February 6, 2014

When the Landscape Is Quiet Again: North Dakota’s Oil Boom

Exhibit shows scars from previous booms in North Dakota as well as newly inflicted wounds.


North Dakota native Sarah Christianson has made a career out of photographing her home as only a local can—with a keen eye to subtleties and nuances in the landscape that make a place like the plains so beautiful. Christianson’s past work focused very close to home. In her first book, By Friday Morning, Christianson said goodbye to her grandfather by documenting the mile-long drive between her grandparents’ farm and the cemetery where he was buried. Last year’s highly praised Homeplace (Daylight, 2013) documents the 1,200-acre farm on which she was raised. Her parents are the fourth and last consecutive generation to farm the land. The plaintive black and white photos frankly, but lovingly, convey the no-nonsense plains farmers’ lifestyle. It’s a world away from the splashy wild west atmosphere of the boom towns that’ve sprung up around drilling sites.

Still focusing on her home state, Christianson’s newest body of work examines the current oil and gas boom in North Dakota, along with the remnants of booms past. In addition to stepping away from photographing more personal spaces, When the Landscape Is Quiet Again is the first project Christianson has shot in color.

And while the color palette and subjects have broadened, Christianson’s photos still have a strong, careful, quiet presence to them. A lot of the beauty in a place like the Plains is exceptionally subtle. These photos capture that stillness that just washes over you and juxtaposes it with the scarring interruption of drilling operations.

 

New well pad carved out of bluffs near the Badlands.

Natural gas flare from oil well adjacent to cattle pasture, White Earth River Valley.

 

Drilling rig near Little Missouri National Grasslands, near Charbonneau.
 

Vertical well abandoned in 1983, south of Williston.
 

Pipeline constructed on land seized by eminent domain, White Earth River Valley.
 

Saltwater pipeline spill, near Antler.

 

When the Landscape Is Quiet Again will be shown for the first time at SF Camerawork in downtown San Francisco, from February 12 to April 19, 2014, with an opening reception on February 13.

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate