Earlier this summer I got a call from Poets and Writers magazine. They needed a portrait of author Rick Bass at his home in Yaak, Montana. I gladly said yes looking forward to exploring another part of Montana I’d heard so much about but not yet visited. This would be the second time I had photographed Mr. Bass, the first time a couple years ago in Missoula for Smithsonian Magazine.
The Yaak is famously the subject of much of Rick’s writing. Driving out to his home was an adventure in itself — with a 45 minute stop as workers guided drivers down a one lane section of road. Then along dirt roads with markers that didn’t give much a clue to your location and didn’t correlate with the names locals use before I made it. But, after a little drive down the wrong road and getting myself going back in the right direction I found the Bass property. Beautifully surrounded by marshland and glowing in afternoon sunlight, it was a sight for road-weary eyes. Mr. Bass was a nice as ever and we shot both in his home, on the land surrounding it, and outside his writing shed. It was a nice afternoon and we discovered we might even be related as we both trace our roots to rural East- Tennessee.
Here are a couple outtakes that didn’t make the final print edition as well.
Thanks to editor Murray Greenfield for being so easy to work with and for a great assignment. You can read this article and see the photos in the current issue of Poets and Writers magazine on stands now.
this guys smile made me smile. every time!
Thanks Madeline! He is such a nice guy and those smiles are genuine.