Freedom pose for the freedom parade. @daniisabel14

Reid’s first night in a tent. With @daniisabel14 on the Deschutes. @modocstories

We’ve been photographing and reporting on the story of Apalachicola oysters for over a decade. In 2013 we finished a month-long canoe trip (and documentary film, Who Owns Water) in the Bay with Kendall Shoelles, a lifelong oysterman. We’ve been back numerous times to the Gulf Coast over the years as we watched the oyster populations decline and ultimately crash, leading to the closure of all oystering in the Bay in 2020. Yesterday, David’s piece for the @bittersoutherner, “The Last Oyster Tongers of Apalachicola”, was nominated as a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for Feature Reporting. It’s a good piece worth reading so google it and find it. @davidhanson3 @modocstories Also, shout out to @charles.bethea, a good friend and writer for the @newyorkermag, who was nominated as well.

The clouds are finally moving. @modocstories

Enough images of winter in Montana. The annual polar plunge in the Columbia River Gorge. @modocstories @cschwag @beezerbrun @sarahfoxhere @davidhanson3

Montana 2014, 2021, 2023 for the @nytimes. I was on an assignment in Montana in 2014 and photographed members of the Blackfeet Nation organizing a massive collection of slaughtered bison heads for ceremonial purposes. An obviously striking scene, I filed it away in the list of ‘interesting things to revisit’. I went back that same year on my own to spend time with a rancher family that was ardently opposed to bison reintroduction on public lands. They were gracious, hard-working and welcoming in every regard. I woke at all times of the night to watch them help cows give birth in sub-zero temps. With a few more trips here and there, I kept adding to the series over the years and figured it would resurface at some point. Or not. Plenty don’t. Fast forward to 2021 and 2023, I was back in Montana for the bison hunt featured this week and was able to see a grandfather hunt with his grandson and harvest their first bison. The archive of people and issues, or simply unique stories that interest me, grows and occasionally, very occasionally, the series (or a piece of the series) makes its way into the public. It’s always refreshing to see but like C.P. Cavafy wrote in 1911, [extremely summarized and paraphrased] ‘it ain’t about the destination’. @modocstories

Montana bison hunt for the @nytimes. This project taught me a lot about bison management and tribal traditions. It also taught me to never read the comment section in the NYT on a topic like this. @modocstories

Montana bison hunt with enrolled members from the Northern Arapaho Tribe, Blackfeet Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. @modocstories

More from Montana, 2023 for @nytimes. @kolashippentower and Tommy Thompson hunt a bull bison on the edge of Yellowstone National Park.

In 2021, I was invited to join a bison hunt on the edge of Yellowstone National Park in Montana with enrolled members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). I spent a week in -25° temps barely avoiding frostbite while changing film. We watched and waited for the bison to cross out of the Park and onto Forest Service land where they could be shot. They never crossed. That year, and the next, the number of bison culled (shot or trapped) was extremely low. In 2022, only 49 bison were removed from the Yellowstone herd. That’s far below the goal of 25% to keep the carrying capacity sustainable, according to National Park Service officials. In 2023, I joined the same group and saw a record number bison migrate from the park boundaries resulting in over 1,100 shot by both native and non-native hunters. How we manage bison going forward remains an open question. Some tribes and environmentalists see them as wildlife and have pushed to open public lands to migrating bison. Ranchers (and other environmentalists) see them as livestock, best raised with fences and boundaries. At the center of the debate are the tribes who have always held bison at the heart of their culture and whose opinions vary. I brought this story to the @nytimes and am grateful to see it in print and online. Thanks to all those who welcomed me to join their group and to @mcmarbled for the assist.

Around Cape Horn and back with @natgeoexpeditions in Chile, 2018. @modocstories

Rock Springs, Wyoming. A few scans from last summer’s doc film production at Sweetwater Downs. @modocstories @davidhanson3