Find the Road Back

Thunderstorms on the northern plains have an expansive beauty. Enormous billowing white clouds reach toward the heavens, while closer to the ground the wind and rain streak the sky with dark gray and purple. Powerful, stunning, yet foreboding–an example of the contradiction of beauty in the world.

I discovered this contradiction while traveling throughout the state this past summer with my wife, three daughters, and my parents. My intention was to expand the definition of beauty beyond our society’s focus on its physical nature. I invite you to take this journey with us–a journey of self-discovery–a journey that changed our lives forever.

As we met, interviewed, and photographed extraordinary women who’ve made this state their home, we discovered more about us and our own attitudes than we did about them. More about our society. About the very essence of life.

In Edinburg with Sharon Laxdal with a beautiful North Dakota landscape in the background.

Vogue magazine should be covering these women. Entertainment Tonight should be here interviewing Christine Peterson as she boards a plane for Afghanistan, leaving her husband and two children behind–and her patients–she is one of the only caregivers for hundreds of miles in her rural hometown. But Christine has a duty to the country she serves, and she carries it out with dignity, the way she’s approached all the challenges in her life. The women we’re featuring are not unlike women in your own neighborhood, women you remember from your childhood, women in your own families.

My daughter, Izzy, Rachel and myself at Rachel's Photo Shoot.

My mission is to share these photos and stories with every young girl pondering how best to live her life in this complicated world. My hope is that the Beautiful Women of North Dakota project will inspire young girls, their families, and their friends to reach for something more.

In Milnor, Chris and I. Taken by a Beautiful Woman in our book, Karen Wohler.

Billy