White Earth

I learned of North Dakota’s historic oil rush when I heard about a mass exodus of men and women (mostly men) from my native Southern Utah. With nowhere else to turn in a soured economy, rumors of an oil-funded economic “promised land” in the Northern Plains lured thousand of workers from around the world.

Upon my arrival I found all the signs of a genuine boom region: people sleeping in cars, trucks, and ram­shackle RVs (despite -50 temperatures); rough-and-tumble trucker bars and strip joints; scarcity of basic foods and services; and a lack of infrastructure of every kind. While it’s true that many people (both locals and outsiders) were making great economic gains, there were also many whose earnings were quickly con­sumed by inflated food and rent costs. Some people were paying hundreds of dollars a month for a sleeping space on the floor of an unfinished basement. Others were paying as much as $2,000 a month for a place to park their RVs.

I quickly determined that I wanted to train my camera on stories that were usually overlooked in the major media and press coverage of the region. I wanted to hear the voices of those who are often an afterthought in the quest for economic gain. Ultimately I chose to focus on the perspective of three children and an im­migrant mother whose lives were each touched in unique ways by the North Dakota oil boom. By weaving the voices of these individuals, I hoped to create an intimate and nuanced portrayal of one small aspect of this complex and historic domestic oil boom.