I am not only accurately and honestly portraying hard, traumatic stories but also doing so with respect, gentleness and care. Below are 10 of my favorite images from these last six months.
I wanted to start with this image because it speaks to where I’ve spent a lot of my time in my tenure at MTFP thus far. I made it while up in Libby in October as the sky faded into night and I was driving back from a run. I was up there working on a story about the asbestos lawsuits with reporter Mara Silvers. As the first visual staffer for MTFP, a big part of my job at the outset was building a visual archive to help illustrate the array of stories we tell across the state. While we cover the whole state, we didn’t have many images of it, so while I was out on reporting trips I would also get photos of places like the local courthouse, city council chambers, rivers and downtowns to use for future stories. Though this image isn’t directly about the story Mara wrote in Libby during that trip, it will be helpful for stories to come.
Nita Rowland sits in her La-Z-Boy with her dog on Aug. 25, 2025, outside of Laurel. Rowland’s home is filled to the brim with family photos, drying flowers, and craft items that reflect the life her family has built on their property outside of Laurel since 1962. I made this image while working with Eric Dietrich on his reporter residency story profiling the hotly contested NorthWestern Energy plant a year after it started running.
Another aspect I love about my job is the closeness it allows with not only people but also animals, even if sometimes that closeness comes with lots of poop and mud on my boots. At this moment, reporter Nora Mabie and I were up in Two Medicine visiting the Mad Plumes’ family home as dusk settled around us on Nov. 5, 2025.
This portrait is of Susan and Bradley Davidson holding a photo featuring their daughter, Amy Young, at upper right. Young was a nurse in a state-mandated addiction recovery program who died by suicide in January. Her family said she felt there was no path back to her career.
Attendees at the Turning Point USA event at Montana State University talk and play around before Ohio politician Vivek Ramaswamy takes the stage on Oct. 7, 2025, in Bozeman. The event also featured Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who spoke about Charlie Kirk, who was shot a month earlier, and the life he lived.
Maria Pacheco, the wife of Christopher Martinez Marvan, holds her daughter’s hand while speaking to the media after her husband’s hearing at the Russell Smith Federal Courthouse on July 10, 2025, in Missoula. Marvan was detained by ICE agents in Helena.
I work with both the state team and local team at MTFP. Matt Hudson, the Great Falls local reporter, had been working on a piece about Toby’s House, a crisis nursery center that helps fill child care gaps for local families. He had the piece all but done so I drove up and spent the morning with him at Toby’s House and this image of a child sleeping upstairs during nap time came from it.
David Gwerder, owner of the Owl Bar, tends bar during a memorial fundraiser on Sept. 27, 2025, in Anaconda. The bar reopened after being closed for more than a month following a shooting that left four residents dead. Patrons filled the small tavern for a benefit to establish a fund for the victims and their families, including an effort to erect a memorial stone featuring photos of the victims.
As the summer wound down, I found myself in Missoula and decided to dip my toes in the Clark Fork, which we always need images of, to cool off. There I found the Schillhammer family skipping rocks and swimming as they enjoyed their final moments of freedom before the start of the school year on Aug. 20, 2025.
I collaborated with reporter Zeke Lloyd for one of our first photo essays at MTFP. Excited by the prospect of photographing a cattle auction and fueled by the knowledge of record-high beef prices, I jetted off eastward for a morning at the Billings Livestock Commission. Ranchers unloaded livestock, cattle mooed in intervals and the creak of the mechanical gates opening and closing intermingled with the syllabled spew of the auctioneer, all while Dustin Irgens held his sleeping granddaughter, Ember, waiting for his cattle to sell.
