Reconnecting with myself in North Dakota
As the sun sinks towards the horizon, a woman meditates while looking over the rugged expanse of Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora, North Dakota. I captured this moment while touring the park myself. The rolling hills of the park captured my heart and cleansed my mind much as it did for Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century.
In 1884 Roosevelt moved to the area devastated by personal tragedy. He was grieving the loss of his mother and wife and found himself lost in the vastness of the plains. He credited his experiences in North Dakota as the basis for his preservation efforts and the shaping of his character. In 1906, as the 26th President of the United States, he established the Antiquities Act. He then worked with Congress to establish five national parks, 18 national monuments and 150 national forests.
"I have always said I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota." –Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
Petrified wood, wide-open spaces and huge bison were just a few of the other sights I discovered while road tripping through the Dakotas. For more photos, click here.
For more than two decades, Joseph L. Murphy has had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with people from all walks of life through photography. He has photographed presidents and heads of state, traversed the winding alleyways of the Fes Medina in Morocco, photographed the sprawling countryside and people that make up Argentina and covered events that have defined the U.S. Most recently, Murphy’s travels have taken him to Cambodia, Mexico, China, Vietnam and Ecuador.
He has spent the past 20 years specializing in agriculture photography for multiple organizations, publications and marketing projects.
A graduate of the University of Iowa, Murphy determined at an early age that his love of photography would shape his vision for life.