Portrait of a Great Man

     I first photographed Cecil Andrus when he was governor for his third and fourth terms. He had already served two terms as governor, rising to power on a campaign of saving Idaho's White Cloud  Mountains from a massive open pit molybdenum mine. He had then gone on to serve as Secretary of the Interior in the Carter administration, overseeing the Alaska Lands Act and helping to protect more wilderness and wildlife refuges than anyone since.

    I remember thinking then that Idaho would be a very different place when he was out of office. And sure enough the ensuing years have brought increasingly strange and strident voices controlling public discourse and policy in my home state.

     The fact that a conservation-minded Democrat could be a popular four-time governor of one of the most conservative Republican states in the country spoke to his rare gifts and abilities. I most recently photographed the Governor for the Pew Charitable Trusts for its campaign in support of national monument protection for those same White Cloud Mountains that helped bring him to prominence.  We first talked about elk hunting -- he had taken a massive bull last year on the east side of the White Clouds. Then after I scouted and selected the location for his portrait, he helped carry my bag of light stands. Not many of my subjects have ever done that -- least of all octogenarians with a resume like his.  But in a way that small act spoke volumes about why he has become one of the great men of our times.