Three Barns and a Childhood 

Sometimes my private Idaho collides with someone else’s.

In the fall of 2023 I was scouting a dirt road near Garden Valley when I discovered these barns. I was instantly charmed by the trio. Mama, papa, and baby bear, I thought. They had it all: a gorgeous setting, authentic character, and patchwork roofs for the eye to explore. I visited the location multiple times that month, trying to make a photograph that matched my vision. Finally, one October morning, I stood in a gentle rain with fog hurrying across the mountain behind them and took this photo.

By mid-November the finished photograph was on my website. Around New Year’s I received an email from a woman who had grown up there. She invited me to come back and take more photos. I was intrigued. I needed to hear more.

We met, and she told me stories of playing in and around the barns as a child: running with friends, watching the river, lying in the long grass. As she talked she looked up and over my shoulder, visualizing the scenes. The barns aren’t just barns to her. They’re a sunny day, a laugh, a dance in the field.

This photo is dedicated to her and those like her, dreamers.